Regional Development Director

What We Do

Teach Plus is a national nonprofit whose mission is to empower excellent, experienced, and diverse teachers to take leadership over key policy and practice issues that advance equity, opportunity, and student success. At the heart of our work is developing teacher leadership and voice in pursuit of student outcomes. We believe that investing in our most talented teachers—developing them into well-informed, persuasive leaders—gives them deep leverage in elevating the most pressing education issues facing students, teachers, and communities while advancing opportunities for students. Learn more at teachplus.org.

What You’ll Do

As Regional Development Director, you will lead a $3M–$6M fundraising portfolio incorporating multiple states that focuses on supporting Executive Directors to build pipelines of donors, plan and execute effective cultivation and stewardship activities, and launch individual giving efforts in new sites. In doing so, you will contribute to the development team’s vision to diversify funding sources, increase individual giving, and collectively raise over $20M annually to support impact for students across the country.

In this role, you will focus on prospect identification, strategic relationship development, and building the fundraising skill and capacity for your Executive Director partners. As a key partner for Executive Directors, who will be the primary solicitors of new funds, you will design strategic engagement plans for new and current donors, recommend ask ranges, maintain dashboards of activities and track progress to goals, and prepare and partner with Executive Directors to secure support from a growing group of foundation, individual, and corporate partners.

As a key member of the development team, you will coach Executive Directors, co-lead professional learning on fundraising practices, and drive continuous improvement across the organization—building development capacity and amplifying Teach Plus’ impact for educators and students nationwide.

The core responsibilities of the Regional Development Director include the following:

Fundraising Strategy and Execution

• Serve as Portfolio Manager for Executive Directors across a portfolio of 5–7 states that collectively raises $3M–$6M annually, developing and supporting the execution of an organization-aligned strategy to build and maintain strong relationships with current and prospective funders, including creating personalized stewardship and engagement plans across the portfolio;
• Partner with the Executive Directors across the portfolio to expand their fundraising pipelines through multiple strategies, including relationship mapping, preparing prospect research and analysis, attending events, and collaborating with regional teams on their strategic use of external engagements;
• Lead preparation for—and strategically participate in—funder meetings in partnership with Executive Directors and national team members;
• Project manage key development initiatives to ensure fully executed scopes of work (e.g., cross-functional grant proposals, donor stewardship plans and communications, grant reporting cycles, fundraising event logistics, major donor cultivation activities);
• Collaborate across regional and national departments to author funder-focused, compelling communications and contribute to the writing of concept papers, proposals, reports, and other documents that maintain strong relationships with funders; and
• Maintain state funder pipeline data systems for the portfolio using the Salesforce, Asana, and Google Drive platforms to track cultivation activities and donor engagement, ensuring fundraising activities and notes are logged accurately, and calculate the overall weighted values of pipelines across the portfolio.

Development Team Participation

• In partnership with the VP of Development, support and co-lead professional development on effective practices for Teach Plus fundraising staff;
• Collaborate across the development team to provide specialized support for all Executive Directors, leading on the creation of pipeline building, cultivation, and stewardship planning tools, and providing as-needed coaching for Executive Directors; and
• Collaborate across Teach Plus functions (Finance, Programs, Evaluation, Communications, etc) to drive continuous improvement of development practices.

Individual Giving

The Regional Development Director will partner with the VP of Development to develop and execute a new strand of individual giving across the portfolio, including:

• Conduct prospect research to identify potential donors in Teach Plus states;
• Develop messaging and collateral to support individual giving;
• Prepare Executive Directors to effectively conduct individual fundraising meetings and continuously improve their development skills as they relate to individual giving; and
• Work with Teach Plus leadership to identify, cultivate, and request gifts from high-net-worth individuals within the region.

Communications Tools and Strategy

The Regional Development Director may also work across several departments to drive the identification of opportunities to tell the organization’s story through a variety of media, including:

• Serve as a convener for cross-functional collaboration across Teach Plus teams to ensure that we are strategically communicating our work externally and identifying opportunities to share grant-funded work more broadly;
• Collaborate with different departments to lead the development and revision of compelling collateral used in partnership development and stewardship; and
• Partner with VP of Development to support the Communications team in the collection and creation of impact stories across the network.

What You’ll Need to be Successful

• Minimum of 7 years of relevant nonprofit experience, including 3–5 years cultivating and prospecting funders.
• Proven ability to develop and implement fundraising strategies that increase revenue and strengthen donor relationships.
• Skilled at launching and growing individual giving programs and building pipelines in emerging regions.
• Track record of deepening donor engagement and stewardship, resulting in sustained support and long-term relationships.
• Experience preparing executives to solicit major gifts.
• Demonstrated success in expanding donor pipelines and increasing contributions across multiple states or regions.
• Ability to manage multiple fundraising initiatives effectively, ensuring timely completion and measurable results.
• Proficient in fundraising tools and data analysis (e.g., Salesforce, Asana) to track engagement and inform decisions.
• Strong communication skills, able to create compelling proposals, reports, and donor materials that inspire support.
• Effective project manager and collaborator, capable of driving cross-team initiatives that deliver tangible outcomes.
• Commitment to Teach Plus’ mission and impact-driven work.
• Familiarity with the education landscape and policy advocacy is preferred.

Location and Travel

This position will be conducted virtually (primarily from a home office), with occasional travel (10%). Candidates based in one of Teach Plus’ 11 states will be prioritized (AR, CA, CO, IL, IN, MA, MN, MS, NM, PA, TX).

Teach Plus provides a comprehensive benefits package and time-off, including 15 vacation days, 3 personal days, 5 sick days, 13 holidays, July break, Winter break, paid parental leave, and a 4-week paid sabbatical for every five years of service.