ROLE TITLE: Senior Managing Director, Development

POSITION REPORTS TO: Laurie Backall, Vice President, Field Fundraising

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Priority deadline September 18, 2024

LOCATION: Must reside in the Greater Boston area

WHAT YOU’LL DO

As the Senior Managing Director, Development for Massachusetts, you will be responsible for activating a donor base in service of Teach For America’s mission in the Commonwealth. As a member of our national Field Fundraising team, you will be responsible for cultivating, stewarding, and managing a portfolio of donors who share our commitment to ensuring that all children have access to an equitable and excellent education. You will be a part of a team-based effort charged with developing and executing on a long-term vision and strategy to achieve our development goals for both private and public funding. In your role, you will partner with the regional Executive Director, regional advisory board members, and other fundraisers to maximize giving, playing a key role in new donor strategy and acquisition over the next 3-5 years.

Reporting to the Vice President, Field Fundraising on Teach For America’s central team, and partnering closely with Massachusetts’ local Executive Director, you will be charged with raising $5+ million in FY25 from a sophisticated portfolio that includes individuals, foundations, corporations, and public sources. We are looking for a seasoned, senior level development professional who can autonomously develop the long-term strategy to acquire, cultivate, retain, and diversify our local funding base. As a subject-matter expert in fundraising and development, you will also either mentor or manage other development staff members, providing guidance and problem solving support as well as building learning opportunities for the team to grow their leadership.

WHAT YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR

• Work in close partnership with the local Executive Director(s) to build the long-term strategy, develop and maintain a keen understanding of the local landscape and its relationship to public and private donors and funding opportunities, and build and maintain critical relationships in the public and private sphere necessary to advance fundraising efforts, including local advisory board members (40%)

• Build a comprehensive, multi-year vision and plan for cultivating complex, high giving potential donors in local contexts with the goal of maximizing revenue (20%)

• Over time, directly manage, cultivate, steward, and solicit (when appropriate) a portfolio of high-potential donors across a variety of funding streams (20%)

• Mentor or manage a team of 2+ development staff members, holding accountability for their individual fundraising in addition to the goals for the portfolio you manage (10%)

• Consistently maintain donor, prospect, and fundraising activity information in our customer relationship management system (currently SalesForce) and leverage this information in tracking progress, monitoring gaps, and adjusting strategy and approach (5%)

• Steward team and organizational initiatives (5%)

YOUR EXPERIENCE

Your areas of knowledge and expertise that matter most for this role (minimum qualifications):

• Relationship Building and Management

  • Exceptional relationship builder, particularly with external stakeholders

  • Orientation and desire to seek out and develop new relationships and partnerships

  • Experience cultivating executive level donors and partners

  • Influence others by uniquely tailoring approaches that appeal to the motivations and perspectives and executing sophisticated relationship management of a diverse group of donors

  • Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, particularly when working with external audiences

• Fundraising and Development Strategy

  • Subject matter expert in advanced development practices and the art and science of fundraising

  • Comprehensive experience and success working with high-potential donors across a variety of streams (individual, corporate, foundation, public)

  • Adept at building multi-year cultivation and stewardship plans that maintain exceptional donor retention and build pathways to diversifying pipelines and securing new donors

  • Understands current trends in philanthropy at both a local and national level and leverages up-to-date information and/or best practices

• Portfolio Management

  • Ability to autonomously steward a complex portfolio of donors and prospects at various stages of the donor life cycle towards successful closing of gifts

  • Monitor progress across the portfolio to ensure continuous donor stewardship

  • When appropriate, serve as the primary relationship holder and/or primary solicitor for opportunities and donors

• Management of Fundraising Staff

  • Management of fundraising staff by giving feedback, coaching, and fundraising-related resources and learning experiences

Prior experience

• Required: At least 10+ years of related experience in sophisticated and complex development and fundraising context

• Required: Track record of meeting and exceeding ambitious goals as a donor portfolio manager

• Preferred: Teach For America development experience

• Strongly preferred: Fundraising certification (i.e. CRFE or the equivalent)

Work Demands

• Occasional weekend or evening work hours required

• Some in-person engagement is required

• Must reside in the Greater Boston Area

YOUR FUTURE TEAM

The Revenue and Development team at Teach For America inspires donors and champions to contribute to shaping the future of our country by investing in Teach For America’s work with students nationally and regionally. We aim to source investments that fuel our work and impact with a revenue growth trajectory to raise $300 million annually. This role will be an essential part of the Field Fundraising arm of the Revenue and Development team, maximizing the contributions of local donors across multiple regions of the country.

YOUR COMPENSATION

The applicable salary range for each U.S.-based role is based on where the employee works and is aligned to one of 3 tiers according to a cost of labor index in that geographic area. Starting pay for the successful applicant will depend on a variety of job-related factors, which may include education, training, experience, location, business needs, or market demands. New hires are typically brought into the organization at a salary between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint depending on qualifications, internal equity, and the budgeted amount for the role. The expected salary range for this role are set forth below. These ranges may be modified in the future.

Tier C: $128,500-171,900

You can view which tier applies to where you plan to work here. If your location is not listed, please click here for additional total rewards information.