Job Description

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Number of Positions: 1Work Location: 100% On-SiteCity Year Chicago is seeking a skilled fundraising professional with an entrepreneurial mindset to be the Managing Director of Development. The ideal candidate is an ambitious and sophisticated forward-thinker, communicator, and equity-driven fundraising professional who thrives in roles that require them to be strategic, creative, and collaborative.

Reporting to the Executive Director, as a member of the site’s Executive Leadership Team, the Managing Director of Development (MDD) will lead a team of 5 development professionals to manage and implement the fundraising strategy for the Chicago office. This person is responsible for developing and implementing the Development strategy for City Year Chicago to raise and sustain at least $3.75M from the private sector in FY27 and grow annually. The MDD will develop and execute strategic, diversified development plans to raise funds through grant writing, individual giving, and institutional partners, such as corporations and foundations. A focus on establishing multi-year contributions, identifying new funding sources and management of ongoing donors will be expected.

The ideal candidate is an initiative-taking problem-solver and strategic thinker who is committed to helping advance educational equity by developing leaders and supporting students in Chicago’s most under-resourced schools.

The salary range for this role is $145K - $165K annually, commensurate with experience.

Responsibilities

Fundraising Strategy:

• In partnership with the Executive Director and the City Year Chicago’s Board and Development team, leverage and enhance the site’s existing Development plan to implement a strategic anddiversified fundraising plan that meets the current goal of raising $3.75M from the private sector andanticipatesfuture needs and growthobjectives

• In partnership with the Executive Director, develop, implement, and monitor short- and long-term fundraising strategies aligned with the organization’s multi-year site plan, translating organizational vision and programmatic priorities into actionable, multi-year plans that support sustainable growth and measurable impact, with a goal of reaching $6M in annual fundraising.

• Partner with the Executive Director to develop and execute a tailored fundraising and engagement strategy for the Executive Director’s portfolio, ensuring effective cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of high-priority donors and prospects.

• Collaboratewithleadership to translate organizational vision into actionable fundraising initiatives, ensuring sustainability, scalability, and measurable impact over time.Developing strategies toidentifynew individual supporters, fullyleverageexisting relationships, increase multi-year commitments, andmaintainor elevate current commitments.

• Develop strategies toidentifyand secure partnerships with corporations and foundations that reflect their marketing and business needs as well as philanthropic and community engagement goals.

• Implement a high-quality stewardship program that engages, recognizes, andthankssupporters to strengthen their relationship with the organization.

People Management&TeamLeadership

• Hire,lead,andretaina team of5developmentprofessionals

• Directly supervisetheDirector of Corporate Partnerships, Director of Individual Giving, Director of Foundations and Grants, and theSeniorManager ofDevelopment Operations.Support ongoing coaching, career growth, and professional development fordepartmentstaff

Relationship Cultivation andFundraisingManagement:

• Build meaningful relationships that result in securing both monetary and in-kind multi-year support for City Year Chicago.

• Able to grow a transactional relationship into a transformational relationship.

• Oversee and support Corporate Partnerships and Major Gifts Development fundraising efforts.

• Serveas a public representative of the organization, including cultivating relationships with community members, including prospective gift giversin order tobuild awareness of and commitment to City Year Chicago’s work.

• Maintainoversight over all fundraising activities including major giving, grants,special events, direct mail appeals, corporate partnership initiatives.

• Manage relationships and communication with current corporate and foundation funders.

• Manages the identification and cultivation of new corporate and foundation partnerships, as well as the grant proposal and reporting processes for corporate, foundation and government funders.

• Develop successful identification, cultivation,solicitationand stewardship strategies to direct andmonitorthe progress of current and future donor relationships.

• Ensurea disparate andsustainablesite donor base.

Portfolio Management:

• Build and manage a portfolio consisting of donors and prospects with $25,000+capacityfor giving, and a focus on prospects capable of giving $100,000+Cultivate,solicit, and close annual, majorgiftand multi-year contributions.

• Achieve 75 meaningful contacts with portfolio prospects annually and make 50 intentionalasks

• Document andmaintainclear andtimelyrecords and call reports to track contacts, donor giving, and notes in the Salesforce database.

Board Managementand Engagement

• In partnership with the Executive Director, the MDD will engage the Board to meet critical financial and advocacy goals for the organization.

• Participatein quarterly Board of Directors meetings andpreparemonthly,quarterlyand annual reports as requested by the Executive Director and Board.

• Serve as primary relationship manager for Development Committee or Development focused board members.

• Provide regular updates andmaintainengagement (both financially and otherwise) to ensure Board retention and satisfaction.

• Oversee the execution and strategy of the associate board and alumni board to support site fundraising efforts and strategic initiatives

Events and Civic Engagement Program Strategy Leadership:

• In partnership with site leadership and Development team, drive strategies toleveragelarge-scale fundraising events, including ourannual Ripples of HopeGalaas well as smaller events to thoughtfully engage donor communities.

• Partner with the Managing Director of Partnerships and Civic Engagement to drive the strategy around how toleverageour Civic Engagement efforts to create fundraising and service opportunities for corporate partnerships and individual donors.

Marketing and Communications:

• Experience crafting communication on behalf of otherswith keen awareness ofaudienceandimpact

• Ability to manage and execute compelling communication tools that drive people to support and champion City Year Chicago, including press releases, media advisories, social mediacommunicationand marketing events.

• Experience communicating with both internal and external audiences of varying levels of seniority.

Development Operations:

• In partnership with the Development Operations staff, support development business processes from donor identification through to stewardship, ensuringaccuratemaintenance of records and donor information in the Salesforce database.

• Direct monthly pipeline meetings with the Development team and Executive Director to provide updated revenue figures, pipeline reports, and progress towards monthly/quarterly goals.

• Identifyareas for operational improvements and drive continual improvements of processes.

Organizational Leadership

• Act as a key advisor to the Executive Director and senior leadership in aligning fundraising strategy with the organization’s multi-year site plan, ensuring that philanthropic investments directly support long-term programmatic growth, expansion, and sustainability.

• Help shape organizational strategy and play a leadership role in implementing the site’s local operating plan as a member of the Executive Leadership Team.

• Work collaboratively with other site departmentsandCity Year’s national and regional staff.Represent, respect, and role-model City Year’s organizational culture and values internally as a member of the site Senior Leadership Team, and externally as a primary representative of the organization

• Actively contribute asleadershipteam memberPartner with alldepartments through site events, projects, and cross-departmental committees as needed to ensure site-wide goals are met.

Benefits

Full-time employees will be eligible for all benefits including vacation, sick days and organization holidays. You may participate in all benefit programs that City Year establishes and makes available to eligible employees, under (and subject to all provisions of) the plan documents that govern those programs. Currently, City Year offers medical, dental, vision, life, accidental death and dismemberment and disability coverage, Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA), and other benefits including 401(k) plan(s) pursuant to the terms and conditions of company policy and the 401(k) plan document. For more information, click here

Employment at City Year is at-will.

City Year does not sponsor work authorization visas.