OVERVIEW
The Senior Director of Development provides strategic and organizational leadership for Mercy Street’s fundraising efforts and is responsible for building and executing a comprehensive development strategy that provides the resources necessary to advance Mercy Street’s mission and growth.
The Senior Director leads the entire Development Department, establishes fundraising strategy and accountability, develops staff, partners closely with the President & CEO, and ensures that major gifts, foundations, annual giving, events, donor stewardship, development operations, and other revenue strategies function as one coordinated fundraising effort.
EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS REQUIRED
- 7–10+ years of progressive nonprofit fundraising experience preferred.
- Demonstrated experience leading a multi-channel development program.
- Experience supervising and developing fundraising professionals.
- Demonstrated success with significant fundraising goals and major donor relationships.
- Strong understanding of major gifts, foundations, annual giving, stewardship, development operations, and fundraising metrics.
- Ability to lead strong professionals without micromanaging them.
- Strong strategic, relational, communication, and organizational skills.
- Ability to work effectively with senior executives and board members.
- Alignment with Mercy Street’s Christian mission and values.
KEY RESULT AREAS
MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL
The Senior Director of Development is first and foremost considered to be a Minister of the Gospel. This position furthers Mercy Street’s religious mission by:
- Following Jesus Christ and setting an example for others through their lifestyle.
- Exhibiting a passion for sharing the Gospel with others.
- Being willing and able to explain the message of the Gospel to kids and families of Mercy Street.
- Being willing and able to counsel, shepherd, and disciple kids and families of Mercy Street in a manner consistent with the Bible.
- Being willing and able to explain Mercy Street’s beliefs and Statement of Faith in person or over the phone to kids and families of Mercy Street.
- Being ready, willing, and able to lead or contribute to distinctly Christian activities (including, but not limited to, worship or staff chapel).
DEVELOPMENT LEADERSHIP & STRATEGY
- Develop and lead Mercy Street’s annual and multi-year fundraising strategy.
- Translate organizational revenue goals into clear fundraising plans, strategies, assignments, and measurable outcomes.
- Maintain overall accountability for achieving contributed-revenue goals.
- Lead and develop the Development team.
- Establish clear priorities and accountability across major gifts, grants and foundations, operations, annual giving, events, and stewardship.
- Lead regular Development team meetings and performance reviews.
- Build a culture of excellence, collaboration, accountability, stewardship, and continuous improvement.
REVENUE STRATEGY
- Maintain visibility into the entire fundraising pipeline.
- Monitor performance against annual goals and make strategic adjustments when revenue is behind plan.
- Ensure Mercy Street maintains a healthy mix of individual, foundation, corporate, church, event, and other contributed revenue.
- Partner with the CEO to identify significant prospective donors and funding opportunities.
- Develop strategies for donor acquisition, retention, upgrades, lapsed donors, and multi-year commitments.
CEO PARTNERSHIP
- Manage the CEO’s development involvement strategically rather than operationally.
- Help determine which donors and prospects require CEO engagement.
- Prepare the CEO for donor meetings, solicitations, stewardship conversations, and events.
- Provide the CEO with concise dashboards, forecasts, risks, opportunities, and recommended actions.
- Follow up on CEO donor activity so relationships continue moving forward after meetings.
TEAM LEADERSHIP
- Directly supervise and coach the Director of Major Gifts, Director of Grants & Foundations, and Director of Development Operations.
- Establish goals and performance expectations for each development function.
- Resolve competing priorities across development.
- Ensure strong collaboration instead of functional silos.
- Identify future staffing and capacity needs as Mercy Street grows.
EXECUTIVE & BOARD LEADERSHIP
- Provide development updates to executive leadership and the Board as requested.
- Partner with board members in donor cultivation and introductions.
- Help strengthen the Board’s fundraising engagement.
- Participate in organizational planning and budgeting.
OTHER DUTIES AS ASSIGNED
- Serve on appropriate committees; attend staff meetings, and other staff functions.
- Strengthen teamwork, collaboration, alignment, morale, transparency, credibility, and trust throughout the ministry.
- Fulfill necessary tasks, projects or roles as assigned.
COMPENSATION
We realize exceptional people don’t choose roles based solely on benefits, but we do our best to make sure that our team is set up for success so that they can do their best work. We want to ensure the sustainability of each employee, considering the difficulty of our work and our desire for each staff member to carry out our mission to the fullest extent possible. Compensation is commiserate with skills required, experience, education and role responsibilities.