Vice President, Development

BACKGROUND

Blessings in a Backpack mobilizes communities, individuals, and resources to provide weekend food for school-aged children across America who might otherwise go hungry. Guided by a ‘One Team for All Kids’ philosophy, Blessings is transforming operations to drive measurable impact and growth, building on a remarkable legacy of providing 30M hunger-free weekends while reaching over 1M children in just 15 years.

Founded in Louisville, Kentucky with an office in downtown Chicago, Blessings has grown tremendously and currently consists of 4 regionals teams, 7 chapters, 1200+ community-driven programs, 45 employees across 11 states, and a $16M operating budget. Blessings is focused on evolving operations, maximizing mission delivery, and cultivating a culture of collective achievement.

Position Summary:

The Vice President of Development is the architect of the organization’s central fundraising engine and a key driver of enterprise-wide growth. Reporting to the Chief Development Officer (CDO), this role is responsible for directing the foundation of central fundraising services, including individual giving, grants, and special events, to ensure fundraising teams are equipped with the infrastructure and strategy needed to scale.

The Vice President bridges the gap between high-level strategy and tactical execution by directly managing a high-impact portfolio of national and multi-market donors. This role ensures that Blessings in a Backpack’s fundraising operations are consistent, sophisticated, and high performing across the entire 'One Team' landscape.

Key Responsibilities:

Enterprise Fundraising Strategy & Central Services

• Partner closely with the CDO to shape the organization’s overall fundraising vision and identify opportunities that can be activated locally and scaled across markets.
• Direct Individual/Leadership Giving, Grants, and Special Events, participate in corporate giving initiatives and standardize the core pillars of the development department.
• Build the 'Fundraising Playbook': Create and deploy the centralized frameworks, toolkits, and scalable models that support local execution of campaigns that incorporate the local touch but sophistication reflective of our national size and presence

High-Impact Portfolio & Multi-Market Growth

• Directly manage and grow a curated portfolio of high-capacity individual donors and national corporations and foundations.
• Identify and close multi-market opportunities and partnerships in collaboration with national partnerships, marketing, and regional teams.
• Ensure alignment and consistency across markets while respecting local context and relationships.

Strategic Partnership with Regional Leadership

• Act as a senior thought partner to Regional Vice Presidents, supporting regional performance through strategy, insight, and collaborative problem- solving.
• Translate enterprise fundraising priorities into clear, adaptable frameworks that support local decision-making and execution.
• Identify common challenges across regions and elevate solutions that drive consistency and performance.

Development Operations & Influence

• Work in close partnership with the Development Operations Director to ensure systems, data, and reporting inform strategy and goal-setting.
• Use performance data to assess effectiveness, identify trends, and recommend strategic adjustments.
• Influence across teams and functions without direct operational control, building alignment through trust and clarity.

This role is ideal for a leader who is:

• The Systems Architect: Thinks in enterprise-wide impact; builds the central fundraising foundation and 'engine' required to power national and regional growth.
• The Clarity Finder: Thrives in complexity and ambiguity; distills messy, high-level challenges into clear, actionable frameworks and strategic paths forward.
• The Collaborative Influencer: Leads through peer partnerships rather than hierarchy; builds deep trust with regional leaders to drive alignment and shared success.
• The Strategic Voice: Delivers insight and perspective to senior-level conversations; serves as a high-level thought partner who provides the CDO with executive-level clarity.
• The Mission-Driven Producer: Motivated by measurable impact; directly manages a high-impact portfolio to mobilize resources that provide weekend food for school-aged children across America.

Qualifications & Experience:

• 10+ years of progressive fundraising experience, including senior-level leadership or strategy roles.
• Demonstrated success across individual giving, events, and/or grants in a multi- market or complex organization.
• Experience partnering with senior leaders to shape fundraising direction.
• Strong strategic, analytical, and facilitation skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience in a nonprofit with regional, chapter-based, or federated structures. Experience supporting enterprise fundraising initiatives with local execution. Comfort working across teams with shared accountability.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• The ability to communicate with colleagues, partners, and clients via phone, video call, and email.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

This position may be hybrid or fully remote, depending on the candidate's location. Relocation assistance is not provided. Occasional travel will be required for team meetings, donor engagements, training, and organizational events.

BENEFITS

Medical Insurance, Dental Insurance, Vision Insurance, Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability Insurance, Paid Time Off, Paid Holidays, Paid Winter Break, Summer Fridays, FSA Plan, 403(b) Plan

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Blessings in a Backpack is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, ethnicity, sex, gender identity (including gender nonconformity and status as a transgender or transsexual individual), sexual orientation, marital status, age, physical or mental disability, citizenship, past, current or prospective service in the uniformed services, predisposing genetic characteristic, domestic violence victim status, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.

Blessings in a Backpack is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you need reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the recruitment process, please email HR at: HR at blessingsinabackpack .org