Chief Development Officer

PURPOSE OF POSITION

Covenant House Missouri (CHMO) welcomes youth who are runaway, trafficked, at-risk, or experiencing homelessness with unconditional love, absolute respect and a place to call home. Beyond shelter and basic needs, we deliver transformative solutions to help young people ages 16 to 24 build productive, independent and sustainable lives.

The Chief Development Officer (CDO) plays a critical role in driving the organization's growth and is responsible for leading growth strategies, fundraising, partnerships, and overall business development. The ideal leader in this role is a skilled and experienced fundraiser, strategic, and a mission-driven leader who ensures sustainable growth, deepens donor engagement, and maximizes the impact of an organization. Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, the CDO is expected to align fundraising and development efforts with the organization's mission, vision, and long-term goals.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Chief Development Officer (CDO) is a full-time position. The CDO is responsible for all aspects of successful fundraising and development, inclusive of strategy and planning, crafting the case for support, annual events and campaigns, individual giving, corporate and foundation grants, online and digital fundraisers, legacy gifts, donor research and prospecting, engagement and stewardship, marketing and communications, technology and data management, and compliance and ethics. In partnership with the Chief Executive Officer, this position is responsible for leading growth strategies, fundraising, partnerships, and overall business development. The CDO serves as a member of the Executive Leadership Team.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Fundraising Leadership and Revenue Generation

• Create Organizational Fundraising Strategy : Develop a detailed plan that outlines fundraising methods (events, capital campaigns, online campaigns, community appeals, major gift solicitation, stewardship, etc.), timelines, budget, resource allocation, and methods. This plan will guide the team's actions and help in managing resources efficiently.


• Set Clear Goals: Define specific, measurable financial targets including the amount to be raised, purpose, timeline, a methods in align with the organization's mission and needs. Focus fundraising efforts and gives a clear direction for fundraising.


• Building Relationships: Establish and cultivate long-term relationships with donors, foundations and corporate sponsors through stewardship, appreciation and regular communication, rather than just focusing on a one-time gift


• Engage Stakeholders: Build relationships with internal and external stakeholders, government agencies, investors, the board, staff, the media, sponsors and community partners. Ensure all internal and external stakeholders are aligned and engaged in the fundraising process.


• Ambassador: Represent the organization at industry conferences, networking events and public forums. Prepare and facilitate presentations about CHMO to community groups, corporations, foundations and civic organization.


• Identify Target Donors : Understand and segment potential donors, including individuals, corporations, foundations and others. This also includes identifying the most likely contributors and determining strategies for approaching them.


• Donor Stewardship: Develop and implement creative and customized stewardship plans for support investments. Ensure donors feel valued and appreciated for their contributions. Recognise them appropriately and providing updates on how their donations are being used. Communicate impact and success stories to encourage continued support. Develop donor recognition and appreciation programs.


• Grant Management: Oversee research of grant opportunities, the writing of grant proposals and reports to funders. Maintain compliance with grant requirements.


• Evaluating Success: Track and report fundraising income and expenses. Analyse data, what worked and what did not work to improve future fundraising strategies. Ensure transparency and compliance with legal and ethical fundraising standards.


• Event Planning and Campaigns: Organise and oversee fundraising events, ensure that the logistics, marketing and volunteer involvement for events is solidified and host engaging and successful events and campaigns.


• Marketing and Outreach: Develop and share compelling messaging, storytelling and promotional materials. Use multiple channels to share messaging including local media, CHMO website, emails, social media, direct mail, annual report, impact report and newsletters.

Organisational Leadership

• Strategic Leadership : Leads the creation, implementation and continuous evaluation of all facets of the organisation's development strategy, including corporate, foundation and government grants; major and planned giving programmes; online strategy (e.g. social media, blogs and emails); annual events; capital campaign; marketing and outreach, financial management and reporting, volunteer and team coordination and peer-to-peer fundraising. Expands presence and builds strategic alliances. Actively participates in quarterly CHMO Board meetings and Board committee meetings.


• Make Critical Decisions : Make data-informed decisions that impact the direction, performance and success of the organisation. Allocate necessary resources to champion the implementation of the Strategic Plan and meet department objectives, KPIs and organisational priorities.


• Growth-mindset : Identify new business opportunities for growth, partnerships and revenue streams.


• Monitor and Report: Ensure compliance of all grants in accordance with applicable city, state and federal guidelines; oversee the development and use of monitoring, tracking and reporting protocol and report out on KPI's and organisational wellness metrics. Partner with programmes to identify potential fundraising activities. Ensure protocols are in place for adequate reporting to funders. This would include the collection and management of data necessary for statistical and grant reporting. Oversee data for grant, contract and stakeholder reporting. Regularly tracking progress towards fundraising goals and adjusting strategies as needed.


• Forecast: Communicate identified needs to the Chief Executive Officer and staff, proactively problem solve and identify potential solutions using critical thinking skills.


• Collaboration: Partners with Covenant House International to implement federation initiatives at the local level (e.g. brand roll out, events and corporate partnerships). Establishes and maintains an effective working relationship with co-workers on other teams, supervisor and representatives of other agencies, the board and the public. Actively participates in executive leadership meetings. Works closely with the board of directors' development committee to execute the organisation's strategic plan and the development team's fundraising and communication goals.


• Financial oversight & fiduciary responsibility: Manage budget efficiently, responsibly and sustainably. Manage requisition and approval of all expenses within areas of responsibility. Provide ongoing administrative budget analysis, monitoring, financial forecasting, expenditure review and accountability for development expenses to ensure that expenses are executed within budget.


• Time and priorities: Prioritise initiatives and allocate resources to achieve key objectives while managing time effectively.


• Utilisation: Ensure maximum utilisation of resources.

Talent Leadership, Management & Development

• Hiring and talent development : Oversee the talent acquisition life cycle, which may include the recruitment, selection, development, supervision, training, support, evaluation, retention of committed, skilled and motivated workforce for areas of, and off-boarding process. Ensure the effective, efficient and timely onboarding of new staff in alignment with regulatory requirements. Oversee learning & development programmes and initiatives that provide internal professional development opportunities for employees - this includes, but is not limited to, all training required for compliance audits.


• Empower teams & effective communication : Inspire, motivate and empower teams by fostering collaboration, trust and effective communication. Ensure clear and effective internal and external communication between all organisational departments and functions to foster teamwork and enhance operational success. Lead on cross-functional teams to support communications, problem management and process improvement.


• Conflict resolution : Address conflicts timely to maintain a productive and harmonious work environment.


• Mentorship : Provide guidance and mentorship to emerging leaders within the organisation to ensure a strong leadership pipeline. Provide direction to staff to handle development transactions necessary for agency; ensure that their efforts are well-coordinated with strategic business goals.

• Transparency : Keep everyone informed about organisational goals, changes and growth opportunities.

• Succession planning : Identify and develop internal talent for future leadership roles.

Performance Excellence, Monitoring, Impact Evaluation & Accountability

• Measure Success : Monitor key performance indicators to consistently track progress and regularly analyse data, impact reports and evaluate the development team's progress towards its goals to inform decision-making.


• Accountability : Hold individuals and teams accountable for their roles and outcomes.


• Critical thinking : Analyse trends and practices of similar organisations at local and national levels and identify and propose strategies for improvement within the organisation.

SUPERVISORY DUTIES

This position directly supervises the Director of Development, Volunteer & Community Relationship Coordinator, Donor Database and Stewardship Specialist, Grant Management Specialist and Marketing and Communications Specialist.

WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

Regular internal contact with all CHMO staff, members of the Board of Directors, outside contact with vendors and suppliers and regular contact with outside agencies.

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree required in Marketing, Public Relations, Business Administration, Communications, Human Services or related field; Master's degree preferred.


• Minimum of 10 years professional experience overall, with a minimum of five years' experience in direct fundraising across many public and private channels.


• Minimum of 3 years' experience managing a team of at least three staff members.


• A proven track record of successfully soliciting six- and seven-figure gifts from both individuals and institutions.

• Have an understanding of and appreciation for the importance of developing operations and cross-team collaboration, especially with finance and programme.


• Know how to support a CEO to be an effective fundraiser.


• Use data to inform strategies and decisions.


• Would enjoy working as a part of a federated organisational system.


• Are a passionate and engaging public speaker with excellent negotiation skills.


• Experience in managing cross-functional teams and scaling business or nonprofit initiatives.

• LOVE fundraising!


• Non-profit youth serving or housing focused leadership experience preferred.


• Knowledge in mental health, trauma, substance abuse, homelessness and the impact of poverty.

In addition to the above requirements, candidate must

• Have a valid driver's licence.


• Follow all agency policies;


• Pass State Child Abuse and Neglect and criminal background checks;


• Carry out the essential functions of the position with or without accommodation.


• Perform all job duties in a manner which demonstrates a commitment to organisational values and mission.


• Demonstrate awareness, understanding and cultural competence and ethnic diversity of clients, staff and other community partners.

Knowledge and Skills

• Demonstrated history of leading high-performing development teams with integrity, transparency and accountability in fundraising practices.


• Strong relationship management skills with donors, board members and stakeholders.


• Understands financial management, budgeting and ROI on fundraising initiatives.


• Demonstrated history of using analytics and donor data to refine fundraising strategies.


• Ability to navigate changes in donor behaviour, market trends and technology.


• Ability to cultivate and steward donor relationships for long-term support.


• Creative approach to solving fundraising challenges.


• Comfortable with digital transformation and new fundraising technologies.

• Proficient in Microsoft Office, assessment tools, database systems and Windows environment.

WORK ENVIRONMENT/ PHYSICAL DEMANDS

• Moderate concentration.


• Frequent interruptions.


• Moderate noise level.


• Moderate travel.


• On-call responsibilities.


• Moderate sitting, standing and eye strain, light walking, bending and lifting.