Senior Director of Development

About Us
Central is a multicultural, multilingual seminary with students learning with us from 35 states and 9 countries. Our faculty and staff are dedicated to creating an inclusive learning environment where students from varied ethnic, geographical, and theological backgrounds can pursue postsecondary seminary education that is accessible, affordable, and relevant.

While our administrative building is in Overland Park, Kansas, the seminary has 8 additional sites in 5 other states and 1 other country. In the fall of 2026, Central enrolled 405 students in certificate, diploma, master, and doctoral level programs, which are currently offered in English, Kachin, and Korean. About 75% of Central’s students identify as Asian, and 54% are female.

In recent years, our seminary has been on the leading edge of providing theological education that is inclusive of technological proficiency, and currently most course offerings are provided virtually.

About the Role
Central Seminary is seeking a Senior Director of Development (SDD) to provide strategic leadership for the Seminary’s philanthropic program. Reporting directly to the President and serving as a member of the leadership team, the SDD will lead development strategy, manage Central’s major gift, foundation, church, and planned giving efforts, and supervise a development team responsible for annual giving, donor relations, and development operations.

The SDD will serve as a close fundraising partner to the President, helping prioritize opportunities, develop donor strategies, and build a strong sustainable donor pipeline. The SDD will also work closely with Central’s senior communications leadership to ensure fundraising messages and donor communications effectively advance Central’s philanthropic priorities.

Central operates with an annual budget of approximately $4 million, with philanthropy responsible for generating approximately $2.4 million each year. The SDD will lead the strategy to achieve this goal and equip the President, development staff, board members, and other organizational leaders to play meaningful roles in Central’s fundraising success.

The SDD can expect to travel approximately 15% of the time to cultivate and steward donors and advance key philanthropic relationships.

The SDD can expect their work to include:
Leadership and Development Strategy

• Contributing positively to Central’s organizational culture and lead with our values of community, empathy, growth, and tenacity
• Serving as a key member of Central’s leadership team and as the President’s primary advisor on fundraising strategy, donor relationships, and philanthropic opportunities
• Designing, implementing, and overseeing a comprehensive development strategy across major gifts, individual giving, foundations, church and denominational partners, and planned giving to achieve Central’s annual and long-term fundraising goals
• Building and maintaining a strong and sustainable donor pipeline capable of meeting Central’s annual fundraising goals
• Partnering with the President to engage the board of directors in fundraising and to equip board members to serve effectively as ambassadors and relationship builders for Central
• Collaborating with Central’s Senior Director of Brand Advancement and Alumni Engagement to ensure fundraising priorities and donor communications are aligned with Central’s overall messaging and communications strategy
• Developing and implementing a specific strategy to cultivate and solicit Central’s Korean and Burmese diaspora communities, including students and alumni
• Monitoring and reporting regularly on progress toward goals and providing actionable analysis and recommendations to the President and the board of directors
• Leading and supervising Central’s development team, including the Associate Director of Individual Giving and Donor Relations (FT) and the Development Operations Manager (PT)

Major and Planned Giving

• Leading Central’s major gifts program, including developing strategies to identify, qualify, cultivate, solicit, and steward individuals with the capacity and inclination to make significant gifts
• Managing a portfolio of Central’s major donors and prospects and personally cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding those relationships
• Developing moves management strategies for the President’s portfolio and serving as a strategic partner in preparing for and following up on donor meetings, solicitations, and other relationship-building opportunities
• Using donor data, prospect research, and relationship intelligence to identify prospective major donors and develop compelling major gift opportunities, proposals, and solicitation strategies that connect donor interests with Central’s institutional priorities
• Leading the strategy and growth of Central’s planned giving program, including identifying and cultivating planned giving prospects and integrating planned giving into appropriate donor conversations
• Traveling as needed to develop and strengthen relationships with current and prospective major and planned giving donors

Foundation, Church, and Denominational Relations

• Leading Central’s strategy for cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding foundation, church, and denominational partners, including strengthening existing relationships and identifying new funding opportunities, and engaging the President and other Central leaders in key relationships
• Developing funding strategies, concepts, and requests in collaboration with the President and appropriate faculty and staff that align Central’s institutional priorities with the interests of prospective funders and partners
• Writing and/or overseeing the development of compelling grant proposals, letters of inquiry, and other funder communications and ensuring grant reports are completed accurately and on time

Fundraising Management and Accountability

• Establishing and monitoring annual and long-term philanthropic revenue goals, budgets, and projections in partnership with the President and finance team
• Using development dashboards, reports, and key performance indicators to assess fundraising performance, identify trends and opportunities, and make data-informed adjustments to strategy
• Providing strategic oversight of Central’s development systems and processes to ensure accurate data, effective donor management, and strong coordination between development and finance

About You
To be successful in this role, you need to be:

• A dynamic and authentic leader who can represent Central’s mission with enthusiasm and build meaningful relationships with a wide range of people
• An inclusive and empathetic leader who works effectively in multicultural and multilingual environments
• A strategic thinker and skilled project manager who can translate ambitious goals into clear, actionable plans
• An exceptional communicator and relationship builder who values people’s unique stories and can inspire others around Central’s mission
• A self-motivated and creative problem solver who takes initiative, adapts to changing circumstances, and follows through
• A collaborative leader who uses data and systems to create clarity, accountability, and effectiveness across a team

You need to have:

• 7+ year of progressively responsible nonprofit fundraising experience, including significant experience with major gifts and donor relationship management; higher education fundraising experience preferred
• Demonstrated success developing and implementing comprehensive fundraising strategies and achieving significant revenue goals
• Experience managing a portfolio of major donors through identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship
• Experience leading or supervising development staff and building clear systems of accountability across a fundraising team
• Working knowledge of annual giving, planned giving, institutional giving, development communications, and development operations sufficient to provide strategic leadership across these functions
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to develop persuasive donor proposals and communicate effectively with senior leaders, board members, and donors
• Ability to use fundraising data and CRM systems to access performance, manage a pipeline, and inform strategy
• Bachelor’s degree; theological education is a plus

About Location, Compensation, and Benefits

• In-person four days a week (Monday-Thursday) in Overland Park, Kansas office
• Health, group life, and dental insurance
• Retirement contributions
• Paid time off
• Professional development provided
• The salary for this role is $105,000-$115,000

To Apply:
Interested applicants should submit the following to View email address on us.fitly.work with “Senior Director of Development” in the subject line.

• Resume and cover letter

Job Type: Full Time

Salary Range: $100,000 and over