The client is seeking an experienced Development Director to lead frontline fundraising and donor engagement for its communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and Chicago. This relationship-driven role will serve as the primary development presence across both markets, partnering closely with local staff and lay leaders. Working within a national development team, the Development Director will be supported by centralized infrastructure such as grant writing, prospect research, database management, and development operations, enabling a primary focus on fundraising and cultivation.
The Development Director will lead all fundraising efforts across both markets, managing a portfolio that includes individual donors, foundations, federations, and corporate partners, with responsibility for achieving annual fundraising goals. The role will involve cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding donors and institutional partners, with a strong emphasis on growing individual giving, as well as identifying and developing new philanthropic opportunities within the Bay Area and Chicago Jewish communities. The position also requires active one-on-one donor meetings, proposals, strategic engagement, and building a robust prospect pipeline, while representing the client in donor, foundation, and community meetings and convenings across both cities.
A major component of the role is major donor engagement through the client’s primary major gifts initiative, which supports donors contributing at $10,000+ annually in both markets. The Development Director will lead efforts to grow and steward local communities of major donors, serve as the primary staff partner to local initiative chairs, and support the development and engagement of local committees over time to expand major giving and deepen donor relationships. The role includes designing high-impact engagement opportunities—such as service experiences, briefings, and events—that connect major donors to the client’s mission and impact.