Chief Development Architect: Scale $35M+ Fundraising

Blue Star Families; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 159,000 - 238,000; Full time

Job summary

Blue Star Families seeks a Chief Development Officer in the Washington DC area to lead a $35M+ fundraising operation, focusing on enterprise-level strategy and scalable systems. The role reports to the President and oversees major gifts, campaigns, and donor operations, guiding senior development leaders and collaborating across programs and finance.

The CDO will build processes, governance, and reporting to drive revenue growth, ensure compliance with fundraising standards, and align efforts

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in nonprofit management, business administration, or related field.
• Advanced degree preferred in relevant field.

Responsibilities

• Design and lead the structure of the Development department with clear roles, spans of control, and performance metrics.
• Develop and own multi-year development strategy with revenue goals, channel targets, and budgets.
• Serve on the Executive Leadership Team, advising on philanthropy, advancement operations, and revenue strategy; partner with CFO on forecasting and audit readiness.
• Establish accountability through defined roles, scorecards, pipeline reviews, and coaching.
• Oversee moves management, prospect qualification, proposal development, grant submission and reporting, gift entry, and donor stewardship workflows.
• Lead Development technology ecosystem (Salesforce, wealth screening, marketing automation) and ensure data integrity.
• Develop data governance standards and standardized reporting cadence (weekly pipeline, monthly KPIs, quarterly Board reports).
• Define policies for gift acceptance, recognition, privacy, COI, and ethical fundraising aligned with AFP/CASE/DMA.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic planning

Stakeholder engagement

Communication

Financial acumen

Travel readiness

Education

Bachelor’s degree in nonprofit management, business administration, or a related field

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

Salesforce NPC

Job description

Blue Star Families seeks a Chief Development Officer in the Washington DC area to lead a $35M+ fundraising operation, focusing on enterprise-level strategy and scalable systems. The role reports to the President and oversees major gifts, campaigns, and donor operations, guiding senior development leaders and collaborating across programs and finance.

The CDO will build processes, governance, and reporting to drive revenue growth, ensure compliance with fundraising standards, and align efforts