Development Director

City Year; Buffalo (NY); On-site; USD 70,000 - 78,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

Life and disability coverage

FSA benefits

401(k) retirement plan

Job summary

City Year Buffalo seeks a Director of Development to design and execute a comprehensive fundraising strategy that strengthens donor engagement across sectors and fuels City Year’s growth in the community.

Key responsibilities include expanding major gifts, managing boards, and building corporate/foundation partnerships, while upholding City Year’s mission and culture. Excellent written skills and a track record in multi-year giving are required.

Qualifications

• 5-8 years of progressive fundraising/development experience with a track record in multi-year giving.
• BA/BS required; MBAs, MPPS, or other advanced degrees preferred.
• Strong persuasive writing and communication skills; ability to work with diverse teams.

Responsibilities

• External Relations: plan donor engagement strategy across private, government, and education sectors; represent City Year at events.
• Implement Growth Campaign: develop and execute a campaign for Buffalo growth and build development capacity for long-term impact.
• Individual Giving: cultivate and steward major donors; expand Giving Circles and Advisory Board giving to 100%.
• Board Management: co-chair Advisory Board Development Committee and maintain board engagement.
• Corporate/Foundation Management: grow corporate and foundation multiyear gifts and manage funder relations.
• Fundraising Events: assist in events like annual gala and private receptions to raise awareness and support.
• City Year Culture: model City Year values; raise local brand awareness.
• Organizational Management: contribute to site strategy; coordinate with HQ and maintain donor records in Salesforce.

Skills

Donor engagement

Relationship building

Strategic planning

Persuasive writing

Microsoft Office

Salesforce

Education

BA/BS required

Tools

Salesforce

Microsoft Office

Job description

Position Overview

Director, Development is responsible for designing and executing the Development strategy that will allow City Year to leverage the resources, talents, and skills of the philanthropic sector to build the site and create change in communities across the city.

Responsibilities

External Relations:

Working closely with the Executive Director, plan the strategy of donor engagement across sectors: private, government, and education (state policy, district funding). Serve as a representative of City Year in the external community attending events on a frequent basis (may include travel, and evening and weekend events). Build meaningful relationships that result in securing both monetary and in-kind multi-year support for City Year.

Implement Growth Campaign:

Work with the Executive Director to develop, plan, and implement a campaign to allow for City Year’s continued growth throughout Buffalo. Additionally, add development capacitates to execute against City Year’s Long Term Impact goals.

Individual Giving Program Development:

Develop innovative strategies to promote individual giving to City Year. Identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward a portfolio of current and future major donors. Refine City Year Giving Circles initiatives and increase participation with individual donor gifts of $10,000+. Work directly with the Executive Director to ensure annual Advisory Board giving is 100%.

Board Management and Engagement:

Work with the Executive Director to manage the Board throughout the year and during quarterly Board meetings. Maintain engagement both financially and otherwise to ensure Board retention and satisfaction. Co-Chair the Advisory Board’s Development Committee ensuring board and staff alignment on all development related initiatives, including events and the annual gala.

Corporate and Foundation Management:

Establish corporate and foundation strategy, and support the regional grant writer with the management of relationships and communication with City Year’s corporate foundation funders. Work to increase corporate and foundation multi-year gifts.

Fundraising Events:

Work with the Development Consultant and the Executive Director in managing special events to raise the awareness of City Year; fundraise and engage individuals, foundations, and corporations as champions and donors. Events include but are not limited to: City Year Buffalo’s Annual Gala, Specialty Market Events, and Private Receptions.

City Year Culture:

Represent, respect, and role model City Year organizational culture and values on a daily basis internally as a member of the site Senior Leadership Team and externally as a representative of the organization. Help share the mission of City Year locally to increase brand awareness in the community.

Organizational Management:

Help shape organizational strategy and play a leadership role in implementing the site’s local operating and multi-year strategic plan as a member of the Senior Leadership Team. Work collaboratively with other site departments on a frequent basis and with City Year’s national headquarters in Boston. Collaborate with local and national colleagues in ensuring accurate maintenance of records and donor information in the SalesForce database and in local network and paper files.

Basic Qualifications

5-8 years of progressive fundraising/development experience with proven fundraising track record that includes multi-year giving. Comparable experience will be considered. BA/BS required. Preference given to MBAs, MPPs, and/or other relevant advanced degrees. Solid, persuasive writing skills required. Experience serving on diverse teams required. Strong interpersonal and relationship building skills required. Knowledge of the Buffalo donor community preferred. Strong and efficient use of Microsoft Office required, knowledge of Salesforce platform a plus. Ability to work with diverse groups of young adults in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial team environment.

Salary expectations: $70,000 - $78,000 commensuratewith experience.

Benefits

Full-time employees will be eligible for all benefits including vacation, sick days and organization holidays. You may participate in all benefit programs that City Year establishes and makes available to eligible employees, under (and subject to all provisions of) the plan documents that govern those programs. Currently, City Year offers medical, dental, vision, life, accidental death and dismemberment and disability coverage, Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA), and other benefits including 401(k) plan(s) pursuant to the terms and conditions of company policy and the 401(k) plan document.

Employment at City Year is at-will. City Year does not sponsor work authorization visas.

City Year’s dual mission is to expand educational opportunity for all students and develop the next generation of leaders through national service. Trained teams of City Year AmeriCorps members provide support to students, classrooms and the whole school. Schools that partner with City Year are up to two to three times more likely to improve in English and math assessments, and the more time students spend with AmeriCorps members, the more they improve on academic, cognitive and interpersonal skills— skills that help students thrive in school, college and career.

City Year’s 900 staff and 2,000+ AmeriCorps members work and serve in 29 communities across the U.S., including Boston (where City Year was founded in 1988 and is headquartered), Baton Rouge, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbia, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, New Hampshire, NewOrleans, NewYork, Orlando, Philadelphia, Providence, Sacramento, SanAntonio, SanJosé/SiliconValley, Seattle/KingCounty, Tulsa and Washington, D.C. City Year also has international affiliates in the U.K. and South Africa. A proud member of the AmeriCorps national service network, City Year is supported by AmeriCorps, local school districts and private philanthropy. City Year has been designated a 4-star charity by Charity Navigator since 2003, putting City Year in the top 1% of non-profits nationwide for accountability, transparency and responsible fiscal management, and among the most trustworthy nonprofits in America.

At City Year, we sometimes say we work not only “at” City Year, but also “on” City Year, recognizing that the organization, like our world, is constantly evolving and changing. Two things that have never changed: our steadfast belief in the power of young people to change our world for the better; and our aspiration to create positive school and work environments where everyone feels a sense of connection, is supported to do their best work, and is able to learn, contribute, lead and create to their fullest potential.

As an equal opportunity employer, City Year is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified individuals and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, parental status, genetic information or characteristics, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.

Fair Labor Standards Act Family and Medical Leave Act Learn more at www.cityyear.org, City Year’s Facebook page, on X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn.