Senior Director, Advancement

Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan; Detroit (MI); On-site; USD 135,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan is seeking a Senior Director, Advancement to lead fundraising efforts. This strategic role involves managing the team, cultivating donor relationships, and achieving financial goals while promoting the mission to alleviate hunger in the community.

Qualifications

• Experience in fundraising, especially with mid and major donors.
• Proven leadership skills managing fundraising teams.
• Knowledge of strategic philanthropy and community engagement.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Advancement team in fundraising efforts.
• Develop strategies to enhance donor relationships.
• Collaborate with various departments to raise $18M annually.

Skills

Fundraising

Strategic planning

Team leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Job description

Join to apply for the Senior Director, Advancement role at Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan

Join to apply for the Senior Director, Advancement role at Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan

Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan provided pay range

This range is provided by Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan. Your actual pay will be based on your skills and experience — talk with your recruiter to learn more.

Base pay range

$135,000.00/yr - $150,000.00/yr

READ AND DOWNLOAD FULL POSITION PROFILE HERE

About Gleaners Community Food Bank

For nearly 50 years, Gleaners Community Food Bank (“Gleaners”) has been a cornerstone of the supplemental and emergency food network, innovating solutions for households facing hunger in Southeast Michigan. Founded in 1977 by Gene Gonya, Gleaners was among the first food banks in the United States and has been recognized by Feeding America as a Food Bank of the Year. Gleaners has earned a 4-Star rating from Charity Navigator and Platinum status from Guidestar for its effective board governance, transparency, and dedication to stewarding resources entrusted by supporters. Today, Gleaners remains unwavering in its mission: To provide households with access to sufficient, nutritious food and related resources through collaboration, efficient operations, education, and innovative solutions.

Serving the greater Detroit area, including Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston, and Monroe counties, Gleaners works with nearly 350 community partner agencies—including food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and schools—to reach neighbors experiencing food insecurity. With the support of this robust network, along with direct-service mobile food distributions, Gleaners ensures that nutritious food reaches people where and when they need it most, to eliminate trade-offs so families, children, seniors and others can thrive.

Gleaners’ work is grounded in a set of core beliefs:

• Hunger can be solved.
• "Child" and "hunger" should never go together.
• Everyone benefits from a hunger-free community.
• Real change requires courage and collaboration.
• Good data leads to better decisions.

Food Insecurity in Southeast Michigan More than 47 million Americans struggle with food insecurity. The need for food in our communities has escalated, first with the soaring immediate need resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and then again when pandemic-era programs were discontinued, just as inflation, soaring food costs, and reduced federal assistance took over, exhausting household budgets and resources.

Food insecurity affects over 600,000 people across Gleaners’ five-county service area, with 68% of those served living at or below the poverty line. While food insecurity can vary in its intensity, hunger does not have a face or a zip code and can happen to anyone at any time, making the food safety net a vital lifeline in our communities.

Through a combination of cutting-edge technologies, efficient operations, and strong community partnerships, Gleaners has become a model for effective hunger relief. With decades of operational refinement and community engagement, Gleaners leverages:

• State-of-the-Art Distribution: Operating from advanced distribution centers in Wayne and Livingston counties, Gleaners safely and efficiently handles large volumes of donated and purchased food, including fresh produce and milk, minimizing waste and maximizing impact. Gleaners will also soon open Fresh! By Gleaners, which will include in-store ‘shopping’ and order-ahead curbside pick-up options for community members.
• Mobile Food Distribution: Operating five days a week in rotating locations, Gleaners' direct-service drive-up sites provide balanced nutrition—no appointment necessary—ensuring equitable access across the region.
• Partner Support & Capacity Building: Gleaners helps food pantries and service organizations stretch limited resources, enabling them to better serve their communities.
• Education & Empowerment: Through food programs and community education, Gleaners helps households build long-term food security and resilience.

In 2024, the impact of this work resulted in the distribution of over 53 million pounds of food, including 18 million pounds of fresh produce and over 860,000 gallons of milk – reaching over 1 million households. Beyond the numbers, Gleaners uses its Household Impact Model to guide decision-making and success by determining the operations and programs providing the greatest impact toward economic benefit, stability, health and empowerment for households across Southeast Michigan.

Looking Ahead: A Vision to End Hunger

Gleaners’ vision is bold and clear: To end hunger in Southeast Michigan. To achieve this, the organization is pursuing a strategic path focused on long-term solutions and sustainable impact:

• Meeting People Where They Are: Eliminating barriers to access by designing programs responsive to the lived experiences of food-insecure households.
• Fostering Innovation: Leveraging data and partnerships to continuously refine programming and explore new models of food security.
• Partnering for Greater Impact: Collaborating with healthcare, government, education, and business sectors to align goals and resources.
• Optimizing People Power: Building a diverse, inclusive culture internally and externally, and mobilizing volunteers as essential changemakers.
• Scaling Solutions That Work: Strengthening infrastructure and inviting large-scale investment to ensure the region’s hunger relief system can meet the full scope of community needs.

As Gleaners pursues this strategic vision, they are guided by their core values:

• Innovation: Food insecurity is a solvable problem, and the team makes its best effort to bring forward new ideas to improve systems and respond to community needs.
• Compassion & Respect: Solving food insecurity requires a deep understanding of the community and a dignified approach to work with all stakeholders.
• Excellence & Grit: The team holds themselves accountable to high standards, and remains nimble to changing community needs.
• Integrity: The Gleaners team is transparent, reliable, and trustworthy in all aspects of their work.

As Gleaners enters its next chapter, it does so with deep experience, a trusted reputation, and a commitment to innovation and equity. By empowering individuals and collaborating across sectors, Gleaners is not just feeding people today—it’s laying the foundation for a hunger-free tomorrow.

Learn more about Gleaners Community Food Bank at https://www.gcfb.org/.

The Opportunity

At this moment of rising need and extraordinary potential, Gleaners Community Food Bank is seeking a strategic, collaborative, dynamic and mission-driven leader to serve as its Senior Director of Advancement | Strategic Philanthropy (“Senior Director”).

Reporting to the Chief Development Officer, the Senior Director is responsible for leading members of the Advancement’s frontline fundraising team who play a key role in raising philanthropic gifts in the mid ($1K - $10K) and major ($10K+) donor giving segments.

As a senior leader in the Advancement division, the Senior Director will lead the Community Giving and Strategic Gifts/Grants (including planned giving) areas by developing strategies and tactics to grow existing as well as establishing new relationships with corporate, foundation and individual donors.

The Senior Director will lead a team of two (Director of Community Giving and the Director of Grants), and collaborate with a Development team of 6, including the Senior Director of Communications, Marketing, Media & PR and the Senior Director of Data Analytics.

Together, the Advancement team is responsible for raising $18M annually through a comprehensive, relationship-based fundraising program that includes integrating annual fund (direct mail, communications, community giving, and fundraising events, both internally managed and third-party), mid-level giving (approx. $1K-$10K), and major giving (over $10K). Of the over 32,000 donors, giving from individuals comprises 54% of philanthropic gifts, corporations and corporate foundations makes up 26%, foundations including family foundations - 11%, and organizations - 9%.

READ AND DOWNLOAD FULL POSITION PROFILE HERE

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Director

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Administrative

• Industries

  Non-profit Organization Management

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