Chief Development Officer

Company: Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan
Location: New York
Posted on: May 22, 2025

Job Description:

Together with our community, the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan (MMJCCM) creates opportunities for people to connect, grow, and learn within an ever-changing Jewish landscape. The MMJCCM imagines Jewish life as diverse and engages meaningfully with its values, culture, and ideas in everyday life. To learn more, please visit: https://mmjccm.org/Opportunity for ImpactMMJCCM seeks a dynamic, proven, and growth-minded leader to become its Chief Development Officer (CDO). Working closely with the CEO and Board of Directors, the CDO will lead the organization in raising significant multi-year funding for the wide range of programs and initiatives essential to MMJCCM's mission. The successful candidate will have important input into the direction of the organization; we, therefore, seek a strategic leader who will regard this as a compelling, long-term opportunity to partner with senior colleagues, the Board, employees, and the community to help lead the MMJCCM through its next phase of growth and beyond.The CDO will join the MMJCCM at an exciting moment of challenge and transformation and will play a crucial leadership role in engaging and growing our community of donors through relationship-building stewardship and creative engagement. The CDO will serve as a key strategic partner with the CEO in organizational advancement and ensure the organization's mission, goals, and culture are reflected in our relationships with donors, foundations, and volunteer leaders.The MMJCCM has an active, engaged board with a strong desire and aspiration to grow our donor portfolio to $12-15+ million annually. The successful CDO candidate will have experience in high-growth fundraising strategies while ensuring our core fundraising portfolio is maintained.PositionThe successful candidate must have an authentic passion for the mission and vision of the MMJCCM and broader Jewish life, proven donor engagement and strategy success, and experience developing and maintaining meaningful working relationships with board members, partners, and colleagues. The CDO must be extremely personable and skilled at communicating the vision and unique opportunity to stakeholders. The CDO will oversee, inspire, connect, empower, and mentor their team, which is currently at seven members.The CDO's scope will include designing, implementing, and evaluating all fundraising strategies relating to major donors, foundations, and individuals, including annual, capital, and planned giving. The CDO will create and execute a development plan that details how MMJCCM will identify funding sources and cultivate supporters. The CDO will partner with the CEO to attract excellent volunteers to contribute their talents and meet needs identified by program leadership. The CDO will be a member of the Senior Leadership Team, working collaboratively with other Team members.General Development Strategy and ImplementationEstablish and execute a bold, multi-faceted fundraising strategy, including campaign gifts, foundation fundraising, individual giving, grants, planned giving, digital fundraising, and event support, in partnership with the CEO, senior staff, board, and development team.

• Foster a culture of philanthropy and ensure that the development strategy is executed in keeping with the JCC's values, vision, and mission. Identify major gift prospects and turn them into leadership donors by building a pipeline of new, lapsed, and small-dollar donors.
  
  
• Manage a personal portfolio of prospective major individual and foundation donors; maintain existing donor relationships and deepen those alliances through regular, relevant communications and stewardship. Identify, attract, and close donor gifts ranging from $500,000 to $1,000,000+
  
  
• Serve as a passionate, articulate ambassador for the MMJCCM's mission externally and internally. Engage leaders and potential partners to expand and enhance our reach in the community with innovative development and corporate partnership arrangements.
  
  
• Lead a development team of seven professionals, cultivating and supporting a culture of collaboration, professional growth, and clarity. Develop clear expectations (processes, systems, metrics, and performance measures) to guide development goals and efforts.
  
  
• Create funding benchmarks, evaluate progress, and report on activities. Manage and strengthen development processes and systems, including recordkeeping, gift acknowledgments, gift status reports, renewals, mailings, and calendars. Prepare development reports, including plans, accomplishments, and challenges for CEO before board meetings.
  
  
• Support the CEO, Board, senior management, and staff in their development efforts, building and strengthening donor and prospect relationships and soliciting gifts. Staff the development committee and work with the CEO to support MMJCCM's Board; participate in identifying and recruiting new prospective board members, including creating a pipeline of prospective lay leaders and committee members.
  
• Engage the senior management team in developing effective messages for new and broader donor audiences. Collaborate with the marketing team to generate all development-related marketing materials and communications. Work with Center Directors and other programmers to understand funding needs to support program priorities.
  Qualifications
  • Minimum of 10 years of fundraising experience with at least 10 years in a leadership position. Proven track record of success, innovation, and progressive accomplishments in fundraising with experience in all or most areas, focusing on stewardship of major donors.
    
    
  • Ability to conceptualize and describe funding needs, verbally and in writing, in a way that is compelling to prospects, donors, board members, and other stakeholders and builds in the attributes of our new branding messaging.
    
    
  • Previous experience leading teams successfully, with the proven ability to motivate, influence, and hold teams accountable to high standards and goals and develop themselves as professionals in the field.
    
    
  • Significant experience with board development and board member retention.
    
    
  • Able to organize, prioritize, and execute responsibilities intuitively in the face of concurrent and essential projects and tasks. Strong management, budgeting, and reporting experience. Creative, strategic, and analytical thinking skills.
    
    
  • Strong interpersonal and written and verbal communication skills, emphasizing the ability to shape communications creatively to persuade and influence others around ideas, decisions, and financial support; understanding the need for a high level of discretion.
    
    
  • Collaborative, team-driven nature with the ability to partner internally with cross-functional teams and externally with MMJCCM's partners and affiliates.
    
    
  • Background and experience in Jewish communal life preferred.Competitive compensation and includes a generous benefits package.
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Keywords: Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, Lower Merion , Chief Development Officer, Executive , New York, Pennsylvania