Chief Development Officer

Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) - United States • New York, NY

20h • Hybrid

About The Position

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an independent international organization that provides medical care to the people who need it most. The organization cares for people affected by conflict, disease outbreaks, disasters, and social exclusion in more than 70 countries. MSF offers medical humanitarian assistance solely based on need, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or politics. Our international project teams include medical, logistical, and administrative staff, most of them hired locally and working with their own communities. Our actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of independence, impartiality, and neutrality. We also bear witness and speak out about the experiences of our colleagues and patients.
MSF USA is one of 24 sections supporting the global movement, primarily through staff recruitment, fundraising, advocacy, and communications. We welcome candidates who bring a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences to join us in working toward MSF’s social mission.
Role Overview
The Chief Development Officer (CDO) provides vision, strategic management, and leadership to implement effective fundraising operations in the US Market in alignment with global movement-wide strategy The Chief Development Officer leads a more than 90-person Development Department accountable to raise more than $800 million annually and provides strategic fundraising leadership across the international MSF community.
The CDO will advance the Development Department while centering MSF’s global mission in all activities and prioritizing alignment with the broader organization’s palpable, well-established culture – a culture which centers humanitarian medical field work above all, organizational independence vis-à-vis its funding sources, an egalitarian openness to new perspectives, and a systematic approach to decision making in a large, complex organization. Acknowledging the prominence of MSF USA’s contributions to global MSF fundraising (constituting nearly 30% of total global funding) and disparities in the fundraising strategies and tactics of MSF sections internationally, it is important the CDO actively foster an ethos of mutual respect, common values, and collaborative partnership in solidarity with MSF section counterparts. The CDO will model diplomacy in balancing local and global priorities as well as shared responsibility in the ongoing enhancement of all MSF fundraising worldwide.
A core charge for the CDO is to strengthen MSF USA’s capability and outcomes in high-touch major and legacy giving and to sustain its considerable historic strength in the broad-based direct response fundraising and digital philanthropy that has yielded the unrestricted giving essential to organizational independence. This leader must maintain a whole-picture perspective that recognizes the varied and complementary elements of MSF USA’s successful fundraising efforts and ongoing importance thereof in future success. They will judiciously promote a culture of philanthropy across MSF USA whereby stakeholders on an organization-wide scale experience increasing comfort with mission-focused, culturally aligned fundraising, and key leaders are strategically engaged and supported as partners in fundraising, particularly in relation to the highest potential major and legacy giving initiatives.
The CDO must be able to execute a clearly articulated departmental strategy that aligns with the organization’s priorities. They will ensure a stable Development Department – prioritizing staff retention and morale – and fundraising infrastructure that is both durable and flexible in responding to a fluid external and operational landscape.

Requirements

• Fifteen years of progressive experience in development roles, including at least 7 years in a senior leadership capacity.
• Demonstrated success building and managing effective fundraising organizations and achieving and exceeding revenue targets for a sustained period.
• Proven ability to evaluate and innovate to expand and initiate new fundraising programs.
• Leadership experience in large, complex environments and in an international context is preferred.
• An established track record, as a senior development leader, of increasing revenue and achieving aggressive fundraising goals from diverse constituencies in a complex multicultural environment, including the following: strategic planning and execution; facilitative and collaborative management and leadership of large diverse teams; change management; and budget development and management, including financial reporting and analysis.
• Demonstrated organizational and strategic approach to fundraising with previous experience creating development strategies tied to clear objectives; a strong understanding of strategy; ability to understand the big picture, and skilled in organizational change and dynamics.
• Strategic aptitude in branding and marketing communications, including the creation and refinement of compelling storytelling, digital fluency, social media content development, leveraging of multi-channel marketing approaches to accomplish goals and objectives, and the interpretation and application of data to drive corresponding initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to champion and motivate staff and organizations to embrace new approaches, such as the personalization of fundraising and the use of new platforms to reach donors.
• Demonstrated effectiveness as team player and collaborator; ability to engage other senior staff and co-create new initiatives.
• Track record in building and implementing practices, systems, and incentives that enable effective use of data to support excellent supporter engagement.
• Critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, and the capacity to simplify and communicate complex concepts to diverse audiences.
• A successful track record in taking calculated risks that foster creativity and innovation while maintaining the health of organizational revenue; encouraging others to do the same in pursuit of expanded channels, approaches, and donor bases.
• Outstanding oral and written communication and presentation skills to represent MSF in public venues as a thought leader.
• Deep commitment to the humanitarian action of MSF, and to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion principles in the workplace.
• Formal educational background in fundraising (such as CFRE Certification), business administration, and/or marketing preferred, or equivalent professional experience.
• Must be willing to travel for work as needed.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for designing, developing, and delivering the organization's account management strategy.
• May also personally manage a few relationships with the most strategic donors.
• Pursue strategic opportunities in coherence with MSF-USA´s strategy that creates long-term value for the movement by cultivating partnerships or identifying and developing new geographies, markets, or donors for its mission.
• Build trust and loyalty with potential donors.
• Update donors on activities at the simplest level.
• At a more complex level, build long-term relationships with donors, especially large corporations or foundations.
• Develop brand positioning based on the brand strategy and implement brand plans.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Education Level: No Education Listed