Director, Advancement Strategy & Campaign Operations

Museum Core•Indianapolis, IN

About The Position

The Director, Advancement Strategy and Campaign Operations for The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis translates fundraising strategy into coordinated execution across the advancement division. The role ensures campaign and annual fundraising priorities are supported by clear plans, disciplined processes, reliable information, effective systems, and shared accountability. As a member of the Advancement leadership team, the director serves as a strategic and operational partner to the Vice President of Advancement and division colleagues. The director leads annual giving planning strategy, comprehensive campaign operations, contributed revenue forecasting, portfolio-management practices, dashboard oversight, and cross-functional execution. The role provides operational leadership for advancement services, prospect research and analytics, CRM database management, gift administration, and related operational functions, ensuring data, research, technology, and business intelligence inform actionable fundraising strategies. The Children’s Museum is building and sustaining an inclusive culture that encourages, supports, and celebrates differences. It believes collaboration and open dialogue among people with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives best support its vision and mission.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree preferred.
Five years of fundraising operations management experience.
Three years of CRM, database management, and systems management experience, with demonstrated ability to lead others and hold staff accountable for results.
Experience establishing effective reporting, business-process, and performance-management practices.
Demonstrated understanding of fundraising strategy and operations, including comprehensive campaigns, revenue forecasting, prospect pipelines, portfolio management, performance measurement, donor relationship processes, and advancement services.
Ability to direct analytical and technical resources without personally serving as the primary analyst or system administrator.
Ability to translate complex strategic goals into coordinated operating plans, management systems, priorities, milestones, ownership, and measurable outcomes across multiple teams and stakeholders.
Demonstrated analytical ability and sound judgment, including interpreting fundraising performance, pipeline, and financial information; identifying risks and opportunities; and developing decision-oriented recommendations for senior leaders.
Experience leading cross-functional initiatives and facilitating decisions across organizational boundaries, including clarifying accountability, navigating ambiguity, addressing barriers, and maintaining momentum on complex initiatives.
Ability to work effectively with senior executives, nonprofit boards, campaign volunteers, fundraising leaders, Finance, technology teams, and other internal and external partners.
Strong initiative, organizational leadership, project management, problem-solving, facilitation, and change-management skills; ability to manage competing priorities and consistently drive follow-through.
Exceptional written and oral communication skills, including synthesizing complex information into concise, actionable reporting and recommendations for leadership and governance audiences.
Commitment to diversity and inclusion, including promoting diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion activities and maintaining a professional demeanor through inclusive language, tact, and sensitivity.
Ability to perceive space, read documents and reports, analyze detailed information, and view a computer monitor.
Ability to communicate in person, virtually, and telephonically in one-on-one and group settings, including facilitating meetings, presenting recommendations, and coordinating complex projects.
Ability to lift objects up to 25 pounds.
Ability to remain stationary for extended periods and regularly traverse the campus and grounds.
Ability to navigate local and regional travel as required for campaign, leadership, or partner engagement.

Nice To Haves

Experience in campaign operations, data management oversight, fundraising strategy, or a related field within a nonprofit or similarly complex organization.

Responsibilities

Partner with the Advancement leadership team to develop and execute annual and multi-year fundraising strategies aligned with museum priorities.
Translate fundraising goals into operating plans, milestones, performance measures, ownership, and timelines, and lead division-wide annual contributed revenue planning and goal setting.
Lead campaign and annual giving planning operations, translating campaign strategy into actionable plans for milestones, prospect activity, volunteer engagement, reporting, and coordinated execution.
Monitor campaign progress, pipeline, proposals, anticipated commitments, fundraising gaps, opportunities, and risks.
Establish and monitor expectations for CRM utilization, data governance, documentation, portfolio management, reporting, and fundraising business practices.
Lead contributed revenue forecasting, campaign reviews, pipeline reviews, and fund development performance discussions, ensuring data accuracy supports decisions and assignments.
Conduct and coordinate prospect research, wealth screening, donor analysis, and environmental scanning to identify and qualify prospective donors and inform fundraising strategy.
Support disciplined portfolio and pipeline management across fundraising teams, including establishing consistent standards for opportunity, probability, anticipated value, timing, and forecast confidence.
Use scenario planning and pipeline modeling to identify potential outcomes, gaps, and suggested interventions; ensure portfolios are appropriately sized, qualified, and strategically assigned.
Provide prospect research and portfolio-management support, analyzing donor capacity, affinity, relationships, giving and engagement history, and relevant external information to inform cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies.
Provide strategic leadership for Advancement Services, CRM effectiveness, gift administration, prospect intelligence, and related operational functions; set priorities and service expectations.
Partner with the Development Business Analyst on routine reporting, dashboards, datasets, and technical analytical work, and ensure frontline fundraisers and leaders receive timely, accurate, actionable information.
Partner across the museum on systems, integration, reporting, and data-governance needs and reduce unnecessary administrative burden on frontline fundraisers.
Establish effective operating rhythms across Advancement, including leadership meetings, forecasting sessions, portfolio reviews, campaign strategy meetings, and progress reviews.
Clarify ownership, decision rights, timelines, and expected outcomes, and ensure major initiatives advance from discussion to decision to execution.
Provide objective analysis and recommendations concerning fundraising performance, organizational capacity, resource allocation, emerging opportunities, and risks.
Evaluate Advancement strategies, processes, and workflows and recommend improvements that support fundraising productivity.
Coordinate campaign and fundraising execution across organizational teams.
Prepare materials for and coordinate museum and campaign leadership, board, and executive strategy discussions; document, monitor, and complete decisions and assignments.
Contribute to Advancement division leadership and culture by modeling professionalism, collaboration, transparency, accountability, continuous improvement, and results-oriented decision-making.
Promote shared accountability across functional boundaries while preserving fundraising team members’ accountability for revenue and donor strategy.