Director, Development

Santa Clara University • Santa Clara, CA

23h • Hybrid

About The Position

Miller Center for Global Impact at Santa Clara University works to end global poverty and build a more just and sustainable world by supporting social entrepreneurs advancing women’s economic power and climate resilience. Through mentorship, community, and shared learning, Miller Center equips leaders to scale their enterprises and deepen their impact, while connecting students to real-world challenges through experiential learning. The Director, Development plays a central role in advancing Miller Center’s mission by leading institutional fundraising and strategic partnerships. This role drives revenue growth through corporate and foundation partnerships, managing a dynamic portfolio of prospects and building relationships with senior leaders across sectors. The Director identifies and cultivates new opportunities, develops compelling cases for support, and secures funding that fuels high-impact programs. Working closely with Miller Center leadership, University Relations, and external partners, the Director shapes and advances partnerships from concept to execution. The role contributes to program design, thought leadership, and ecosystem engagement, positioning Miller Center as a trusted partner and leader in the global social enterprise field. This is a highly collaborative, externally facing role for a strategic relationship-builder who can translate vision into resources, partnerships, and measurable impact.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.
• At least seven years of progressively responsible work experience, including fundraising, business development, and program management activities
• At least five years of experience with the social enterprise ecosystem
• Knowledge of Miller Center programs, social entrepreneurship, and trends in the social enterprise ecosystem
• Strong management skills, exceptional attention to detail, proven planning skills, strong organizational skills, and superior follow-through
• Ability to analyze and interpret data, develop insights and conclusions, and translate them into actionable tasks
• Strong strategic thinking capabilities
• Skilled in managing partner relationships and collaborating with partners on program design and delivery
• Ability to work effectively with social entrepreneurs, volunteer mentors, staff of other social enterprise accelerators, and other members of the social enterprise ecosystem with a customer-focused approach
• Proven capability to interface with Major Gift level (>$100,000) corporate and foundation partners to Miller Center and SCU
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including strong writing skills; able to communicate effectively across all levels of an organizations
• Ability to handle multiple projects, set priorities, meet deadlines, and maintain a high level of performance in a fast-paced multicultural environment
• Proficient with Trello, Salesforce, BlackBaud and Google Suite.
• Flexible schedule, including ability to work remotely and participate in early morning and evening webinars as required
• Exercises sound judgment and maintains confidentiality
• Able to work independently

Nice To Haves

• Experience living and working in the Global South, ideally working directly with a social enterprise or social enterprise accelerator
• Experience participating in, or working in, an impact support or capacity development training program
• Experience in developing proposals to secure funding for programs and projects
• Master’s in Business Administration degree or similar coursework
• Proficiency in Spanish, French, or another language spoken widely in the regions in which Miller Center works

Responsibilities

• Leads institutional fundraising, on behalf of Miller Center, to grow institutional revenues in collaboration with UR, Institutional Relations, and Eco-System Partners.
• Focus on driving Miller Center’s fundraising and partnership revenue generation through institutional prospects.
• Manages a portfolio of 50-100 leadership and major giving prospects, conducting face-to-face and virtual visits monthly to qualify, engage, solicit, and steward donors for CAS and the University.
• Performs all aspects of fundraising moves management (discovery, cultivation, solicitation, stewardship) on behalf of SCU, including Miller Center, to deepen relationships and maximize support.
• Proactively researches, identifies, and explores new funding and partnership opportunities with new and existing partners.
• Screens, manages, and prioritizes unsolicited inquiries related to partnership opportunities.
• In collaboration with the Sr. Director, Development creates an annual fundraising plan, including strategies for meeting targets and milestones.
• Writes and presents persuasive funding proposals, budgets, cases for support, presentations, and concept notes for new and renewed funding opportunities.
• Solicits and secures financial, in-kind, and all other identified forms of support from institutional prospects.
• Tracks and records activities related to assigned prospects using Trello, Salesforce, BlackBaud/GiveCampus (CRM donor database).
• Tracks and reports on fundraising metrics while maintaining a portfolio of active institutional prospects.
• Supports the Advisory Board's development functions through meeting attendance and annual board member solicitations.
• Directly responsible for achieving Miller Center’s institutional and foundation fundraising goals by discovering, cultivating, qualifying, soliciting, and stewarding donors and donor prospects.
• Works with Sr. Manager of Partnerships to identify pipeline prospects for future Miller Center programming that may lead to funding.
• Implements tools, processes, and reporting to manage and track prospect pipeline activities and ensure timely follow-up.
• Works with Miller Center’s Leadership Team, Business Development Team, and University Relations to develop new funding partnerships and to steward relationships with corporate and foundation partners, including research, scoping calls, and creation of concept notes and proposals.
• Provides strategic and technical input to proposals on strategy, objectives, program design and delivery, program schedule, and budget.
• Represents Miller Center in regional and global associations, collaboratives, and coalitions such as ANDE, World Economic Forum Global Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship, and Catalyst 2030.
• Collaborates with marketing and PR staff to develop media campaigns that position Miller Center as a thought leader and build awareness of Miller Center’s programs globally, and increases Miller Center’s ability to fundraise.
• Supports the Center’s thought leadership by writing or contributing to concept notes, white papers, and blogs, and representing the Center in external events, conferences, and meetings.
• Monitors global trends in the ecosystem of social enterprise accelerators in sectors aligned with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, focusing on Goals 5, 6, 7, and 8.
• Hires, supervises, and directs staff, contractors, and student employees as necessary.
• Leads cross-functional teams to ensure successful outcomes and funder satisfaction for programs and strategic initiatives.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package for benefit eligible employees with programs and resources designed to promote and sustain personal health care, well-being, and the financial objectives of our employees and families.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 1-10 employees