Managing Director of Development

City Year•Detroit, MI

20h•Hybrid

About The Position

City Year Detroit is seeking an experienced fundraising professional with an entrepreneurial mindset to lead its development efforts as Managing Director of Development (MDD). The ideal candidate is a strategic and ambitious leader, a compelling communicator, and an equity-driven fundraiser who thrives on collaboration, innovation, and building meaningful partnerships to advance our mission. City Year Detroit has built a strong culture of philanthropy by partnering with corporations, foundations, individual donors, and public funders to create sustainable social impact. Reporting to the Executive Director, the MDD will lead the organization's comprehensive fundraising, marketing, and communications strategy to ensure the long-term financial sustainability and visibility of the site. The MDD will oversee a high-performing development team responsible for achieving annual fundraising goals through major gifts, institutional giving, corporate partnerships, grant writing, special events—including the annual gala—and donor stewardship. This leader will develop and execute strategies to secure multi-year investments, identify and cultivate new funding opportunities, strengthen relationships with existing supporters, and actively engage the Board of Directors in fundraising, stewardship, and ambassadorial efforts. As a member of the site leadership team, the MDD will also contribute to organizational strategy and collaborate across departments to advance City Year's mission and strategic priorities.

Requirements

Experience leading major giving campaigns and success securing fundraising from multiple local donor markets with established relationships (corporate, foundation, and major gift solicitation and cultivation).
Comparable experience will be considered.
Ability to align City Year’s mission and vision through a diverse, inclusive, and equitable lens.
Experience in planning, leading, and managing development projects.
Attention to detail and ability to manage multiple deadlines.
Takes initiative and actively seeks to deepen current donor relationships and to forge new ones.
Self-motivated, proactive, and able to work independently.
Skilled in creating compelling written and oral communications for fundraising ask.
Ability to convey complex ideas through brief, simple materials.
Experience and credibility when presenting materials to internal and external audiences of varying levels of seniority.
Gets others to accept ideas by using convincing arguments, creates a win-win situation and responds appropriately to key stakeholders.
Skilled at cultivating meaningful relationships that result in securing both monetary and in-kind multi-year support.
Knowledge, understanding and relationships with the Milwaukee donor community, strongly preferred.
Ability to build and lead a diverse team to meet individual, team and site goals.
Experience managing and coaching staff through interpersonal and professional development.
Direct experience with Development/Fundraising; advanced degrees considered.
Experience serving and advocating for under-resourced populations, preferably in an educational setting.

Nice To Haves

Entrepreneurial Spirit

Responsibilities

Leverage and enhance the site’s existing Development plan to implement a strategic and diversified fundraising plan that meets the current goal of raising $2.4M from the private sector and anticipates future needs and growth objectives.
Develop, implement, and monitor short- and long-term fundraising strategies aligned with the organization’s multi-year site plan, translating organizational vision and programmatic priorities into actionable, multi-year plans that support sustainable growth and measurable impact.
Develop and execute a tailored fundraising and engagement strategy for the Executive Director’s portfolio, ensuring effective cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of high-priority donors and prospects.
Collaborate with leadership to translate organizational vision into actionable fundraising initiatives, ensuring sustainability, scalability, and measurable impact over time.
Develop strategies to identify new individual supporters, fully leverage existing relationships, increase multi-year commitments, and maintain or elevate current commitments.
Develop strategies to identify and secure partnerships with corporations and foundations that reflect their marketing and business needs as well as philanthropic and community engagement goals.
Implement a high-quality stewardship program that engages, recognizes, and thanks supporters to strengthen their relationship with the organization.
Hire, lead, and retain a team of 2-4 development professionals.
Directly supervise the Director of Corporate and Foundations Partnerships and the Manager of Development Operations and Grants.
Support ongoing coaching, career growth, and professional development for department staff.
Build meaningful relationships that result in securing both monetary and in-kind multi-year support for City Year Detroit.
Oversee and support Corporate Partnerships and Major Gifts Development fundraising efforts.
Serve as a visible ambassador for City Year Detroit by building and strengthening relationships with community leaders, partners, and prospective donors to increase awareness of, engagement with, and investment in the organization's mission and impact.
Maintain oversight over all fundraising activities including major giving, grants, special events, direct mail appeals, corporate partnership initiatives.
Manage relationships and communication with current corporate and foundation funders.
Manage the identification and cultivation of new corporate and foundation partnerships, as well as the grant proposal and reporting processes for corporate, foundation and government funders.
Develop successful identification, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship strategies to direct and monitor the progress of current and future donor relationships.
Ensure a disparate and sustainable site donor base.
Build and manage a portfolio consisting of donors and prospects with $25,000+ capacity for giving, and a focus on prospects capable of giving $100,000+.
Cultivate, solicit, and close annual, major gift and multi-year contributions.
Achieve 75 meaningful contacts with portfolio prospects annually and make 50 intentional asks.
Document and maintain clear and timely records and call reports to track contacts, donor giving, and notes in the Salesforce database.
Engage the Board to meet critical financial and advocacy goals for the organization.
Participate in Board of Directors meetings and prepare monthly, quarterly and annual reports as requested by the Executive Director and Board.
Serve as primary relationship manager for Development Committee or Development focused board members.
Provide regular updates and maintain engagement (both financially and otherwise) to ensure Board retention and satisfaction.
Oversee the execution and strategy of the associate board and alumni board to support site fundraising efforts and strategic initiatives.
Drive strategies to leverage large-scale fundraising events, including our annual Red Jacket Gala as well as smaller events to thoughtfully engage donor communities.
Drive the strategy around how to leverage our Civic Engagement efforts to create fundraising and service opportunities for corporate partnerships and individual donors.
Craft communication on behalf of others with keen awareness of audience and impact.
Manage and execute compelling communication tools that drive people to support and champion City Year Detroit, including press releases, media advisories, social media communication and marketing events.
Communicate with both internal and external audiences of varying levels of seniority.
Support development business processes from donor identification through to stewardship, ensuring accurate maintenance of records and donor information in the Salesforce database.
Direct monthly pipeline meetings with the Development team and Executive Director to provide updated revenue figures, pipeline reports, and progress towards monthly/quarterly goals.
Identify areas for operational improvements and drive continual improvements of processes.
Act as a key advisor to the Executive Director and senior leadership in aligning fundraising strategy with the organization’s multi-year site plan, ensuring that philanthropic investments directly support long-term programmatic growth, expansion, and sustainability.
Help shape organizational strategy and play a leadership role in implementing the site’s local operating plan as a member of the Executive Leadership Team.
Work collaboratively with other site departments and City Year’s national and regional staff.
Represent, respect, and role-model City Year’s organizational culture and values internally as a member of the site Senior Leadership Team, and externally as a primary representative of the organization.
Actively contribute as a leadership team member.
Partner with all departments through site events, projects, and cross-departmental committees as needed to ensure site-wide goals are met.