Upstream USA Vice President of Development & External Affairs Strategy & Operations

Positively Partners•Attleboro, MA

29d•$230,000 - $250,000•Remote

About The Position

The Vice President of Development and External Affairs Strategy and Operations provides strategic and operational leadership for Upstream’s Development and External Affairs department, ensuring the systems, planning processes, and team coordination required to achieve Upstream’s ambitious revenue goals and to steward a growing network of stakeholders. The VP leads the operating strategy for the Development & External Affairs team, including annual operating planning, prioritization and resourcing decisions, top donor engagement strategy integration, development of the team’s service menu, performance standards, training and capability building, and the establishment of the team’s operating cadence. In this role, the VP ensures that fundraising activities, investor engagement, and cross team coordination are strategically aligned, effectively integrated, and executed through streamlined systems and processes to enable the team to execute high-quality, high touch donor engagement at scale. The VP leads a team of 8, including 4 direct reports, and provides management and oversight for several core functions within Development and External Affairs, including systems & operations, donor and stakeholder communications, major and annual giving, and external affairs teams. This role does not manage an individual donor portfolio and does not carry personal revenue targets. Rather, the VP is accountable for building and running the operating infrastructure, planning, and team capability that enable Upstream's frontline fundraisers and executives to achieve the organization's revenue goals.

Requirements

12-15+ years of progressive experience in development, external affairs, revenue strategy, or a closely related field, including demonstrated success as a senior operating leader responsible for enterprise-level strategy, systems, planning, performance management, and cross-team coordination (beyond individual fundraising).
Experience on a development team that has secured eight- or nine-figure (transformational) gifts, with a demonstrated understanding of what excellent transformational donor stewardship, engagement, and operational support require.
Proven experience designing and overseeing investor relations, external affairs and major gifts strategies through teams, including portfolio design, resourcing models, and accountability frameworks.
Strong track record of leading and developing senior leaders across multiple development-adjacent functions, such as operations, fundraising, external affairs, communications, content, and training.
Demonstrated experience partnering closely with C-suite leaders and boards, including preparing executives for high-stakes donor and investor engagements, managing executive deployment, and elevating executive effectiveness in fundraising contexts.
Demonstrated ability to operate as a buffer and integrator, absorbing complexity, resolving tensions, and protecting executive and frontline capacity while exercising day-to-day decision-making authority aligned with executive leadership.
Exceptional executive presence, credibility, and judgment, with the ability to coach and enable executives and senior staff to communicate confidently and persuasively with ultra-high-net-worth donors and investors.
Experience building or overseeing training, enablement, and content systems that strengthen executive presence, donor communications, and narrative consistency across the organization.
Deep understanding of fundraising operating models, including CRM systems, analytics, portfolio management, reporting, planning cycles, and functional budgets.
Demonstrated ability to set and manage KPIs, goals, and performance frameworks tied to ambitious revenue targets.
Proven ability to evaluate strategic tradeoffs, allocate limited resources, and make prioritization decisions in fast-moving, high-expectation environments.
Demonstrated ability to remain focused, adaptable, and solution-oriented in the face of challenges, setbacks, or ambiguity. Approaching obstacles with a growth mindset and maintaining a steady commitment to goals, even under pressure or changing circumstances; resilience.
While Upstream is a remotely based organization, they maintain an on-camera culture during meetings to support connection, engagement, teaming and collaboration. Must be comfortable and able to participate in this environment.
Upstream fosters a mission-oriented workplace and welcomes applicants of all backgrounds. The ideal candidate upholds our mission of accessible, patient-centered contraceptive care, builds trust through empathy and honesty, and contributes to a collaborative culture. They bring enthusiasm to their work, creating opportunities for connection and celebration.

Responsibilities

Represent Development and External Affairs in key internal leadership forums and cross-organizational planning sessions, ensuring donor and investor insights inform organizational decisions and communicating enterprise priorities back to the Development & External Affairs team.
Serve as the strategic integrator between the Transformational (investor engagement and prospecting) team and other Upstream teams and leadership bodies, ensuring fundraising priorities are aligned with and informed by organizational strategy and programmatic work.
Serve as the primary operational leader for the team’s development, external affairs, board governance, and executive support functions, with end-to-end accountability for systems, workflows, team coordination, and execution across Development & External Affairs functions.
Act as the day-to-day operational decision maker for Development and External Affairs resourcing, prioritization, executive engagement strategy, training, communications and core operating processes, resolving tradeoffs and escalations to ensure effective execution and protect the CDEAO’s focus on enterprise leadership and high value fundraising.
Establish and lead the operating rhythm for the Development & External Affairs function, including planning cycles, portfolio management infrastructure, progress monitoring, and team forums that support alignment and execution.
Oversees Development and External Affairs team’s systems and operations, including CRM, analytics, reporting, planning cycles, and portfolio management infrastructure.
Provides strategic oversight, development, and accountability for the Development and External Affairs budget in partnership with Finance.
Lead, develop, and build the capability of a team of 8, including 4 direct reports, across development operations, communications, giving, and external affairs functions.
Lead the development and recommendation of Development and External Affairs’ annual operating plan, goals and KPIs across the transformational team (prospecting and investor relations) as well major donors and external affairs; align these with overall organizational objectives. Track progress toward goals and recommend adjustments in strategy in order to meet revenue targets.
Define and operationalize a comprehensive service menu for the Portfolio Team, ensuring consistent and high-quality engagement of top donors.
Evaluate strategic options for engagement and prospecting approaches ensuring an optimal balance of proactive and opportunistic approaches.
In close partnership with team leads, determine the optimal resourcing to achieve these strategies including job buckets, accountabilities, portfolio size metrics, and portfolio assignments
Oversee operational prioritization and planning to ensure that investor engagement touchpoints, prospecting efforts, executive travel as well as team and cross-team meetings, are coordinated, strategically aligned, and well-executed.
Recommend and oversee training and professional development for the Portfolio Team and others involved in transformational fundraising to prepare staff and operationalize top-tier, high touch, white glove transformational donor engagement.
Ensure the portfolio team and internal staff develop and demonstrate top-tier donor communications and engagement capabilities, and have the tools, content, and executive presence required to confidently speak to investors and donors about organizational strategy, programmatic approaches and impact, investor motivations and philanthropic narratives.
Oversee development and deployment of cross-portfolio and segmented donor-facing communications materials, ensuring exceptional quality, consistency in voice, clarity in message, and alignment with strategic priorities, reflecting the standards expected of an elite transformational fundraising team.
Liaise with other teams required to support training and donor communications: Marketing & Communications, Strategy, Regions, Growth, and Digital.
Oversee and approve the integrated engagement plan for Upstream’s top investors, developed by the Senior Director of Investor Relations, ensuring coordinated deployment of the CEO and CDEAO for high impact engagement opportunities.
Work closely with the External Affairs Officer to develop communication strategies to keep this broad audience warm, informed, and inspired, balancing proactive outreach with meaningful, mission-aligned touchpoints.
Provide leadership and oversight for the organization’s annual and major donor strategy, ensuring alignment with broader fundraising goals, and ensuring that relationship ownership and execution are clearly assigned and consistently managed by the appropriate team members.
Help determine the cross-functional relationship management structures enterprise-wide.
Additional duties and projects as assigned