Director of Development (Paterson)
Reports to: CEO Exempt Salary Range: 100K-120K Director of Development Position Summary The Director of Development is a senior leadership position responsible for leading the day-to-day operations, systems, communications infrastructure, and execution framework of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Paterson and Passaic resource development function. The Director serves as the systems architect and operating leader of the Development Department, ensuring fundraising priorities are translated into workplans, calendars, assignments, accountability systems, donor engagement strategies, communications campaigns, grant processes, events, and measurable outcomes. The role combines development leadership with strategic communications focused primarily on fundraising, donor engagement, community visibility, corporate relationships, philanthropic positioning, and external storytelling. The Director works closely with the CEO to translate organizational priorities into a disciplined, coordinated, and sustainable development operation. Core Responsibilities Development Department Leadership & Systems • Lead the day-to-day operating framework of the Development Department and maintain the annual development workplan, fundraising calendar, grants matrix, stewardship calendar, campaign workplans, and department dashboards. • Establish weekly and monthly priorities, assignments, deadlines, and accountability measures; lead regular department meetings and document next steps and ownership. • Build and maintain standard operating procedures for prospect management, donor cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, renewals, campaigns, events, grants, and development communications. • Own the effectiveness and integrity of development technology and donor databases, including standards for records, segmentation, coding, gift acknowledgment, stewardship, and reporting. • Partner with Finance to strengthen reconciliation of gifts, pledges, restricted funds, grants, sponsorships, and other contributed revenue. Fundraising, Donor & Corporate Engagement • Partner with the CEO and development leadership to execute annual contributed-revenue goals across individual giving, major gifts, corporate partnerships, foundations, grants, campaigns, events, monthly giving, and other philanthropic revenue. • Maintain the active prospect and solicitation pipeline, track donor movement from identification through stewardship, and ensure timely next steps after meetings, introductions, proposals, and events. • Manage an assigned portfolio of individual, corporate, foundation, and community relationships and participate directly in cultivation, presentations, donor meetings, and solicitations. • Coordinate CEO and board donor engagement by preparing background information, meeting objectives, briefing materials, solicitation strategy, and follow-up. • Develop corporate sponsorship and partnership opportunities and represent the organization professionally in community, civic, corporate, and philanthropic settings. Development-Centered Communications • Lead an annual communications strategy aligned with the development plan and focused on donor engagement, fundraising, organizational storytelling, corporate partnerships, external affairs, and mission advancement. • Develop campaign messaging, annual appeals, cases for support, sponsorship materials, donor correspondence, impact reports, e-newsletters, social media storytelling, web content, and other development collateral. • Create a reliable internal process through which Programs and Operations provide stories, photos, outcomes, attendance information, testimonials, and other information suitable for donor-facing communications. • Maintain consistency in organizational messaging, brand, voice, and visual identity across external and development communications. • Support executive leadership with external messages related to fundraising, major organizational initiatives, community partnerships, and public-facing priorities. Grants, Events & Cross-Department Integration • Maintain a comprehensive grants calendar and pipeline, coordinate submissions and reporting requirements, and ensure responsible parties receive needed information within established timelines. • Coordinate foundation stewardship, site visits, and reporting while working with Finance on restricted awards, reimbursement requirements, and grant revenue tracking. • Provide strategic oversight of fundraising and cultivation events, including revenue goals, sponsorship strategy, donor experience, messaging, workplans, and post-event follow-up; logistical execution may be delegated to planners, vendors, staff, or support resources. • Establish regular communication pathways among Development, Programs, Finance, Operations, Human Resources, and executive leadership to reduce fragmented communication and last-minute requests. Trauma-Informed & Human-Centered Leadership · Model a trauma-informed, human-centered leadership approach that promotes psychological and emotional safety, dignity, respect, consistency, and trust across the Development Department and organization. · Lead with calm, professional, and respectful communication, particularly during periods of high pressure, competing deadlines, disagreement, organizational change, or frustration. · Approach challenges with curiosity and problem-solving rather than blame, recognizing that effective leadership requires understanding context while maintaining clear expectations and accountability. · Provide direct, constructive feedback without shaming, escalating, or creating unnecessary conflict, and create opportunities for employees to ask questions, clarify expectations, and learn from mistakes. · Maintain appropriate professional boundaries and avoid triangulation, gossip, or communication that places employees or departments against one another. When concerns arise, address them directly with the appropriate individual or leadership structure. · Recognize that trauma-informed leadership does not remove accountability. The Director is expected to balance empathy and understanding with clear expectations, timely follow-through, performance management, and responsibility for results. · Demonstrate self-awareness and emotional regulation, including the ability to remain composed when an immediate solution is not available and to communicate next steps transparently. Leadership Authority & Scope Within the strategic direction established by the CEO, the Director has authority to establish department workflows, calendars, meeting cadence, project-management systems, donor stewardship standards, database procedures, communications schedules, grant-management processes, event workplans, dashboards, internal deadlines, and standard operating procedures. The CEO establishes organizational strategy, major institutional priorities, and executive-level relationship strategy; the Director ensures those priorities are operationalized, organized, assigned, measured, and executed. The Director may supervise development and communications staff, coordinators, consultants, grant writers, event planners, vendors, interns, and other support resources as assigned. The Director is not expected to personally perform every fundraising, communications, event, grant, database, or administrative task; the expectation is to build and lead the system through which those functions are successfully executed. Performance Expectations & Key Indicators • Build a disciplined and sustainable development operating infrastructure that supports consistent execution and institutional continuity. • Achieve annual contributed-revenue goals and increase fundraising capacity across individual, major-gift, corporate, foundation, grant, campaign, and event revenue streams. • Improve donor retention, acquisition, stewardship, reactivation, and the quality of the active solicitation pipeline. • Ensure timely donor acknowledgments, grant submissions and reports, Development-to-Finance reconciliation, monthly dashboards, and department workplans. • Strengthen development-centered communications, corporate and community relationships, fundraising event performance, and personal effectiveness in donor cultivation and solicitation. Qualifications • Significant professional experience in nonprofit development, communications, fundraising, external affairs, marketing, donor engagement, or a related field. • Demonstrated ability to manage complex projects, build systems, establish workflows, and hold multiple priorities and contributors accountable. • Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to translate organizational impact into compelling donor-facing communications. • Experience with donors, corporations, foundations, community partners, fundraising campaigns, events, grants, and/or direct solicitation strongly preferred. • Experience with donor databases, CRM systems, email marketing platforms, social media, and related development technology; Blackbaud/eTapestry experience preferred. • Ability to work effectively with executive leadership, staff, board members, donors, volunteers, consultants, and exter
