Chief Development Officer (CDO)

The National Skills Coalition (NSC) is seeking a Chief Development Officer (CDO) who will serve as an executive leader responsible for driving organizational growth and aligning development strategies with NSC's long-term objectives. This is a remote position with a competitive salary and benefits. The CDO is responsible for overseeing donor engagement, managing the development team, ensuring effective donor database management, and leading special campaigns. This role involves working closely with the CEO, Director of Institutional Giving, and executive team to cultivate relationships with major donors, corporate partners, and foundations to secure sustained support for NSC’s mission, while also collaborating on sponsorship strategies and marketing efforts. The CDO oversees donor engagement, manages the development team, ensures effective donor database management and leads special campaigns. This position focuses on financial sustainability, innovative fundraising, and building long-term relationships to enhance NSC’s impact.

Key Responsibilities :

Strategic Leadership

Serve as a key member of NSC’s executive leadership team, contributing to overall strategy and organizational growth.

Align development goals with NSC’s strategic objectives, ensuring that fundraising efforts support annual revenue goals, increased capacity, and long-term sustainability.

Fundraising Strategy and Innovation

Work with executive team and Director of Institutional Giving to develop and execute a comprehensive multi-year, multi-phased fundraising plan—rooted in an overarching fundraising framework—that drives growth through diverse revenue streams, including individual giving, corporate partnerships, and foundation grants.

Drive innovative approaches to increase unrestricted funding, strengthen financial flexibility, and diversify revenue streams by exploring and implementing new funding sources and revenue-generating approaches such as fee-for-service and membership models, online fundraising, fundraising events, grassroots fundraising strategies (such as crowdfunding), and government fundraising in alignment with NSC’s mission.

Donor Engagement and Stewardship

Collaborate with the CEO, Director of Institutional Giving, and Chief Strategy Officer to cultivate and steward relationships with foundations, corporate partners, major donors, and other funders, ensuring strong, sustainable support through personalized stewardship and long-term engagement.

Work with the CEO, executive team, and Director of Institutional Giving to assess existing fundraising practices to identify strengths, risks, and areas for improvement, ensuring alignment with best practices and funder expectations, while recommending enhancements to strengthen relationships and mitigate challenges.

Team Leadership and Development

Lead and manage the development team, fostering a culture of accountability, incentives, innovation, and professional growth—ensuring they are equipped to meet their targets and contribute to NSC’s fundraising success.

Assess the current team structure and capacity, making recommendations to scale and adjust as necessary to meet revenue goals—both annually and in the long term.

Operations and Financial Management

In collaboration with the Director of Institutional Giving, oversee the management of donor databases and fundraising systems to ensure efficient operations, accurate tracking of donor interactions and giving history, and data-driven decision-making, enabling timely follow-up and strategic outreach.

Provide accurate, timely fundraising reports to the CEO, executive team, Board, and funders (as appropriate) by analyzing data, measuring campaign success, and informing strategy adjustments, while collaborating with the Chief of Staff to create an evaluation plan and KPI monitoring tool specific to fundraising.

Qualifications:

Minimum 10 to 15 years of relevant management experience in a nonprofit organization, preferably in the workforce development and educations fields or those adjacent to NSC’s mission.

Proven success in developing and executing multi-year, diversified fundraising strategies, including individual giving, corporate partnerships, and foundation grants, among other approaches.

Ability to align fundraising strategies with organizational goals, ensuring long-term sustainability and growth.