Development Director

About GO Foundation

The mission of the Great Oaks (GO) Foundation is to provide students with access to a quality education through high-dosage tutoring. We recruit, train, and support a corps of young adults who are placed in partner schools where they intensively tutor students as a part of a year of service through the federal AmeriCorps program. We call our tutors “Fellows” to encompass the several roles they play to instruct, mentor, and develop the students with whom they are matched. In the 2024-25 school year, Fellows will be serving over 4,000 students in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Washington, DC.

To learn more about the organization: https://gofellows.org/ 

Position Summary

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, the Development Director will spearhead development efforts as the GO Foundation scales up to serve 7,500 students across seven regions in the next three years. A new position in the organization, the Development Director will have the opportunity to build out the development function and play a key role in diversifying the organization’s revenue streams. 

Key Responsibilities

• Strategy: Work with GO’s leadership team and Board to identify funds needed, preferred funding targets, and approaches.
• Fundraising: Conduct research, prospecting, cultivation, and application to multiple donor sources to secure financial support from individuals, foundations and corporations. Create and execute a strategy for a large sustained base of annual individual donors.
• Development Infrastructure: Supervise development staffer. Manage the implementation of Salesforce and oversee staff responsible for data entry and gift processing. Develop and track proposals and reports for all foundation and corporate fundraising.
• Events: Oversee organization of special events.

Must Have:

• 7+ years of professional experience, including 4+ years in a development role
• Proven success fundraising from multiple donor channels, including foundations and major donors
• Experience in planning, leading, and managing development projects, including coordinating with peers to achieve desired outcomes, and tracking and reporting on progress to senior leaders/board of directors/funders
• Takes initiative and actively seeks to deepen current donor relationships and to forge new ones
• Skilled in creating powerful, compelling written and oral communications; able to convey complex ideas through brief, simple materials. Experience and credibility when presenting materials to external audiences
• Skilled at establishing and cultivating strong relationships with peers, across different levels of the organization and externally
• Awareness of and comfort with issues of diversity, specifically around race, class, sexuality and gender; ability to engage in and facilitate discussion about diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The Development Director reports to the Chief Operating Officer. 

Location

• You must live within one of the states where GO Fellows are serving (CT, NY, NJ, DC, MA).
• GO Foundation staff work from home most days, but you will need to be able to work in-person at least 1 day per month. The GO Foundation covers the cost of work-related travel.

Compensation

• Annual salary range for this role is $115,000-130,000

Benefits

• Unlimited Paid Time Off
• Health insurance
• 403B Retirement Plan
• Flexible spending account
• Vision insurance
• Dental insurance
• Health savings account
• Life insurance
• Parental Leave