Chief Development Officer

About the role

Creative Action is a nationally recognized youth arts education organization in Austin, Texas. Through school-based, after-school, teen, and community programs, we use the arts to build community and foster Creative Artists, Critical Thinkers, Confident Leaders, and Courageous Allies.

The Chief Development Officer (CDO) reports to the Executive Director and serves on the senior leadership team. The CDO will lead a comprehensive development program, grow philanthropic support, strengthen donor relationships and fundraising systems, and build an organization-wide culture of philanthropy. The role combines strategic leadership with active fundraising—personally cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding major donors while leading the development team and engaging the Board as fundraising partners. The CDO will collaborate closely with the Capital Campaign Director and Executive Director to coordinate donor strategy, prospect assignments, communications, and stewardship. The position is hybrid, requiring the employee to be based in the Austin metropolitan area.

Responsibilities

• Develop and lead annual and multi-year fundraising strategies across major gifts, annual giving, institutional support, corporate partnerships, special events, planned giving, and other philanthropic opportunities.
• Build and actively manage a portfolio of major donors and prospects, personally leading cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of significant gifts.
• Set clear revenue goals, forecasts, metrics, and accountability practices; use results and donor data to strengthen performance, retention, and the prospect pipeline.
• Partner with the Executive Director on funding priorities, donor strategy, and management of the Executive Director's portfolio.
• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing development team with clear roles, goals, and expectations.
• Engage and equip the Board of Directors and its development-related committee(s) as active fundraising partners, providing regular reports on progress, opportunities, and challenges.
• Represent Creative Action in the community and build relationships with donors, institutional partners, community leaders, and other stakeholders.
• Partner with Marketing and Communications to create compelling cases for support, donor communications, and stories of impact.
• Ensure effective development operations, including prospect and moves management, CRM and data integrity, gift tracking and acknowledgement, reporting, forecasting, and donor stewardship.
• Strengthen fundraising policies, systems, and cross-departmental practices that support collaboration, accountability, and informed decision-making.
• Coordinate closely with the Capital Campaign Director so annual, major-gift, institutional, and campaign fundraising efforts are integrated, donor relationships are managed thoughtfully, and campaign donors remain engaged with Creative Action over time.

Qualifications

• Seven or more years of progressive nonprofit fundraising experience, including significant leadership responsibility; experience in arts, education, youth development, or the cultural sector is preferred.
• Proven success securing significant individual gifts, growing a donor pipeline, and executing fundraising strategies across multiple revenue streams.
• Experience leading and developing teams and working effectively with executives, Board members, donors, volunteers, community leaders, and colleagues across an organization.
• Strong knowledge of donor cultivation and stewardship, prospect management, fundraising metrics, development operations, and CRM systems.
• Excellent relationship-building, communication, storytelling, writing, presentation, planning, and analytical skills.
• A strategic, proactive, collaborative, ethical, and adaptable leadership style, with emotional intelligence and sound judgment.
• Ability to attend occasional evening and weekend donor, program, community, and fundraising activities.

Benefits

Annual salary is $115,000–$135,000, commensurate with experience. Benefits include employer-subsidized health insurance; employer-paid basic life/AD&D and long-term disability insurance; virtual mental health and telehealth care; generous paid time off, including two organization-wide rejuvenation weeks; 12 weeks of paid parental leave; a 403(b) retirement plan; and a flexible/hybrid work environment.