Chief Relationship Officer

About Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT): The mission of CFT is to improve the lives of all people in our community by investing in their health, wealth, living, and learning. CFT works to accomplish this by growing community giving, expanding community impact, and advancing community equity. With a vision of building thriving communities for all, CFT works locally and across the state with individuals, families, companies, foundations, and nonprofits through charitable funds and strategic grantmaking initiatives. CFT professionally manages more than 1,400 charitable funds and has awarded more than $3 billion in grants since its founding in 1953. CFT powers initiatives including the W. W. Caruth, Jr. Fund, the Center for Business Impact, Educate Texas, Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy, GiveWisely, and North Texas Giving Day, which raised over $78 million in 2025 for more than 3,500 nonprofits.

About the role

The Chief Relationship Officer (CRO) is a senior enterprise leader responsible for advancing CFT’s mission by strengthening external relationships and translating those relationships into greater community giving, deeper donor engagement, and expanded impact. Reporting to the President and CEO, the CRO leads the Relationships department, including Donor Relations, Donor Services, and the Center for Business Impact, ensuring these functions operate as an integrated, high-performing team. The CRO builds strategies, systems, and partnerships that serve donors and fund holders exceptionally well, cultivate prospective donors and professional advisors, and align relationship-driven growth with CFT’s broader strategic priorities.

Responsibilities

• Lead an organization-wide strategy to grow community giving, expand the donor and prospect pipeline, deepen fund holder engagement, and increase gifts, new funds, planned giving commitments, and other charitable opportunities aligned with CFT’s mission.
• Build consistent practices for understanding donor goals, family dynamics, philanthropic interests, and long-term charitable intent, including legacy planning, complex gifts, multigenerational giving, and customized giving opportunities.
• Strengthen relationships with attorneys, financial advisors, estate planners, accountants, and other trusted advisors so CFT is viewed as a preferred partner for charitable planning and giving solutions.
• Lead cultivation strategies for high-net-worth individuals and families, including prospect identification, relationship mapping, tailored engagement plans, and collaboration with legal, finance, investment, and program colleagues.
• Connect donors and prospects with timely information about community needs, strategic initiatives, nonprofit partners, funding opportunities, and philanthropic approaches aligned with their interests.
• Ensure responsive, consistent, high-quality service to donors and fund holders, with clear standards for stewardship, issue resolution, communication, grantmaking support, and relationship management.
• Support the Center for Business Impact in cultivating companies, developing business giving strategies, employee engagement opportunities, corporate philanthropy solutions, and related offerings.
• Leverage North Texas Giving Day as a relationship-building platform for donors, prospective fund holders, nonprofit discovery, employee giving campaigns, and business engagement.
• Partner with Marketing and Communications to ensure donor, advisor, business, and prospect communications are coordinated, compelling, mission-aligned, and reflective of CFT’s value proposition.
• Strengthen the use of Salesforce and related systems to organize relationship data, track pipeline activity, measure progress, support reporting, and guide staff accountability and leadership decision-making.
• Lead, coach, and develop the Relationships department by setting clear goals and performance measures, fostering collaboration, strengthening staff capability, and building a culture of service, trust, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Serve on the Executive Leadership Committee, contribute to enterprise-wide strategy, represent donor and partner insights, promote cross-functional alignment, and represent CFT credibly with donors, advisors, businesses, nonprofit and civic leaders, and community partners.

What success looks like

• Champion CFT's clear, coordinated relationship strategy that connects donor relations, donor services, advisor engagement, business partnerships, and community impact priorities.
• The donor and prospect pipeline is actively managed, with measurable progress in new funds, major gifts, planned giving commitments, business relationships, and other charitable opportunities.
• Donors, fund holders, families, and professional advisors experience CFT as responsive, knowledgeable, strategic, and easy to work with.
• The Relationships department operates as an aligned, high-performing team with clear goals, consistent practices, strong collaboration, and shared accountability for results.
• Salesforce and related systems provide reliable, actionable information that supports relationship management, pipeline tracking, reporting, and leadership decision-making.
• CFT’s external positioning with donors, businesses, professional advisors, and community partners is strengthened through coordinated communication, thoughtful engagement, and visible relationship leadership.
• Provide meaningful contributions as an executive leader by bringing external relationship insights into organizational strategy and helping align CFT’s people, systems, and priorities around mission-driven growth.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required; graduate degree in business, nonprofit management, philanthropy, public administration, law, finance, or a related field preferred.
• At least ten years of progressively responsible experience in relationship management, donor engagement, business development, fund development, professional services, philanthropy, or a comparable goal-oriented environment.
• Demonstrated success building and managing prospect pipelines, cultivating complex relationships, and converting relationships into significant gifts, business opportunities, organizational growth, or community impact.
• Strong understanding of charitable giving vehicles, donor-advised funds, planned giving, complex gifts, philanthropic motivations, and the needs of high-net-worth individuals, families, businesses, and professional advisors.
• Experience with community foundations, public charities, family offices, financial institutions, professional advisory firms, or other mission-driven organizations preferred.
• Proven ability to lead high-performing teams, set clear expectations, build accountability, develop talent, and foster cross-functional collaboration.
• Executive presence, sound judgment, and exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to represent CFT credibly with varied internal and external audiences.
• High degree of integrity, discretion, emotional intelligence, and judgment in handling confidential information, sensitive donor matters, complex relationships, and strategic priorities.
• Comfort using data, Salesforce or other relationship management systems, and reporting tools to track pipeline activity, measure progress, guide decisions, and support accountability.
• Familiarity with compliance, governance, grantmaking, and operational considerations relevant to community foundations or nonprofit organizations preferred.
• Willingness and ability to travel moderately and attend occasional evening or community events as needed.
• Ability to model CFT’s core competencies of Communication, Collaboration, and Trust, as well as leadership competencies including Leadership, People Management, Developing and Retaining Talent, and Team Building.