Development Director

About the role

The Development Director is a strategic fundraising leader responsible for growing Destiny’s philanthropic revenue, with a primary focus on contributed income, major gifts, individual giving, donor stewardship, and fundraising strategy. Reporting to the Executive Director and serving on the Leadership Team, the Development Director partners with staff, board members, donors, and community stakeholders to build relationships that inspire investment in Destiny’s mission.

Responsibilities

• Lead Destiny’s strategy to significantly grow individual philanthropy and unrestricted revenue.
• Develop and implement a comprehensive major-gifts and individual-giving strategy aligned with Destiny’s strategic plan.
• Personally grow and manage a portfolio of approximately 100-150 major donors and prospects.
• Identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward individual donors capable of leadership and major gifts.
• Develop individualized cultivation and solicitation strategies for high-capacity donors.
• Conduct regular donor meetings, site visits, stewardship activities, and solicitations.
• Partner closely with the Executive Director to cultivate, solicit, and steward major donors.
• Equip and support board members in donor cultivation and solicitation.
• Build a strong pipeline of new donors through prospect identification, referrals, networking, and community engagement.
• Grow donor retention, recurring giving, gift upgrades, and multi-year commitments; expand legacy and planned giving over time.
• Develop and execute an annual giving program that increases unrestricted support.
• Lead multi-channel annual campaigns: direct mail, email, digital appeals, giving days, and year-end.
• Develop donor segmentation to improve retention and increase average gift size.
• Oversee donor stewardship, recognition, and timely, meaningful acknowledgments and impact reporting.
• Collaborate with communications staff on donor-centered stories and fundraising materials.
• Design donor journeys that deepen engagement throughout the year.
• Serve as a strategic leader advancing Destiny’s long-term financial sustainability.
• Participate as a member of Destiny’s Leadership Team.
• Develop annual and multi-year fundraising plans with goals, benchmarks, and performance metrics.
• Monitor fundraising trends; diversify philanthropic revenue and reduce reliance on any single source.
• Build and champion a culture of philanthropy across staff, teaching artists, volunteers, and board.
• Staff the Marketing & Development Committee and partner with the ED on board fundraising.
• Attend the five annual board meetings (Sept, Nov, Jan, Mar, May) and the fall board retreat.
• Coach board members in donor identification, cultivation, stewardship, and solicitation.
• Prepare fundraising dashboards and reports for the Board of Directors.
• Support recruitment of prospective board members with philanthropic capacity and community connections.
• Provide strategic oversight and partnership for institutional fundraising.
• Ensure institutional strategies align with the foundation goals and overall priorities.
• Collaborate on prospecting and foundation, corporate, and government funding strategies.
• Support relationship-building with key institutional funders as appropriate.
• Create opportunities that strengthen donor relationships and convert attendees into year-round supporters.
• Lead the strategy for the annual Gala as well as donor cultivation and stewardship events.
• Develop sponsorship strategies and a renewal path that grows event revenue beyond target.
• Partner with consultants and volunteers to execute events; prime the fund-a-need and steward sponsors year-round.
• Represent Destiny at performances, community events, and donor gatherings across the Bay Area.
• Build systems that support effective fundraising.
• Oversee Salesforce donor-database management, reporting, and fundraising analytics.
• Ensure effective management systems and portfolio tracking.
• Ensure timely gift processing, acknowledgments, and stewardship.
• Continuously improve fundraising systems, policies, and operational effectiveness.
• Provide leadership, coaching, and professional development to development staff (that includes Manager of Institutional Giving, Development & Finance Manager and Development & Finance Associate).
• Supervise the Manager of Institutional Giving and the Development & Finance Manager.
• Conduct regular supervision, annual performance evaluations, and professional-development planning.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performing team culture with clear goals and accountability.
• Promote cross-department collaboration to strengthen fundraising and storytelling.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Five to eight years of progressively responsible fundraising experience.
• Demonstrated success securing and stewarding major gifts.
• Experience managing a donor portfolio using moves-management best practices.
• Experience partnering with executive leadership and nonprofit boards.
• Experience supervising fundraising staff.
• Proficiency with Salesforce (or comparable CRM) and fundraising analytics.
• Strong project-management and organizational skills.
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Demonstrated commitment to equity, inclusion, youth development, and community-centered leadership.