Director of Development

Primary Responsibilities

• Develop and implement an annual development plan with clear goals for major gifts, annual giving, recurring giving, donor retention, new donor acquisition, and campaign readiness.
• Supervise the part-time development assistant and ensure timely execution of donor records, acknowledgments, mailings, reporting, and follow-up tasks.
• Identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward major donors and prospective major donors.
• Manage a portfolio of current and prospective donors capable of significant annual, campaign, endowment, or planned gifts.
• Collaborate with the President on donor strategy, including shared donor visits, briefing materials, proposals, meeting notes, and follow-up.
• Collaborate with the entire staff to integrate development into FFE’s overall workflow.
• Maintain excellent systems for gift acknowledgment, donor recognition, pledge reminders, and stewardship touchpoints.
• Lead development preparation for a major campaign within approximately three years.
• Oversee the donor database and ensure accurate donor records, gift histories, pledges, restrictions, segmentation, and prospect tracking.
• Use Moves Management to track cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship activity.

Qualifications

• At least five years of development experience, preferably including major gifts, annual giving, donor communications, campaign preparation, or nonprofit advancement.
• Demonstrated ability to cultivate donor relationships and participate in gift solicitation.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Able to lead and execute in a small organization.
• Commitment to Christian mission and respect for the Wesleyan/Methodist tradition.
• Bachelor’s degree, graduate education or certificate(s) in development, leadership, business, or related fields.

Preferred Experience

• Experience with Christian nonprofits, theological education, denominations, seminaries, foundations, or church-related institutions, especially within the Wesleyan tradition.
• Experience preparing an organization for a capital, endowment, or comprehensive campaign.
• Experience growing recurring giving, broad-based annual giving, or mid-level donor programs.
• Experience working with a President/Director, board members, and high-capacity donors.
• Experience in a supervising role.