Posted on July 13, 2012

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Director of Development

The Partnership for Inner-City Education (“The Partnership”) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support and enrich Catholic schools that provide low-income students with the academic preparation, values and skills they will need to be successful throughout their lives. For more than 20 years, the Partnership has worked with inner-city parochial schools in New York and has invested over $200 million in programs, resources, scholarships and capital projects. The Partnership appreciates that to help low-income children break the cycle of poverty, students need more than academic success, and these Catholic schools have a proven and multi-generation legacy of helping students move out of poverty by giving them a comprehensive education.

In recent years, Catholic schools in New York, as well as across the country, have experienced significant enrollment declines and many school closures. To help counter these trends, The Partnership has worked closely with its donors, principals and schools to ensure that funds are invested and programs and resources are managed wisely with measurable and sustained impact.

In recognition of The Partnership’s effective work with schools, the Archdiocese of New York has recently granted The Partnership preliminary approval to directly manage a network of inner-city, Catholic elementary schools—the first time an outside organization has been allowed to manage a set of schools. The Partnership will essentially become a school management organization, operating six schools that serve high-need populations of over 2,000 students in the South Bronx and upper Manhattan. The Partnership will assume management control of the schools in time for the 2013-2014 school year and is actively planning and building out its school management organization.

As The Partnership evolves in this important new direction, it will need to plan for and raise additional funds to support its estimated expenses of $10 million per year. Towards that end, The Partnership is seeking a new Director of Development who will be responsible for helping secure the significant incremental funding required.

The Position:

Specific Responsibilities:

• Provide leadership and direction for the design and implementation of an overall development and fundraising strategy for the Partnership and its schools, with input from the Executive Director and collaboration from schools
  
• Design and implement identification, solicitation, cultivation and stewardship strategies for major gift donors
  
• Develop a robust donor base by strengthening existing relationships with donors and foundations as well as cultivating new ones
  
• Develop creative strategies for identifying and engaging diverse constituencies critical to the organization’s fundraising goals
  
• Manage grant process and foundation relationships, including writing proposals and reports
  
• Together with the Executive Director, oversee the organization’s relationship to The Partnership’s Board of Trustees including event and meeting planning, communications and Trustee relationships
  
• Manage and develop school Boards of Overseers, in concert with schools, including recruiting board members
  
• Organize donor cultivation and fundraising events
  
• Ensure proper tracking and recording of extensive donor and giving history using Salesforce
  

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited four-year college or university; advanced degree preferred
  
• Proven success in development for a nonprofit both in terms of achieving revenue targets and cultivating donor and foundation relationships
  
• Minimum five years of relevant experience; 10 preferred
  
• Experience in asking for and closing major gifts, as well as building and maintaining long-term relationships with major individual donors, foundations and corporations
  
• Strong leadership ability, including management, strategic and analytical skills required
  
• Experience in event management including planning, execution and follow up.
  
• Credibility and experience presenting to senior executives
  
• Solid technical skills, including the ability to effectively manage databases and data
  
• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills with experience in development-related writing
  
• Excellent organizational skills with close attention to detail
  
• A self-starter and independent thinker with good judgment, sensitivity and common sense
  
• Ability to work well with peers and skilled at establishing relationships across different level of an organization and externally
  
• Enthusiastic, positive and goal–oriented
  
• Attention to detail coupled with the ability to think and act strategically
  
• Highly organized, flexible and self-directed
  
• Ability to work well as part of a small team in a fast paced, dynamic environment
  
• Committed to The Partnership’s mission to help low income students break the cycle of poverty
  

Application Instructions

The Partnership for Inner-City Education has retained the services of Harris Rand Lusk to conduct this search. Inquiries, nominations, and applications may be directed in confidence to:
Jack Lusk, Managing Partner
or
Anne McCarthy, Senior Director
Harris Rand Lusk
261 Madison Avenue, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10016
PartnershipICE@harrisrand.com