Senior Director of Development, Midwest

About the Obama Foundation

At the Obama Foundation, we are guided by a core belief: that ordinary people working together can change history. Our mission is to inspire those people to take action, empower them to change their world for the better, and connect them so they can achieve more together than they can alone.

We were founded by community organizers, so when we seek change, we do it by bringing people together. 

That approach begins at home, on the South Side of Chicago, where we are building the Obama Presidential Center. The Center represents a historic opportunity for Chicago: a chance to build a world-class museum and public gathering space that celebrates our nation’s first African American President and First Lady, steps away from where he began his career, where she was raised, and where—together—they made their home. 

But that approach extends to all our work, whether it’s holding leadership training sessions in communities throughout the U.S., bringing local leaders together in countries around the world, working to support the global education of girls, or ensuring young men of color have pathways to opportunity.

As President Obama has said, “we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together.” So join us. 

For more information, please visit www.obama.org.

Purpose of the Role

The Senior Director of Development, Midwest will design and execute a strategic fundraising program for the region to meet short-term goals and set the Foundation up for long term sustainability. This person will cultivate and steward a small portfolio of critical seven- and eight-figure relationships, and will manage and grow the region’s team of high-caliber fundraisers who are responsible for aggressively expanding the prospect pipeline. This person will work closely with select Board members and volunteers, Foundation leadership, and other principals from the Obama network to cultivate, solicit and steward key prospects. Reporting directly to the Vice President of Development, the Senior Director will be part of a core group of senior leaders across the frontline team who are developing and executing a comprehensive fundraising strategy at a critical moment in our fundraising campaign. This is an ideal opportunity for a proven, fearless, creative, and values-driven nonprofit leader with management experience who’s highly motivated to work collaboratively in pursuit of big goals.

Core Job Responsibilities

• Leadership: Partner with the VP of Development to develop, implement, execute and evaluate long-term goals and strategies in your region. Establish supportive and cooperative working relationships with other Senior Directors to share best practices, new ideas, and collaborate on donor cultivation when needed.
• Portfolio Strategy & Management: Create and lead the strategy for a portfolio of annual, major, and principal gift prospects for your region. Manage your own portfolio of 50+ seven- to eight-figure prospects and develop customized cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship plans for each.
• Volunteer Engagement: Develop strong partnerships with select Board members and members of the Board’s Development Committee to provide support for their fundraising efforts in the region. Partner with the Chicago Committee, a small group of philanthropic leaders responsible for growing support for the Chicago Campaign.
• Coaching and Management: Manage and develop at least three fundraising professionals. Provide guidance and strategic counsel to help advance their portfolios.
• Key Donor Management: Collaborate with the Foundation’s CEO, President and Obama network surrogates to cultivate, solicit and steward select high-capacity donors, including support for meeting preparation and follow up.
• Philanthropy Stewardship: Represent the Development team in external settings (conferences and gatherings) and partner with other teams across the Foundation to help advance a culture of philanthropy.
• Operating Effectiveness: Build a culture of Salesforce utilization to track and evaluate the team’s key metrics, and use meaningful data to continually improve practices and inform decisions.
• Fundraising Collateral: Ensure the timely creation and distribution of fundraising/stewardship materials, collateral and briefings, and highly personalized proposals with support from the Development Donor Relations team.
• Other duties as assigned.

Key Deliverables / Outcomes

• Meet fundraising targets and other key metrics.
• Regional prospect portfolio strategy and annual cadence of fundraising activities.
• Expanded prospect pipeline.
• Prospect stewardship and engagement plans.
• Fundraising/stewardship materials, collateral and briefings, and highly personalized proposals.
• Regional development events.

Required Qualifications

• Extensive professional fundraising experience, with expertise in principal and major gift cultivation and solicitation.
• Ideal candidate has experience leading an aggressive fundraising program during a capital and/or endowment campaign at a large institution.
• Experience building, leading and coaching dynamic, diverse and highly competent teams of fundraisers.
• Superior oral and written communication and presentation skills.
• An ability to work with donor data and analytics, accountability to metrics.
• A highly developed talent for collaboration, and an ability to interact with leaders across the Development team and the broader Foundation.
• Track record of building relationships with major and principal gift level donors, ideally closing principal gifts of at least $1M+.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and high emotional intelligence, with an ability to develop and maintain long-term, productive relationships internally and externally.

The salary range for this role is between $164,663 and $295,914, with new staff rarely starting at the top of the range and most often targeting a mid-point of $219,550.

This position is open to remote candidates where the Obama Foundation is authorized to work with a strong preference for being based in or relocating to Chicago.

Don’t check off every box in the requirements listed above? Please apply anyway! Studies have shown that marginalized communities - such as women, LGBTQ+ and people of color - are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. The Obama Foundation is dedicated to building an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible workplace that fosters a sense of belonging – so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to still consider submitting an application. You may be just the right candidate for this role or another one of our openings!

In the interest of employee health and safety during the pendency of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Obama Foundation is requiring that all prospective employees present proof that they are fully-vaccinated against COVID-19, or seek a reasonable accommodation for religious or medical reasons, prior to their first day of employment.

Equal Opportunity Employer

The Foundation is committed to creating a diverse work environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. The Foundation does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability, parental status, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable laws. We encourage individuals of all backgrounds to apply. If you are a qualified candidate with a disability, please e-mail us at careers@obama.org if you require a reasonable accommodation to complete this application.