The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) seeks an energetic, innovative leader to serve as Director of Philanthropy and Enterprise Development. Reporting to NACAC’s Chief Education and Policy Officer, the Director will be a creative thought leader, strategist, and savvy collaborator with expertise in cultivating foundations and high-dollar sponsors to generate support for innovative programs and services. Armed with foundational documents that include the report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Future of Leadership in College Admission, recently refreshed mission and vision statements, and equity-focused advocacy and research, the director will play a key role in leveraging grant funding and sponsorship support to overcome long-standing capacity limitations that serve as barriers to expansion and development of initiatives to lead the college admission counseling profession into a new and more equitable future.

Organizational Underwriting

Develop and implement strategies to secure major grants and/or sponsorships from corporations, foundations, and other interests to ensure that NACAC has the resources, staff, technology, and other structures necessary to bring its mission to fruition. Examples include:

• Mission implementation
• Broad support for access and equity initiatives
• Support for organizational social investments and charity
• Development of standards for best practice
• Support for efforts to promote public trust and transparency in college admission

Programmatic Innovation

Develop and implement strategies to secure major grants and/or sponsorships to support development of new programs, services, or resources.

• Education and training
• Student/university connections and fairs
• Public school counselor or Title I school membership
• Product development
• Market assessment and capital needs for specific reforms
• Technology infrastructure for specific programming
• Research

Strategic Positioning

Ensure that NACAC is aware of the social enterprise development grant and sponsorship landscape and develop strategies to position the association to successfully seek funding.

• Set an affirmative direction beyond current boundaries
• Scan environment to identify funding support
• Cultivate of potential funders
• Represent NACAC at conferences, events, and meetings where funders congregate

Support for Existing Programs

The director will coordinate with existing staff to ensure that funding for new initiatives complements effort ongoing work to support existing program implementation, assessment, and improvement. Existing programs include, but are not limited to:

• NACAC Conferences and events
• College fairs and student connections
• Publications
• Web site
• Research
• Education and training

Success in the role will be defined as securing funding, with the support of the NACAC leadership and staff, for new and innovative resources aligned with priorities identified by the association’s leadership. Successful strategy development, implementation, and coordination across function areas will contribute to overall success in the position.

The successful candidate will be an inspirational and effective leader who enjoys processes and strategy and is comfortable working across multiple areas of the association. The successful Director of Philanthropy and Enterprise Development will possess the following qualities and qualifications:

• Experience in donor prospect identification and cultivation
• Ability to form and maintain relationships with aligned organizations
• Knowledge of methods and strategies for fundraising from high-dollar sponsors
• Familiarity with foundation cultivation and grant applications
• Experience in grant implementation strategy
• A strong ability to develop, implement, and assess strategies for achieving clear objectives
• Familiarity with organizational growth and development
• Experience soliciting funds for programmatic innovation
• Start-up mentality with experience in building successful funding strategies from the ground up
• Ability to thrive in ambiguity and to adapt to changing circumstances

A Bachelor’s degree is a minimum requirement for the position.

About National Association for College Admission Counseling

The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), founded in 1937, is an organization of more than 25,000 professionals from around the world dedicated to serving students as they make choices about pursuing postsecondary education.

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