Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy (BCHA) is a growing Modern Orthodox Jewish day school located in Stamford, Connecticut. With grades Pre-K through 12th we serve over 350 students across Connecticut and New York. BCHA is known for its excellent academic reputation and its broad co-curricular offerings and is situated on an attractive 13-acre campus located 43 miles from midtown Manhattan.
BCHA seeks a dynamic, creative, and highly skilled front-line fundraiser to serve in the newly created position of Senior Development Officer (SDO) effective immediately.
The SDO will plan and design an individual and institutional fundraising program to provide for the short and long term needs of the school. This includes implementing an annual school campaign, corporate and foundation giving strategy, capital gifts menu, major gifts and endowment giving opportunities. The SDO will be the primary relationship and solicitation manager for a range of school donors and the community at large. Events management experience is also a plus.
The SDO will have an authentic passion for the school’s mission, experience in campaign development and strategic planning and be a highly articulate communicator skilled at making a compelling case for support of BCHA. It is important to note that this is a newly created position; a successful candidate will need to be a self-starter who can create systems to discover new philanthropic opportunities.
The SDO is a member of the school’s administrative team and will report to the Head of School.
Duties/Responsibilities:
Work with the Head of School and Board leadership to set annual monetary goals and budgets according to short and long-term goals. Establish fundraising objectives for the School, setting one-year, five-year and longer-term goals
Design, implement and manage all fundraising activities, annual school campaign, corporate, foundation and government giving, capital gifts, major gifts and endowment giving, special projects, grants, and other school-related solicitations
Identify, cultivate, and solicit philanthropic support by developing and maintaining relationships with parents, alumni, grandparents, faculty, foundations, and community organizations
Conduct at least 36 prospect visits with new or established donors per year
Recruit, oversee and support the volunteers working on major development projects
Collaborate with internal partners to produce fundraising materials, collateral, reports and gift proposals
Plan, oversee, coordinate and implement all fundraising events
Works with the Parent Association to provide support for all fundraising activities under the PA’s control
Identify corporate sponsorships, foundation funding and government funding opportunities and draft grant applications
Maintain a prospect list of potential donors
Prepare reports for the Head of School, Treasurer, Finance Committee & Board
Possess knowledge and understanding of the Jewish philanthropic communities in CT and across the Tri-state area
Attend evening/weekend programming activities, Development Committee meetings and local federation-sponsored campaigns which impact school development initiatives
Qualifications:
The ideal candidate will have a proven history of fundraising success:
4-6 years of experience with a demonstrated ability to build a comprehensive and effective development and communications program
Strong management skills, both strategic and operational, and a demonstrated ability to build, manage, mentor and motivate a team
Experience training and working with lay and professional leadership in development-related activities
Ability to personally develop strategies, cultivate, solicit and steward major and institutional donors
Creative, innovative, entrepreneurial and independent self-starter with strategic inclinations • A strong work ethic; ability to inspire trust; ability to maintain and model high personal, ethical, and professional standards, as well as having an outgoing and positive personality • Sensitivity and discretion, creativity and flexibility, attention to detail and ability to manage competing priorities, with a sense of humor preferred and customer-orientation a must • Knowledge of Raiser’s Edge (Blackbaud) highly preferred
