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Details
Posted: 02-Jul-25
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Type: Full Time
Salary: $110,000 - 140,000 per year
Salary Details:
The offered wage is $110,000 - 140,000 per year and is benefits eligible: medical, dental, and vision insurance, 403b with eventual match, tuition remission; employer-paid basic life (equivalent to one year's salary), and a generous paid time-off policy (sick leave plus 4 weeks paid leave per year).
Required Education:
4 Year Degree
The Chief Development Officer (CDO) serves as a strategic partner to the Head of School and plays a key role in advancing a comprehensive, mission-aligned fundraising strategy that is already in place. The CDO provides leadership in executing and refining this strategy which is rooted in personalized, values-based engagement. The CDO oversees all fundraising functions, including major and planned gifts, annual giving, alumni relations, and board engagement, while fostering a thoughtful and inclusive culture of philanthropy.
A strong and respectful partnership with the Chief Communications and Marketing Officer is essential to this role. Together, these two senior leaders are responsible for ensuring that all donor-facing communications and engagement opportunities — including events — are expertly timed, mission-aligned, and fully consistent with the school’s tone and storytelling priorities. The Development and Communications offices must bring out the best in one another—collaborating on a shared calendar, respecting each other’s expertise, and planning well in advance to deliver cohesive, compelling, and high-impact experiences for constituents.
A strong and respectful partnership with the Chief Communications and Marketing Officer is essential to this role. Together, these two senior leaders are responsible for ensuring that all donor-facing communications and engagement opportunities — including events — are expertly timed, mission-aligned, and fully consistent with the school’s tone and storytelling priorities. The Development and Communications offices must bring out the best in one another—collaborating on a shared calendar, respecting each other’s expertise, and planning well in advance to deliver cohesive, compelling, and high-impact experiences for constituents.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic and Operational Leadership
- Execute and continually refine a multi-year fundraising strategy that supports the school’s long-term priorities.
- Provide oversight across five integrated development programs:
1. Annual Giving
2. Major Gifts
3. Planned Giving
4. Alumni Relations
5. Board Engagement - Provide transparent, data-informed reporting to the Head of School, Board of Trustees, and members of the Senior Leadership Team.
- Employ segmentation strategies across all programs to ensure that communications, especially appeals, are constituent-specific, relevant, and meaningful.
Major Gifts and Campaign Readiness
- Manage a personal portfolio of high-capacity donors.
- Support the Head of School and key trustees in cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding their own portfolios of major gift prospects.
- Collaborate on individualized cultivation plans that emphasize authentic relationship-building, timely communication of impact, and coordinated follow-up.
- Prepare the school for future capital campaign readiness through prospect research, pipeline development, and compelling case development.
Annual Giving and Fundraising Program Oversight
- Oversee the Annual Giving Program with a focus on clarity of purpose, effective messaging, and consistent, mission-driven appeals.
- Ensure giving opportunities are well-segmented and that all constituents understand how their gifts make a difference.
- Coordinate fundraising efforts across all five programs, ensuring integration with institutional communications, events, and stewardship priorities.
Constituent Engagement and Impact Communication
- Lead a coordinated strategy for engaging alumni, former parents, current parents, board members, and other key constituencies.
- Collaborate with the Communications team to shape and execute events that deepen constituent engagement, convey philanthropic impact, and reflect the values and voice of the school.
- Ensure that communications to donors and prospective donors reflect the school’s gratitude, mission, and integrity.
- Champion mission-rich storytelling across all five programs, ensuring that donors are consistently shown how their support translates into meaningful student, teacher, and community outcomes.
Board and Volunteer Philanthropy
- Serve as staff liaison to the Board Development Committee, helping shape its role in cultivation, stewardship, and philanthropic strategy.
- Guide and support trustees in building relationships with donors and in advancing the school’s fundraising goals in ways that feel authentic and impactful.
- Coordinate volunteer engagement efforts that align with development priorities and are respectful of staff and volunteer time.
Team Leadership and Infrastructure
- Supervise and mentor two direct reports, cultivating a culture of thoughtfulness, accountability, and collaboration.
- Oversee systems for gift documentation, timely acknowledgment, donor data accuracy, prospect research, and segmentation.
- Ensure development operations support excellent donor experiences, from initial engagement through long-term stewardship.
- Adhere to, update when appropriate, and promote the Development Office’s policies, procedures, and professional codes of ethics and standards, affirming the school’s commitment to fundraising integrity and donor trust.
How to Apply
Please visit the LFC’s Employment Opportunities website and submit a cover letter and resume. No phone inquiries, please.
Lycée Français de Chicago is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified candidates of any gender, race, class, sexual orientation, faith, disability, or age are encouraged to apply.
All candidates will be evaluated on a merit basis.
For more information about the Lycée please go to www.lyceechicago.org
Please visit the LFC’s Employment Opportunities website and submit a cover letter and resume. No phone inquiries, please.
Lycée Français de Chicago is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified candidates of any gender, race, class, sexual orientation, faith, disability, or age are encouraged to apply.
All candidates will be evaluated on a merit basis.
For more information about the Lycée please go to www.lyceechicago.org
- Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.
- 7–10+ years of progressively responsible experience in development, with a successful track record in major gifts.
- Strong leadership and team-building success, ideally at an independent school, educational, or youth development organization.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including written, verbal, and presentation abilities.
- Demonstrated ability to cultivate long-term donor relationships based on mutual respect and impact.
- Experience using segmentation and data analytics to shape strategy and strengthen donor relationships.
- Proficiency in donor database systems (e.g., Raiser’s Edge or equivalent) and commitment to data-informed planning.
- Belief in the mission of independent school education and the role of philanthropy in supporting student success.
- Culturally astute, with the ability to understand and navigate the school’s values, tone, and community norms with sensitivity and professionalism.
About Lycée Français de Chicago
https://careercenter.acord.org/jobs/21463637/chief-development-officer
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