Chief Development Officer

Founded in 2008, Blessings in a Backpack (Blessings) mobilizes communities, individuals, and resources to provide weekend food for school-aged children across America who might otherwise go hungry. Blessings envisions a future where every school-aged child in America has the nourishment needed to learn and grow. Guided by a ‘One Team for All Kids’ philosophy, Blessings is committed to transforming operations to drive measurable impact and growth in core markets. By breaking down silos, building efficiencies, and fostering new collaborations, Blessings aims to accelerate its growth rate by 20% over the next 5 years, building on a remarkable legacy of providing 30M hunger-free weekends while reaching over 1M children in just 15 years.

Founded in Louisville, Kentucky with an office in downtown Chicago, Blessings has grown tremendously and currently consists of 7 regional chapters, 1200+ community-driven programs, 45 employees across 11 states, and a $14M operating budget. Blessings is focused on evolving operations, maximizing mission delivery, and cultivating a culture of collective achievement. To lead this period of acceleration, Blessings seeks a dynamic and experienced Chief Development Officer (CDO) to lead the implementation of a new, locally-focused fundraising model. This model is the result of an in-depth strategic evaluation and planning process, designed to enhance fundraising efforts at the local level while leveraging the support of a central team and the strength of Blessings’ national brand. This role integrates development and external communications strategies to ensure a cohesive approach to advancing Blessings' mission, increasing revenue, and enhancing brand visibility.

Reporting to the CEO, the Chief Development Officer will be responsible for driving the organization’s development and marketing strategy while empowering and supporting regions, chapters, and communities with the tools and training to maximize local fundraising success. The CDO will lead a dynamic team focused on cultivating philanthropic support, building donor relationships, as well as promoting the organization's work through strategic marketing and communications initiatives to generate $14M+ annually.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with CEO, executive leadership, and Board to drive alignment and execution of high-impact fundraising and marketing strategies that advance Blessings’ mission and goals
• Lead Blessings through all levels of change management and funding initiatives
• In partnership with CEO and CFO, build and oversee Blessings’ annual budget by region; ensure strategic allocation of resources, rigorous expense control, and alignment with revenue goals
• Oversee a cross-functional team fostering a culture of collaboration, results, and professional growth; team will support work across organization
• Work closely with regional and chapter leaders to ensure consistency in donor stewardship and development activities and operations across all programs
• Manage a portfolio of 20-25 major individual & institutional prospects and donors
• Oversee creation and execution of strategic communications plan that enhances Blessings’ visibility, public image, and brand identity
• Ensure all external communications, including newsletters, website content, social media, press releases, and marketing collateral align with strategic fundraising and programmatic goals
• Establish KPI’s to measure success of fundraising and marketing efforts; provide regular reports to CEO and Board of Directors on progress and outcomes

Qualifications & Skills

• 10+ years in development leadership roles, with experience working within multi-layered or federated organizations
• Experience with all aspects of development and marketing, including annual giving, major gifts, sponsorships, corporate giving, foundation/grants, donor development, development operations as well as marketing/communications strategy and implementation
• Demonstrated success leading change management initiatives, ideally related to rollout of new fundraising models or organizational structures
• Servant leader with a strong emotional IQ
• Proactive, confident, and highly organized self-starter
• Demonstrated ability to manage, mentor, and grow high-performing teams and foster collaboration across a national organization
• Substantial knowledge of and ability to impart development and marketing best practices
• Strong background in managing relationships with major donors, including cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of six- and seven-figure gifts
• Exceptional leadership and interpersonal skills, with ability to inspire and motivate staff, lay leaders, and volunteers
• Proficiency with Raiser’s Edge is strongly preferred
• Able to travel when necessary and available for occasional evening and weekend work