Title: Chief Advancement Officer
Department: SEO Executive Office
Reporting to: William Goodloe, President & Chief Executive Officer
Location: Hybrid – 2 days/week in office; some nights, weekends, and travel required.
All candidates must be within commutable distance of SEO’s offices at 55 Exchange Place, New York, NY 10005, upon hire.
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About Seo
Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) is a non-profit organization with a rich history of supporting underserved students. Founded in 1963 by Michael Osheowitz as a mentoring program, SEO has evolved significantly over the decades. It expanded its reach in 1980 with the launch of SEO Career, a summer internship program for college students, and later established international presence in London, China, Vietnam, and Ghana. SEO currently boasts a network of 25,000+ alumni, including $12,000+ in the U.S.
Position Overview
SEO saw rapid and unprecedented expansion during the pandemic, prompting the need to grow and redesign our C-suite. Over the last three years, we have welcomed three new Executive Committee members to oversee critical functions within the organization— SEO Professional Programs, SEO Scholars Program, and national operations. In the same period, we have also doubled the organization's workforce and budget, expanded SEO's regional footprints in North Carolina and Miami, and opened a second site in Oakland, CA, to accommodate our growing Scholars program in San Francisco.
The SEO Chief Advancement Officer is responsible for strategic development planning and activities supporting the NYC SEO Scholars program and SEO general program/operating support, representing 40% of organization's $51M budget with the goal to grow support by 50% over next 3 years. A particular focus will be on national foundations, corporate donors, and major individual donors. The CAO is expected to be a front-line national relationship builder and major donor solicitor, managing a portfolio of prospects, and supervising an approximately nine-member development team.
Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) William Goodloe, the CAO will be a leader in lifting the current org-wide development efforts to new levels of success by broadening ways to attract and more deeply engage with national foundations, corporations, and individual philanthropists over time – to become strategic sources of revenue. The CAO will also work closely with SEO’s professional programs and its Marketing & Communications team to utilize SEO’s legacy of impact closing opportunity gaps to increase national brand recognition as a whole. The CAO will serve on the Executive Committee of SEO’s Executive Leadership Team.
Responsibilities
Fundraising:
• Drive a strategy to raise roughly an additional $10 - 15m+ in annual revenue for SEO general program support and Scholars program support from a variety of philanthropic sources (annual giving, major gifts, corporate and foundation relations, alumni) and special events (an annual gala that consistently generates $8m+ in unrestricted funds and several smaller events focused on the Scholars program and general SEO support).
• Leverage SEO’s existing ecosystem and activate SEO’s untapped networks within the spaces where the organization currently operates, including private equity and corporate partner organizations.
• In collaboration with the CEO, senior staff and Board of Directors, develop long-range strategies to significantly increase philanthropic giving and serve as the key strategist for specific “asks.”
• Build and streamline a development model that accounts for major donor funding from various avenues, including those of partner and expansion offices, to ensure coordination and maximize donor engagement.
• Lead the positioning of SEO for further national expansion by establishing and deepening relationships with all relevant internal and external partners/ constituents.
• Monitor prospect portfolios for the CEO, staff, board, and expansion offices. Serve as an advisor and collaborator to the expansion offices.
• Craft compelling cases for support of unrestricted funds that maximize relationships with current donors and cultivate and convert new donors.
• Serve as a front-line cultivator and solicitor. Cultivate and steward donors; make significant requests for support from major donors, board members, foundations, and corporations.
• Ensure comprehensive, timely, and innovative stewardship of all gifts.
• In collaboration with Development Team, ensure the continued success of the annual SEO awards dinner, securing sponsors and honorees for the organization’s biggest fundraising night of the year.
Strategic Leadership:
• Effectively lead and organize the development team’s day-to-day operations and budgets; streamline processes and procedures.
• Serve as subject matter expert and partner to CEO in developing long term strategy.
• Serve as a member of the Execut
Location: New York, NY
Posted: Sept. 22, 2024, 5:33 a.m.
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