Director of Development & Donor Experience

Career Opportunity – Director of Development and Donor Experience with Found Village in Greater Cincinnati, OH Are you a strategic, relationship-driven development leader who is energized by both mission and infrastructure? Are you ready to build the systems, strategy, and donor experience that will help a growing organization scale with discipline, clarity, and long-term sustainability? If so, we want to speak with you! The Director of Development & Donor Experience will build, and lead Found Village’s next-generation development engine. This nonprofit fundraising operations leader will build and oversee the organization’s development function, initially focusing on the infrastructure, systems, and team needed to support fundraising. This systems-focused leadership role is responsible for creating disciplined, data-informed, and scalable fundraising infrastructure while executive leadership carries the organizational vision and leads the highest-level relationships. The Director will coordinate strategy, strengthen the donor journey, and build a sustainable revenue engine so no single relationship determines success. Over time, the role will assume broader responsibility for grants, financial reporting, and other fundraising activities. Responsibilities: - Develop and operationalize funding strategies aligned with Found Village’s strategic priorities. - Build and manage a multi-year revenue engine across major gifts, mid-level donors, and recurring support. - Design and maintain donor pipeline systems, prospect strategies, and campaign tracking infrastructure. - Define donor segments and create intentional pathways for engagement. - Design a high-quality donor experience across all touchpoints, including stewardship frameworks, communication flows, and engagement cadence. - Lead CRM strategy, donor reporting, and pipeline visibility systems. - Facilitate weekly revenue and prospect movement meetings and monitor conversion, pipeline health, and donor retention. - Supervise Development Operations staff and help scale the development function over time. - Partner closely with executive leadership on top-tier donor strategy while building a culture of disciplined execution, relational trust, and accountability. - Build and lead the organization’s fundraising and development function, including dependable systems, structure, and database-entry capabilities. - Strengthen donor, volunteer, and community partnership engagement through consistent donor-experience processes and related events. - Hire, develop, and supervise two additional development team members, creating a team of approximately three people. - Coordinate closely with marketing on donor communications and engagement. - Support donor-facing communications and interactions without initially managing an individual donor portfolio; team members reporting to the Director will manage individual donor portfolios. - Gradually assume responsibility for grants, financial reporting, and the broader development function currently managed by Katie. First-Year Priorities: - Build strong relationships with donors and external stakeholders. - Create dependable development systems and structure. - Establish consistent donor-experience processes and related events. - Hire and develop a fundraising team. - Build the operational foundation that allows Katie to transition out of acting as the organization’s chief development officer. Role Focus and Scope: The Director’s initial focus will be people leadership, systems, structure, supervision, team building, and cross-functional coordination rather than carrying a personal donor portfolio. Team members reporting to the Director will manage individual donor portfolios. As the development function matures, the Director’s scope will expand to include grants, financial reporting, and broader fundraising leadership. Requirements: - 7-12+ years of experience in development, fundraising, or revenue leadership. - Experience supporting capital campaigns or other major fundraising initiatives. - Strong systems thinking and demonstrated ability to build and manage donor pipelines. - High relational intelligence with strong written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills. - Ability to move comfortably between strategic leadership and hands-on execution. - Nonprofit fundraising or development experience, including building or improving a development function, team, or fundraising systems. - Strong leadership, organizational, and operational skills, with the ability to cultivate donor relationships and create an effective donor experience. - Comfort with grants and the expectation that grant responsibilities will eventually fall under the development team. - A mission-driven approach and a clear personal connection to the organization’s purpose. - Resilience and the ability to sustain effectiveness during demanding or busy periods. - An organized, consistent, conscientious, and detail-attentive work style. - A proactive communication style, with a willingness to ask for clarity and respectfully challenge ideas when needed. - Ability to work effectively with a fast-moving, visionary leader. - A thoughtful approach to career decisions and the ability to explain what they are moving toward professionally. About Found Village Found Village creates the relationships, experiences, and opportunities young people need to thrive. Our developmental approach connects coaching, care management, programming, transportation, and community partnership into one coordinated journey. Guided by Boundless Hope, Courageous Love, Safe Place, Safe People, Collaborative Community, and Spend It Well, we work to ensure every young person experience dignity, belonging, growth, leadership, and a meaningful path forward. Found Village Values - Boundless Hope: Every young person deserves a village committed to their future. - Courageous Love: We create alignment through honest conversations, shared accountability, and unwavering belief in young people’s potential. - Safe Place, Safe People: We build coordinated systems grounded in trust, predictability, and psychological safety. - Collaborative Community: We create villages where every person understands their role in supporting youth development. - Spend It Well: We steward relationships, resources, and partnerships intentionally to maximize developmental impact. A System in Need of Support We fill the gaps. Let’s face it: our society runs on a network of systems designed to meet people’s needs. Unfortunately, many of these systems, though well-intended, are not designed to raise kids or meet their needs holistically. Because of this, the teens we work with often lose trust, give up, and let their pain drive their choices and behavior. They have been in and out of detention centers, courtrooms, foster homes, shelters, different schools, and more. They come from hard places and circumstances that leave them frustrated and discouraged. They are assigned diminishing labels, misdiagnoses, and unrealistic work plans, and are offered subpar support programs. To no one’s surprise, there is often no real change. We come alongside families and communities in need. We are here to partner with these systems—to come behind them and fill in the gaps wherever necessary. Without a holistic approach to serving kids in crisis, many areas of need are left unmet. In turn, this results in deeper levels of trauma, neglect, and misunderstanding. We exist to support teens and their families so they can understand and navigate the systems they have become part of. We aim to elevate the voices of young people and provide them with the support that an average teenager born into different circumstances would inherently receive. #ZR