Waukegan to College logo

Director of Development

The Ideal Candidate

You’ve worked in smaller development shops, so you bring broad experience developing fundraising strategies, working on campaigns, asking for six-figure gifts, and supporting the ED and board in asking for transformational gifts. You are entrepreneurial, relational, and able to see the big picture while executing the details. You thrive working with committed team members, ambitious goals, and the opportunity to see how your efforts create impact every day.

The Mission

Waukegan to College creates brighter futures for students, families, and communities by preparing students to enroll in and graduate from college.We foster a college-going culture within an at-risk population with high poverty, low literacy, and low college attainment. Based on our solid track record, we have established a vision to serve 1000 students from 5th grade through college graduation by 2029. The Director of Development is critical to achieving this vision.

The Opportunity

This is an organization with momentum. Its growth potential is clear – it achieved 40% growth in the last year and nearly doubled the budget to $1.2MM, $850K of which was raised in the development department. This year, $1.2MM is the development goal, and the organization is on track to achieve it. Funds raised come from individual contributions (30%), grants (32%), corporate sponsorship (10%), government (25%) events (2%), and in-kind (1%).  The DOD is critical to continuing this trajectory. The DOD will take ownership of fundraising, bringing creativity, innovation, and an optimistic spirit to the efforts. There will be strong focus on major gifts development. They will have a lot of independence in how the department meets the goals.

Key Responsibilities

  • Implement a comprehensive fundraising strategy aligned with the strategic plan
  • Identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward annual fund and major gift prospects and donors
  • Manage all aspects of the department – budget, dashboard and reporting, database management, and all other critical components of a successful development office
  • Supervise current contracted services, including grant-writer, communications specialist, and intern; manage future development employees as the department grows
  • Oversee the implementation of fundraising activities and events

Qualities and Characteristics

  • Confident self-starter
  • Flexible and innovative
  • A connector who thrives on building partnerships with donors and the community
  • A natural communicator and strong writer, able to flex between formal writing and presentations and personable donor communication
  • Conversational Spanish is welcome but not required
  • Three to seven years of fundraising experience
  • Bachelor’s degree required

Salary and Benefits

  • Salary is $88,000-$95,000 depending on experience.
  • Excellent benefits include generous time off, including 15 vacation days; medical, dental, and vision (90% covered by employer); retirement – 2% of your annual salary, eligible after one year of employment; and a hybrid work environment.

Waukegan to College is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage applications from all individuals regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation and evaluate all candidates based on merit; we strongly encourage and seek qualified applications from underrepresented groups.

The only way to be considered for this position is by applying below. Anchor Advisors is conducting the search; please do not contact Waukegan to College directly.