DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT

**DIRECTOR of DEVELOPMENT** **Chicago** **Who We Are and What We Believe:** Founded in 1997, Bottom Line is a nationally recognized nonprofit organization with a mission to partner with degree-aspiring students of color from under-resourced communities as they get into college, graduate, and go far in life. We achieve this mission by providing one-on-one guidance during the college application process through college graduation and the successful launch of their careers. Our vision is to dramatically transform urban communities by producing thousands of new career-ready college graduates. When you join Bottom Line, you will find a rewarding, fast-paced, results-oriented environment. We build strong relationships with our students and with each other. We take our work seriously, and we know that a focus on data and metrics is integral to our continued success. Experts in our fields, we are driven by our mission and extremely proud of the work we do. **What You Will Do:** The Development Director is a strategic and proactive frontline fundraiser who thrives on building relationships and driving growth in a mission-driven environment. Reporting to the Managing Director of Development (MDD), this role is responsible for a portfolio of donor and prospect relationships in Chicago and is accountable for a revenue goal of approximately $1–$1.5M annually. The Development Director manages relationships across all funding streams—including individuals, companies, and foundations—and spends significant time externally to cultivate, solicit, and steward donors, with a focus on securing and growing gifts of $5,000 or more. In addition to managing their own portfolio, the Development Director supports the Executive Director (ED) and MDD in stewarding top donors and prospects and advancing key relationship strategies as needed. They will be responsible for identifying and qualifying new donors by leveraging Bottom Line’s database, conducting research, professional networking, external events, and identifying and leveraging connectors to advance donor relationships where possible. This role is highly external-facing as their primary responsibility is to engage donors, support, and cultivate new donor relationships for the organization. Therefore, collaboration and coordination internally with the development team is very important to this role. The Development Director will work closely with the Chicago development team, including the Manager of Donor Experience and Communication and the MDD, to coordinate outreach, stewardship, and donor cultivation and engagement experiences. The Development Director will partner with the regional program team to identify opportunities to engage donors in local work and connect supporters to Bottom Line’s student impact and outcomes. In addition, the Development Director will work with Bottom Line’s National Development Operations (DevOps) team to ensure strong pipeline management and relationship strategies, data integrity, and effective use of Salesforce and other tools. This is an individual contributor role with no direct reports. **Primary Responsibilities:** **** **** **Donor Portfolio Management – 65%** **** - Manage a portfolio of current and prospective donors and partners across funding streams—including individuals, companies, and foundations—cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding gifts of $5,000 or more to meet a portfolio revenue goal of approximately $1–$2M annually. - Conduct regular in-person and virtual donor meetings, visits, and outreach using a variety of communication methods to build strong, trust-based relationships and advance donor strategies. - Create and drive the strategy for event sponsorship for the annual signature fundraising event and all other revenue-generating events to meet the sponsorship goal of approximately $250K. - Support the Executive Director and MDD in managing select top-tier donor relationships by coordinating strategy, preparing successful interactions, and…