Advancement Manager, St. James School

Posted by St. James School on July 10, 2017

Founded in 2011, St. James School is a unique faith-based middle school in the Episcopal tradition, serving under-resourced students from the Allegheny-West neighborhood of North Philadelphia. The school serves students and families who are most in need, providing a full scholarship to every student. Students benefit from small class sizes, an extended day, robust art and music programs, extensive social-emotional support, and a comprehensive High School Placement and Graduate Support Program.

Position Purpose:
As a tuition-free school, St. James School’s Advancement Office raises all funding needed for school operations ($2.2 million annually) from a network of donors, including individuals, corporations, foundations, and churches. The school also plans to launch a multi-million dollar fundraising campaign focused on endowment and capital in the fall of 2017. The Advancement Manager is a newly-created position that reports to the Director of Advancement and will play a leadership role in executing key fundraising initiatives throughout the year, including: managing a successful Year End Campaign, coordinating the school’s spring benefit event, and building relationships with donors. The Advancement Manager will work closely with the rest of the Advancement Office (Advancement Associate, part-time Database Assistant, and part-time Grant Writer), as well as the Head of School, the Director of Marketing and the Board of Directors, to ensure the school meets and exceeds its fundraising targets.

The successful candidate will have several years of non-profit fundraising experience, and be ready to embrace a leadership role in the busy, fast-paced advancement office of a growing organization, under the mentorship of the Director of Advancement. He/she should already have a solid foundation of skills in a variety of different areas of fundraising, including: foundations and grantwriting; corporate fundraising (especially through EITC and OSTC tax credit programs), event management, and executing fundraising campaigns via mail and email. Strong project management skills and an appreciation for a metrics-driven environment are essential.

Specific responsibilities may include:

• Play a leadership role in executing the Annual Advancement Plan, and ensuring the organization meets ambitious revenue goals, metrics and tactics for: Individual Giving, Wanamaker Scholarship Society, Foundation Giving, Corporations, Events, and Churches.
• Convene and lead the volunteer Advancement Committee.
• Lead regular Advancement Team meetings, reporting on progress toward goals, gathering feedback for projects, and ensuring all team members are informed, engaged and have the resources needed to lead/assist with any and all advancement projects.
• In partnership with the Director of Advancement and Head of School, maintain an active, ever-growing portfolio of donors and prospects, with ambitious goals for donor retention, and recruitment of new donors.
• Assist the Head of School and Board members with school visits of prospective donors
• Oversee the school’s relationships with foundation funders, work with part-time grant writer to ensure school meets foundation fundraising targets
• Grow the Scholarship Society (donors giving $2500+ annually); help identify and solicit new prospects, execute two major touch points a year to engage/thank/steward donors
• Assist in executing EITC/OSTC fundraising tasks, including engaging monthly committee, identifying and cultivating prospective companies and opportunities to engage new prospects, and implementing effective stewardship activities for all corporate supporters to retain support, ensuring that participants receive proper recognition throughout school year
• Acts as resource for current and prospective companies on all minutiae of the EITC/OSTC programs; submit applications on behalf of corporations; stay knowledgeable about and communicate any important program changes, deadlines and details to participants.
• Manages St. James School’s EITC/OSTC eligibility, submit all required paperwork to the State, ensure compliance with state regulations
• Works with appropriate school staff to monitor student OSTC eligibility and track the total dollar amount of scholarship funding St. James is eligible for
• Creates and implements a timeline for each direct-mail appeal, work plan, segmentation and follow up with those who haven’t given
• Recruits and manages volunteers for all aspects of help with our campaigns
• Creates a report after each appeal to analyze the results and seek feedback from advancement team
• Builds and maintains strong, effective working relationships with all Board members; coach and hold Board members accountable in fundraising efforts/goals
• Supports Board members and development volunteers in utilizing their skills, talents and relationships in the development process
• Reports to Board on development activities
• Manages fundraising events: develop timelines, form committees, set and track revenue goals, develop sponsorship outreach plans, and ensure every event is financially successful, engaging, mission-driven.
• Works closely with Advancement Associate to ensure donor database (GiftWorks) is being used effectively to store donor information, analyze trends, and make decisions
• Ensures that St. James School has a professional, timely and highly effective gift acknowledgement process for donations, gifts in-kind and other gifts
• Involves a wide range of staff, volunteers and other friends in the gift acknowledgement process.
• Works with the Director of Marketing and Design on all of the production of marketing materials (print, video, web) used to promote the school
• Attends weekly meetings with a focus on how to engage churches from a philanthropic perspective
• Attends church events (Diocesan Convention, etc.) when needed when there are philanthropic opportunities
• Based on the candidate’s interest and experience, responsibilities may also include:
  • Growing the organization’s planned giving program
  • Providing support to the Capital/Endowment campaign
  • Grant writing
  • Managing social media presence
  • Writing articles about St. James programs/events for the website
  • Taking a leadership role in the launch of a new giving society focused on young professionals
  • Other Duties as Assigned

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree
• 4-6 years of non-profit fundraising experience – experience working with youth-serving, education, or faith-based non-profits is especially helpful
• Strong leadership and project management skills
• A self-starter, skilled at solving problems, and seeking his/her own solutions
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; strong presenter
• Adept at building strong relationships with a variety of stakeholders
• Excellent organizational skills
• Database experience and strong technology skills, proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite
• Passion for the St. James School mission
• An ability to thrive in fast-paced, high-stakes, metrics-driven environment
• Ability to prioritize many competing tasks, develop efficient systems for follow-up
• Strong work ethic
• Ability to work occasional nights and weekends
• Initiative, tenacity, and reliability
• Enthusiasm and a sense of humor
• Knowledge of the Episcopal Church is a plus
• Candidates of color are especially encouraged to apply

HOW TO APPLY

[email protected]

To apply, please submit a resume, thoughtful cover letter and salary requirements via email with the subject line “Advancement Manager” to Angela McCole, Director of Advancement: [email protected].

https://www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit-job/7669800125df465f94c97577d5c332ab-advancement-manager-st-james-school-philadelphia-philadelphia