The Organization
Greater Houston Community Foundation, one of Houston’s largest grant makers and leaders in philanthropic impact, has served the greater Houston community for 25 years. The organization supports high-profile community and donor initiatives with the most comprehensive philanthropic resources, expertise, and innovative platforms. The Foundation proudly serves as a resource and collaborative partner for individuals, families, corporations, foundations, and advisors in order to create meaningful and positive change in the community.
Position Overview
The Greater Houston Community Foundation (GHCF) seeks a strong leader to provide motivational leadership and expertise to help GHCF expand its charitable support and community of donors.
The Chief Growth Officer (CGO) will focus on generating revenue, growing GHCF’s donor base, and fundraising to enhance the Foundation’s ability to fulfill its mission. The CGO will be responsible with the leadership team for accelerating and ensuring smart measurable growth of the organization.
This position requires a strong commitment to working in a team environment, adaptability, sound organization skills, and the ability to manage client relationships. Strong interpersonal and communication skills, and the ability to create and execute a strategic plan are important to success in this role. The ideal candidate is a senior professional with experience in traditional development or business development roles. This position will report to the President & CEO and will be an important member of the senior leadership team of GHCF.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
The Chief Growth Officer’s role includes the following:
- Develop action plan to build asset base of the Foundation by evaluating existing and new methods of donor solicitation, cultivation and communication while supporting the GHCF team as they ensure deeper relationships with current donors.
- Identify, cultivate, and solicit high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals to become donors to, through and with GHCF to increase asset base.
- Raise direct funds for leadership work in support of GHCF’s philanthropic efforts, including Understanding Houston and other GHCF community initiatives.
- Support and expand relationships with legal, accounting, investment and other professional advisors and oversee efforts to expand the number of advisors connected to GHCF.
- Design and direct new client cultivation, engagement, and education events.
- Ensure increases in and additions to donor advised funds (DAFs), supporting organizations (SOs) and planned and legacy commitments through estate planning with donors.
- Establish clear business development metrics around fundraising and relationship-building.
- Create more formal mechanisms for gifts of endowed funds and broaden planned giving vehicles for donors.
- Align marketing and communications efforts to better articulate GHCF’s capabilities in providing individuals, families, and corporations with philanthropic solutions.
- Lead asset-building strategies with the whole GHCF team (staff and board members) by training and coaching team members on gift planning, development and moves management.
- Deliver public presentations to educate communities about GHCF’s services and charitable tools for individuals, families, corporations, private foundations and professional advisors and their clients.
- Monitor philanthropic trends and industry innovation and maintain knowledge about current federal and state tax policy matters that relate to GHCF’s planned giving activities.
- Utilize various analytics and research mechanisms to identify prospective donors, potential new funds, and additional services or consulting services that GHCF can offer in the future.
- Lead optimization of GHCF infrastructure including upgrading databases, increasing SalesForce capabilities, and improving utilization protocols to support use of performance metrics to guide staff accountability and define success.
- Represent GHCF at GHCF events and in the community.
- Collaborate effectively with GHCF team members to execute growth and fundraising plans.
- Serve on leadership team of GHCF and work to support the continued development of the GHCF One Community culture.
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
We seek a team member with development leadership experience who is enthusiastic about fundraising and growing the reach of GHCF to include more donors and deeper relationships with our current donors. The Chief Growth Officer must thrive on challenges and be comfortable in a fast-paced, demanding environment. The successful candidate will have a proven track record of success in working collaboratively, leading a team and servicing clients.
Specifically, the successful candidate will possess:
- Bachelor’s degree with 10-15 years of experience in fundraising including estate and asset planning; graduate degree or JD preferred
- Relationships with professional advisors, estate lawyers, family office leaders, and/or other strong connections to potential clients
- Demonstrated ability to set and achieve bold vision and fundraising goals while working closely with others to achieve results
- Solid understanding of planned giving vehicles and techniques, with the ability to convey and explain advanced planned giving concepts; current knowledge of regulations and policies governing gift planning
- Passionate, mission-driven person with creative, entrepreneurial, action orientation
- Has consensus-seeking but decisive approach that enables him/her to deliver results
- Strong data-driven decision maker; analytical ability and understanding of finances and financial vehicles
- Excellent communication and presentation skills (both written and verbal); ability to effectively articulate GHCF’s mission and offerings in a clear and compelling manner
- Experience managing a team to achieve ambitious targets; strong facilitation and change management skills
- A high degree of professionalism, confidence and flexibility that allows the incumbent to work collaboratively and effectively with clients and colleagues of diverse backgrounds
- Excellent ability to prioritize, organize, and manage multiple competing assignments and responsibilities and communicate effectively regarding progress to deliverables
- Excellent judgment, integrity, and commitment to personal accountability and high standards of ethics and confidentiality
- High proficiency in Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook), SalesForce or other database management systems and use of internet; willingness to learn customized software and databases
- Willingness to work on additional projects as needed
How To Apply
Please apply here. Applications should be submitted by November 30, 2020. We will contact those candidates who most closely match our requirements. We thank you in advance for your interest.