Chief Philanthropy Officer

POSITION LOCATIONS

The Chief philanthropy Officer may be based in Boston, Austin, New York, San Francisco or Washington, DC.

PURPOSE STATEMENT

Social Finance is a national nonprofit and Registered Investment Advisor with a mission to build innovative partnerships and investments that realign systems to measurably improve lives. The organization seeks an energetic, collaborative, and results-driven development leader with a deep passion for social impact and a successful track record in principal giving to serve as its inaugural Chief Philanthropy Officer (CPO). The CPO will oversee the organization’s philanthropy efforts and be responsible for the design and implementation of an ambitious strategy to meet a $300M-$500M fundraising goal in the coming years. To do this, the CPO will coordinate enterprise-wide efforts to grow revenue by introducing new relationships and deepening existing partnerships, particularly with individuals and families, to enable Social Finance to achieve a new level of impact, broaden its reach, and raise awareness of its mission. This is an exceptional opportunity for an executive who envisions a world in which social and economic systems enable all people to thrive to join an organization that is mobilizing capital at scale to drive systems change and deliver sustainable impact for people and communities around the country.

POSITION OVERVIEW

Philanthropy has long played a critical role at Social Finance, serving to advance its work across issue areas that include workforce and economic development, children and families, health, homelessness and housing, public safety and re-entry, and education. Historically, the organization has developed partnerships with a range of institutional foundations who have been critical in supporting growth. As the organization shifts from a high-growth start-up stage to one focused on sustainability and securing its long-term business model, it will rely on a visionary and strategic CPO to define and execute a comprehensive philanthropic strategy that establishes new funding streams and partnerships and deepens existing partnerships with both affiliated and unaffiliated individuals, families, foundations, and corporations.

Reporting into the CEO, Tracy Palandjian and working closely with the President & COO, Kirstin Hill, the CPO will serve as a member of the senior executive team and assume a role in setting Social Finance on an ambitious course to build on its mission. The CPO will lead the development and implementation of a comprehensive strategic plan for Social Finance’s philanthropy efforts, including defining the structure, budget, resources, team, processes, and metrics best suited to raising principal and transformational gifts and delivering on bold fundraising goals.

The CPO will establish the philanthropy program as an integrated center of excellence and central hub for the organization’s philanthropic activities, offering sophisticated stewardship strategies essential to maintaining and expanding donor relationships at the highest levels, producing a compelling case for support and related high-quality communication materials that translate technical information into stories of impact for growing and diverse donor audiences, and serving as a best-in-class resource to the organization’s business lines. An important part of this role will be to work alongside colleagues and collaborators in business lines across Impact-First Investments, Workforce and Economic Mobility, Advisory and Public Sector, and the Social Finance Institute, who may serve as primary relationship managers and who lend subject matter expertise to support fundraising efforts for their respective projects.

Further, the CPO will personally build and cultivate a portfolio of individual donors and institutional funders, soliciting major, principal, and transformational level investments and philanthropic gifts across the range of Social Finance’s projects as well as for general operating support. They will lead, inspire, and oversee the work of a growing three-person Partnerships team dedicated to meeting the fundraising goals of the organization, including defining the team structure needed to best meet these goals, and collaborating effectively with the communications, legal, finance, and administrative teams who support the needs of the Partnerships team, including proposal writing and prospect research.

Success in this role will require depth in traditional and interdisciplinary fundraising approaches, authentic relationship building in a matrixed environment, transparent cross-organization collaboration, and synchronized strategic thinking around donor interests. It will also require the candidate to develop a deep working knowledge of the organization’s mission and activities across all business lines, including key fundraising objectives, in order to appropriately connect to donor interests.

Social Finance’s results-oriented culture and dedicated staff require a candidate with equal drive, commitment, and joy. The ideal candidate will inspire cooperation, exhibit a disposition to listen and bring others along as they socialize new concepts, and offer a natural inclination towards integrating efforts to achieve goals. They are a composed fundraising executive who is curious and energized by the nature and purpose of impact investing and social finance, and the role philanthropy plays in advancing such a mission. The ability to excel in a fast-paced organization that consistently maintains high standards of excellence is vital, as is the ability to manage up, down, and across.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategy & Vision

• Partner with the CEO to develop and implement a comprehensive philanthropic vision, revenue model, and growth strategy that advances Social Finance's mission, values, and programmatic objectives and delivers fundraising results.
• Provide intellectual leadership to develop the future of our fundraising efforts, particularly in building a strong pipeline of high-net-worth individuals and families.
• Foster a giving Board and appropriately optimize the Board's networks for philanthropic purposes.

Fundraising & Resource Development

• Serve as a principal external fundraising leader, actively identifying and cultivating new prospects for funding and support.
• Build and manage a portfolio of individuals, families, and institutions through the identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship cycles.
• Forge relationships with and propose creative engagement opportunities to a diverse population of prospects who will help realize six- to nine-figure solicitations that lead Social Finance to new levels of impact.
• Leverage the time and talents of the CEO, who is Social Finance’s chief fundraiser, to engage, cultivate, and solicit top donors and prospects.
• Identify strategic funding needs, determine areas in which donors would be interested in making philanthropic investments, analyze the prospect base and set appropriate short- and long-term fundraising goals in consultation with colleagues and collaborators.
• Lead colleagues and collaborators to engage funders and donors in gift and grant approaches for their respective projects and funds.
• Inspire innovation, excellence, and expansive thinking when considering opportunities across the organization and design systems and processes that support a more proactive pursuit of funders.
• Support the high-touch stewardship of funder and prospect relationships through donor-centered communications that make the case for support clear and through the development of systems and processes that create an exceptional donor experience.
• Create a set of development marketing materials that articulate clear, consistent messaging; encourage adoption by the organization and work to ensure fundraising messages are reflected internally.

Leadership & Collaboration

Lead and manage the team with a style that is empowering, highly communicative, encourages teamwork, provides mentorship, and creates a high-performance culture in a hybrid working environment.

• Serve as an outstanding coach and mentor, with a dedication to hiring, retaining, and developing outstanding and diverse talent.
• Establish clear leadership directives to drive measurable impact and achieve performance goals.
• Raise the internal profile of the Partnerships team by creating transparent workflows that allow for greater collaboration and visibility across departments and business lines.
• Partner with senior leadership, including effectively engaging and collaborating with key stakeholders across the organization (e.g., Investor Relations, the Social Finance Institute, and programmatic teams), to ensure an aligned strategy and approach that provides wide-ranging fundraising opportunities to current and new partners.
• Provide training and feedback mechanisms to empower the Board and staff to spotlight funding opportunities and transfer conversations to the Partnerships team as appropriate.
• Engage funders and donors as thought partners and collective problem-solvers as the community works together to ensure positive outcomes across a myriad of social issues.
• Foster a culture of inclusiveness and transparency for the philanthropy program.

Qualifications & Characteristics

• 10-15 years of experience in fundraising, ideally within a strategic initiative or interdisciplinary framework inside of a complex, fast-paced environment
• A prolific fundraiser with a successful track record soliciting and closing, at a minimum, seven-figure gifts; experience with a donor base that includes ultra-high net worth individuals is desired.
• Experience in setting and executing a strategic vision for a new or expanding fundraising program, with a demonstrated ability to innovate, scale, and adapt fundraising efforts to align with organizational goals and objectives.
• Open leadership style that provides support and autonomy to staff and collaborators, and that creates strong teams who are motivated and focused on achieving goals. Able to pivot between leading others and working independently to achieve engagement and revenue goals.
• Thinks big picture while paying attention to the detail and separating the critical from the routine.
• Deeply energized by Social Finance’s mission and theory of change.
• Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion; in particular, constructively gathering and expressing diverse points of view.
• An understanding of domestic policy, impact investing, social finance, or related fields is highly desirable.
• Able to travel nationally; in addition to funder-related travel, regular travel to the Boston office to collaborate with senior executive team members and colleagues will be expected.

To view position description in its entirety or apply for the Chief Philanthropy Officer role, visit https://www.pearlstreetcollective.com/positions/sf-cpo