Senior Director of Development

About Room to Grow

At Room to Grow, we believe that strong starts in childhood lead to strong outcomes in life, and that parents and caregivers are best equipped to nurture their children’s growth and development when they have the support they need to thrive. We partner with families during the critical early years (ages 0-3) through our unique, strengths-based program, working alongside parents to offer consistent, personalized support and resources to meet their child’s needs and goals.

Room to Grow is a non-profit organization operating in New York and Boston with a team of 40+ passionate and dedicated team members. Check out our website to learn more about us!

Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, the Senior Director of Development is the senior day-to-day leader of Room to Grow’s External Engagement function, responsible for ensuring the team, systems, and work streams are aligned to support the organization’s fundraising, visibility, and growth goals. Working closely with the CEO, this role leads a cross-functional team spanning individual giving, institutional and corporate partnerships, events, development operations, and brand and communications, and is accountable for strong team management, clear priorities, and consistent execution across all external engagement efforts.

The Senior Director oversees the implementation of integrated fundraising and communications strategies that drive growth across multiple revenue streams and elevate Room to Grow’s brand and visibility. In close partnership with the CEO, this role also serves as a key advisor in shaping overarching external engagement strategy, helping translate high-level organizational priorities into clear departmental direction while ensuring functional leads are meaningfully engaged in informing and refining strategy within their respective areas.

This role is responsible for building the structure, accountability, and operational discipline needed to support strong fundraising results and sustainable growth.

The ideal candidate is a collaborative and experienced people leader with strong interpersonal, communication, and relationship-building skills, and a track record of leading high-performing teams across multiple functions. They bring demonstrated fundraising and external engagement experience, strong operational and coordination skills, and the ability to build the structure, systems, and accountability needed to support effective execution in a growing organization. This is a critical leadership role that will collaborate closely with program, finance, operations, people & culture, and the CEO to advance organizational goals.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Provide day-to-day leadership, coaching, and development for a cross-functional team of six direct reports, with overall responsibility for the performance, alignment, and success of a ten-person External Engagement department (9 FTE + 1 PT).
• Cultivate a collaborative and accountable team culture, ensuring team members consistently demonstrate Room to Grow’s values in their work and across all fundraising and communications efforts.
• Set clear performance expectations, provide consistent and actionable feedback, and conduct regular check-ins and performance reviews to support staff growth and goal attainment.
• Partner with the People & Culture team to support hiring, onboarding, professional development, and performance management practices across the department.
• Represent Room to Grow internally and externally with professionalism, passion, and a strong grounding in our mission, values, and impact.

• Serve as a strategic thought partner to the CEO in shaping overarching fundraising, brand & communications priorities, helping translate organizational goals into clear, actionable plans for the External Engagement team across all revenue streams.
• Act as a key bridge between the CEO and External Engagement functional leads (Brand & Communications, Events, Individual Giving, Institutional Giving, Partnerships). Ensure frontline…