Director of Development

Position:
Director of Development

Salary:
Commensurate with Ability

Reports to:

Chief Executive Officer

The Director of Development is responsible for leading the day to day fundraising work of Chattanooga Preparatory School and building a sustainable development program that supports the school’s mission and strategic priorities. Reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer, the Director of Development serves as the primary owner of Chattanooga Prep’s fundraising systems, donor pipeline, stewardship efforts, grant strategy, and development operations.

This is a hands‑on position without direct reports. The Director must be equally comfortable developing strategy and executing the daily work required to achieve results, including researching prospects, scheduling donor meetings, preparing proposals, maintaining donor records, following up with prospects, managing grants, coordinating stewardship, and making direct tasks.

The Director works in close partnership with the CEO, Grant Writer and Director of Marketing and Communications through the Development Team. The CEO will remain actively engaged in major donor relationships, community partnerships, and significant solicitations. The Director of Development is responsible for ensuring that those efforts are organized, prepared, tracked, followed through, and converted into long term relationships and financial support.

Success in this role will be measured not simply by activity, but by dollars raised, donor retention, new donor acquisition, growth of the donor pipeline, quality of stewardship, grant performance, and progress toward Chattanooga Prep’s annual fundraising goals.

• Fundraising & Revenue Generation. Develop and execute an annual fundraising plan aligned with Chattanooga Prep’s strategic priorities and revenue goals across annual giving, major gifts, corporate support, foundations, campaigns, and other philanthropic opportunities.
• Prospecting & Pipeline Development. Continuously identify and qualify new prospects. Build a robust pipeline rather than relying solely on the CEO, board, existing donors, or inbound opportunities.
• Donor Cultivation & Solicitation. Personally cultivate, solicit, and steward donors through face to face meetings, calls, proposals, tours, events, and other strategic touchpoints. Be comfortable making direct financial asks.
• Portfolio Management. Own a portfolio of current and prospective donors with clear strategies, next steps, ask amounts, timelines, and documented follow up.
• CEO Partnership. Prepare the CEO for major donor meetings and solicitations, including research, strategy, briefing materials, proposals, and follow up. Convert CEO relationships and introductions into organized fundraising opportunities.
• Board Engagement. Partner with the CEO and Development Committee to engage board members in introductions, cultivation, stewardship, and fundraising activity.
• Grants. Work closely with the Grant Writer to maintain a strong grant calendar and pipeline, identify opportunities, ensure timely submissions, and connect grant strategy to institutional priorities.
• Stewardship. Build a thoughtful donor stewardship system that demonstrates impact, strengthens relationships, improves retention, and creates opportunities for increased giving.
• Development Operations. Maintain accurate donor records, pipeline reports, gift processing and acknowledgment systems, forecasts, and development dashboards.
• Development Communications. Partner with Marketing and Communications to ensure donor communications, cases for support, proposals, impact stories, campaigns, and events advance fundraising objectives.
• Events. Use fundraising and cultivation events as tools for relationship building and revenue…