Chief Relationship Officer

About Communities Foundation Of Texas

The mission of Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT) is to improve the lives of all people in our community by investing in their health, wealth, living, and learning. CFT works to accomplish this by growing community giving, expanding community impact, and advancing community equity. With a vision of building thriving communities for all, CFT works locally and across the state with many individuals, families, companies, foundations, and nonprofits through a variety of charitable funds and strategic grantmaking initiatives.

CFT professionally manages more than 1,400 charitable funds and has awarded more than $3 billion in grants since its founding in 1953.

CFT is committed to serving and understanding donor needs, expertly handling complex gifts, wisely managing charitable funds, and leveraging its community knowledge to increase charitable impact, in addition to powering several initiatives including the W. W. Caruth, Jr. Fund at CFT, the Center for Business Impact, Educate Texas at CFT, Emerging Leaders in Philanthropy at CFT, Give Wisely, and CFT’s North Texas Giving Day.

CFT’s North Texas Giving Day raised more than $78 million in 2025 to help over 3,500 North Texas nonprofits, and has raised more than $712 million since its inception in 2009. Learn more .

Your Role

The Chief Relationship Officer (CRO) is a senior enterprise leader responsible for advancing CFT’s mission by strengthening the foundation’s external relationships and translating those relationships into greater community giving, deeper donor engagement, and expanded impact. Reporting to the President and CEO, the CRO leads the Relationships department, including Donor Relations, Donor Services, and the Center for Business Impact, and ensures these functions operate as an integrated, high-performing team.

The CRO is accountable for building strategies, systems, and partnerships that serve donors and fund holders exceptionally well; cultivate prospective donors, professional advisors, businesses, and community partners; and align relationship-driven growth with CFT’s broader strategic priorities.

What you'll do

• Relationship strategy and growth:
  Lead an organization-wide strategy to grow community giving, expand the donor and prospect pipeline, deepen fund holder engagement, and increase gifts, new funds, planned giving commitments, and other charitable opportunities aligned with CFT’s mission.
• Donor and fund holder engagement:
  Build consistent practices for understanding donor goals, family dynamics, philanthropic interests, and long-term charitable intent, including legacy planning, complex gifts, multigenerational giving, and customized giving opportunities.
• Professional advisor engagement:
  Strengthen relationships with attorneys, financial advisors, estate planners, accountants, and other trusted advisors so CFT is viewed as a preferred partner for charitable planning and giving solutions.
• High-net-worth and complex gifts:
  Lead cultivation strategies for high-net-worth individuals and families, including prospect identification, relationship mapping, tailored engagement plans, and collaboration with legal, finance, investment, and program colleagues.
• Community knowledge and donor education:
  Connect donors and prospects with timely information about community needs, strategic initiatives, nonprofit partners, funding opportunities, and philanthropic approaches aligned with their interests.
• Donor services and stewardship:
  Ensure responsive, consistent, high-quality service to donors and fund holders, with clear standards for stewardship, issue resolution, communication, grantmaking support, and relationship management.
• Business engagement and CBI:
  Support the Center for Business Impact in cultivating companies, developing business giving strategies, employee engagement opportunities, corporate philanthropy solutions, and related offerings.
• North Texas Giving Day integration:
  Leverage North Texas Giving Day as a relationship-building platform for donors, prospective fund holders, nonprofit discovery, employee giving campaigns, and business engagement.
• Brand, communications, and market positioning:
  Par…