Deputy Chief

Position: Deputy Chief of Advancement

Job Description

KIPP Team & Family is at an inflection point in our fundraising work. We have ambitious goals, a committed team, and strong mission alignment—but we want to significantly level up our fundraising infrastructure, systems, and practice to raise $10M+ annually across both states.

We’re looking for an experienced fundraising leader who can be both strategist and builder : someone who will roll up their sleeves to strengthen our operations, develop our team’s capabilities, and model excellent major gifts practice—all while helping us grow revenue and build a sustainable, professionalized fundraising operation across New Jersey and Florida.

This is a “build the plane while flying it” opportunity for someone who gets energized by developing people, fixing systems, and creating something stronger than what exists today.

Who You’ll Work With

You’ll report to the Chief Growth & Advancement Officer, who oversees Development, Advocacy, and Growth across both states. You’ll directly manage our Director of Institutional Giving and Manager of Development Operations, and provide coaching and professional development support to our state-based advancement directors.

Our team is hardworking, mission-driven, and knows our work deeply, but have varying levels of experience in their fundraising careers. You and the CGAO will be the most senior fundraising practitioners on the team, and people will look to you both to raise the bar on what excellent fundraising looks like.

What Success Looks Like In Year One, you will :

• Stabilize and strengthen our core fundraising systems (Raiser’s Edge, reporting, donor tracking, finance coordination) working closely with our operations manager
• Establish baseline metrics and accountability rhythms that drive consistent activity and results
• Assess the team’s capabilities and design a professional development roadmap that addresses our highest‑leverage gaps
• Build and manage your own portfolio of major donor relationships (25-40 donors), modeling best‑in‑class cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship
• Create annual and multi‑year fundraising plans that are ambitious, realistic, and aligned with current philanthropy trends
• Establish yourself as a trusted partner to our finance team and internal stakeholders

In Year Two and beyond, you will :

• Deepen training and coaching as systems stabilize and the operations function matures
• Scale effective practices across both states
• Expand portfolio strategies and increase the team’s major gifts capacity
• Position the organization to meet and exceed increasingly ambitious revenue goals

What You’ll Do Build Fundraising Excellence and Capacity

• Provide hands‑on coaching, training, and professional development to fundraising staff across multiple disciplines : major gifts, institutional giving, events, stewardship, cultivation, and donor relations
• Model best practices through your own portfolio work—demonstrating what excellent donor engagement looks like in real time
• Evaluate and upgrade our full stack of fundraising materials, event plans, cultivation strategies, and donor communications to meet industry standards
• Work alongside the CGAO to ensure our strategies are ambitious, evidence‑based, and calibrated to efficiently meet / exceed goals

Strengthen Systems and Operations

• Partner closely with the Manager of Development Operations to troubleshoot, build, and implement fundraising systems and tools that drive week‑to‑week productivity
• Help develop the operations manager’s skills and capabilities so they can increasingly own day‑to‑day systems management
• Design and implement frontline fundraiser metrics that create accountability, track progress, and foster a collegial, results‑oriented culture
• Ensure our systems for internal collaboration—especially with finance—are accurate, timely, and sufficiently detailed

Manage Revenue and Relationships

• Build and manage a portfolio of 25‑40 major donor relationships, generating significant revenue while demonstrating cultivation and solicitation best practices for the team
• Partner with state directors on their most complex donor relationships and opportunities
• Directly manage the Director of Institutional Giving and…