Chief Development Officer

Since 1984, STRIVE has helped individuals facing significant barriers to employment gain access to meaningful careers, economic mobility, and long-term opportunity. Through its proven Five-Pillar Model, STRIVE combines career readiness, occupational skills training, career coaching, job placement assistance, and lifetime support to help participants secure and sustain employment. Over four decades, STRIVE and its affiliates have served more than 90,000 individuals nationwide.

Today, STRIVE operates direct-service sites in New York City, Atlanta, Birmingham, New Orleans, Northern New Jersey, and will open a new site in Houston in Spring 2027. Additionally, STRIVE supports a growing network of partner-operated programs across the country. The organization has earned national recognition for achieving strong outcomes while serving individuals who face some of the greatest barriers to employment, including housing instability, justice-system involvement, and substance use recovery.

STRIVE is now embarking on an ambitious next chapter. Guided by a multi-year growth plan, developed with the support of The Bridgespan Group, the organization aims to serve 20,000 individuals annually by 2036 through a growing network of direct-operated and partner-operated sites, positioning STRIVE as the nation's leading employment partner for highly barriered jobseekers. Over the next decade, STRIVE expects to serve approximately 110,000 individuals, generating an estimated $1.5 billion in wage gains and transforming economic opportunity for families and communities across the country.

To achieve this vision, STRIVE is investing in organizational capacity, fundraising, public funding strategy, technology, evaluation, and national infrastructure. The organization's next Chief Development Officer will play a critical leadership role in securing the resources, partnerships, and strategic investments necessary to fuel this growth and national expansion.

The Chief Development Officer reports to the Chief Executive Officer, serves as a member of STRIVE's Executive Leadership Team, and leads the organization's Development function.

STRIVE enters this search from a position of strength. The organization has built a highly capable fundraising team, established sophisticated development systems and processes, and secured support from many of the nation's leading philanthropic institutions, including Ballmer Group, Blue Meridian Partners, and Mac Kenzie Scott’s Yield Giving. The next Chief Development Officer will focus on accelerating growth, expanding revenue, strengthening organizational positioning, and securing transformational investments that support STRIVE's long-term vision for national scale.

Over the coming years, STRIVE must demonstrate its ability to expand into new markets, support partner-operated sites, increase public funding, activate local fundraising ecosystems, and sustain a growing national network. The Chief Development Officer will serve as the architect of that fundraising strategy, translating organizational ambitions into actionable revenue plans and ensuring the organization has the philanthropic, public, and private resources necessary to achieve its goals.

This leader will partner closely with the CEO, Executive Directors, board members, local advisory boards, and external funding partners to identify opportunities, cultivate strategic relationships, and secure transformational investments. The successful candidate will combine strategic vision with disciplined execution, proactively identifying new funding opportunities, mobilizing stakeholders around clear fundraising priorities, and ensuring accountability for results across a complex and growing organization.

They will be…