Chief Development Officer (Chicago / Hybrid)

Development Chicago, Illinois

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Description

Work. Serve. Thrive.

Imagine a place where your talent can make a meaningful difference in peoples' lives. Working at Feeding America is a uniquely rewarding experience in which our employees work together as vital parts of a much larger mission. We are innovative, mission-focused, diverse, collaborative, values-driven and focused on results.

Feeding America is the nation’s largest charity and the leading domestic hunger-relief charity in the United States. Our mission is to feed America's hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and engage our country in the fight to end hunger.

Learn more about Feeding America here.

This position is based out of Feeding America’s Chicago office. At Feeding America, we believe in offering a flexible work environment. Employees can be in the office an average of 2 days a week (when not travelling for work) and work from home on other days. Employees also have access to a 30-day “work anywhere” program during the course of each calendar year that can be combined with PTO and/or holidays.

The Opportunity

The Chief Development Officer (CDO) serves as lead strategist and enterprise leader accountable for delivering sustained, year-over-year philanthropic revenue growth (currently $225–$250M annually) through best-in-class, disciplined fundraising practices and integrated revenue strategy in fulfilling Feeding America’s mission and strategic goals.  The CDO is responsible for embedding a vibrant, organization-wide culture of philanthropy and stewardship that actively engages the staff and the Board as committed partners in philanthropy. 

The CDO leads execution of all revenue generating enterprises (in collaboration with direct marketing) and sets clear performance expectations for donor acquisition, increased giving among existing donors, and reduced donor attrition through rigorous, data-driven donor prospecting, segmentation, moves management, and stewardship across all teams and leaders. The CDO directs development and implementation of strategies to grow multi-faceted strategic partnerships, cultivate high-capacity, consistent, transformational donors, expand markets and engage the Feeding America Board in resource development.

The CDO plays a critical role in supporting network-wide fundraising capacity building and oversees the development and maintenance of best-in-class systems and standards, including but not limited to revenue management and forecasting, analytics and reporting, donor stewardship and cultivation, employee engagement, prospect research, and donor recognition. They hold leaders accountable for disciplined application and continuous improvement and will serve as a member of Feeding America’s Executive Team, responsible for aligning investment decisions (including acquisition and capacity investments) to measurable return  and sustainable enterprise growth.

Russell Reynolds Associates, the global search and leadership advisory firm, has been exclusively engaged to lead this search.  
Please direct all inquiries and expressions of interest (applications) to: [email protected]

Compensation

Here at Feeding America national organization, equality is central to our mission and is an integral part of our compensation policies and structures. As such, we maintain transparent salary ranges and clearly defined practices for how our team, including new hire salary offers, moves through these ranges. You can expect us to offer the best salary up front based on these clearly defined pay practices with little room for negotiation. We make exceptions for highly experienced (multiple years of at-level experience) new hires in accordance with our pay practices. Once hired, employees have the opportunity to progress through salary ranges via regular merit increases and step promotions. 

Salary Range: $300,000 - $350,000 Based on Experience

The Chief Development Officer responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Expanding the top of the donor pyramid by strengthening stewardship, increasing in-person engagement, and accelerating movement of donors into top-tier giving

  • Sustaining a strong corporate fundraising engine while building a more robust and diversified individual giving pipeline, including major and planned gifts

  • Building trust and alignment with local food banks, ensuring proactive coordination on donor strategy and maximizing the “Better Together” approach to fundraising

  • Establishing clear KPIs, strengthening forecasting and pipeline management, and driving consistent execution across teams to improve fundraising outcomes

  • Providing strong people leadership to a talented but process-heavy organization, reinforcing accountability, ownership, and a culture of excellence

  • Driving results with a newly appointed CEO, Denis McDonough, supporting his first year in relationship-building, goal-setting, and storytelling

  • Capitalizing on CRM investments and large-scale donor data to enable more sophisticated segmentation, predictive insights, and donor strategies

  • Partnering closely across marketing, supply chain, and other functions to deliver more coordinated, multi-channel fundraising strategies

Ideal Experience and Expertise:

  • Visionary, metrics-driven fundraiser with a proven track record building transformational relationships and delivering sustained year-over-year revenue growth through disciplined best practices, strong stewardship, and accountable performance management

  • Broad and deep fundraising experience with proven ability to secure multi-million, multi-year, multi-faceted corporate/cause marketing partnerships, high-net-worth individuals, and foundations, and to build scalable pipelines with rigorous prospecting and stewardship

  • Experience in a complex, networked, or federated environment where collaboration, co-creation, and consistent standards are critical success factors

  • Experience cultivating transformational principal gifts and partnerships including the development and execution of highly-customized donor cultivation strategies, solicitation approaches and donor stewardship and leveraging these gifts for maximum impact through effective planning and project management

  • Ability to elicit, understand and synthesize complex information and translate that information into a case for support that motivates constituents to give

  • A track record of effective leadership in active listening, relationship building and thoughtfully stewarding the highest-level corporate and foundation executives, high-net worth individuals, and other key influencers

  • Accomplished, compelling, public speaker with demonstrated experience engaging audiences of varying sizes in formal and informal settings and directing the execution and planning of events and activities to engage donors

Required Leadership Competencies:
  • Fosters an Enterprise Mindset
  • Fosters an Open and Supportive Environment
  • Leads with Accountability
  • Collaborates Internally and Externally
  • Focuses on People and Teams
  • Manages Organization and Business Complexity
  • Communicates with Impact and Influence

Feeding America’s goal is to attract, develop, retain, and promote a talented diverse workforce where all employees feel a sense of belonging and contribute to a culture that values differences, ideas, and experiences. We intentionally seek out diverse perspectives and skills on our teams, knowing that it makes us stronger as an organization and better equipped to serve our neighbors in need. We encourage all individuals, including those from historically under-represented communities and individuals with lived experience of hunger, to apply.

 

Feeding America participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9.

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