• Full Time
  • St. Louis City
  • Applications have closed
  • Salary: $85,000 to $100,000
  • Organization Type: Education

City Garden Montessori School

About the Position

City Garden Montessori School (CGMS) is seeking a Director of Development to lead and manage the organization’s fundraising efforts. The Director of Development will raise funds through individual gifts, corporate and foundation grants, planned giving and special events and will supervise a Communications Manager. The Director of Development reports to the CEO and works closely with the Board of Directors, as well as volunteers, staff, families and students to build and implement a successful development strategy.

The Director of Development will be a passionate individual who is strongly aligned with City Garden’s anti-biased, antiracist, Montessori mission. We are seeking a leader who loves to learn, is a strong collaborator, is open to giving and receiving constructive feedback, and who will think outside the box to help City Garden achieve its fundraising goals.

In order to fulfill these responsibilities, the ideal Director of Development will possess:

  • A deep grounding in racial equity, having strong alignment with anti-bias, anti-racism values, and able to lead from this place, with an emphasis on community-centered philanthropy
  • Demonstrated success as a strong leader and people manager
  • Strategic mindset, with the ability to craft and align a team around a compelling vision for excellence
  • Effective management and leadership experience with a track record of effectively coaching, developing, and evaluating staff and holding them accountable to measurable results
  • Growth mindset and self-starter
  • Humility, vulnerability, and a willingness to speak and hear constructive and candid feedback

CITY GARDEN MONTESSORI SCHOOL MISSION AND BACKGROUND:

CGMS exists to redefine education by developing the whole child in an excellent, inclusive, Montessori school; to reimagine community by creating spaces and systems that help to restore our collective humanity; and to reinvigorate our world by creating a culture in which individuals and communities thrive without disparities or barriers to success.

CGMS was founded in 1995 as a Montessori preschool. In the mid-2000s, as a response to the educational inequity that exists in St. Louis, preschool parents worked with the founders to open a charter public elementary school. CGMS’ public charter school opened in the basement of a church in 2008 with 53 students, grades K-3. The school added a grade level each year until the school reached eighth grade and served 275 students, moving into the building at 1618 Tower Grove Avenue in 2012. In 2021, CGMS expanded its preschool and kindergarten program and in 2022, CGMS opened its new Elementary and Adolescent Center (EAEC), housing lower elementary (1st-3rd grade), upper elementary (4th-6th grade) and junior high (7th-8th grade) students. CGMS now serves 622 students in preschool through eighth grade across two buildings. CGMS will continue to grow over the next three years until the school reaches 700 students.

We achieve our mission by combining the Montessori Theory of Development, rigorous state standards and an Anti-Bias, Antiracism (ABAR) framework in an intentionally diverse school setting. You can read CGMS’s strategic framework here.

Priorities of the Director of Development Role

  • Build upon CGMS’s current development structures, systems, and procedures to ensure a healthy, robust, effective, and efficient development program that will be sustained over time.
  • Grow and strengthening CGMS’s Annual Fund campaign (The Annual Fund currently brings in approximately $830,000 in gross revenue.)
  • Partner with the CEO to raise the final $5 million of a $20 million multi-year comprehensive growth campaign.
  • Create and oversee effective marketing and communications plans that reflects CGMS’s mission and values.

Play a key role in CGMS’s strategic planning, in partnership with the CEO, the board, and other stakeholders.

Responsibilities

  • Create and execute a comprehensive annual development plan that includes individual giving, grants, corporate sponsorship, and events, with a specific focus on increasing major gifts (contributions of $1,000 or more) and cultivating new donors.
  • Grow and strengthen the Annual Fund with the goal of achieving a 20% increase in overall support over the next four years. Report fundraising results compared to budget to the CEO and to the Board throughout the year.
  • Manage grant requests and reporting, including grant writing, submitting timely reports, and building relationships with foundation officials.
  • Direct public relations and marketing initiatives, ensuring tone and message organization-wide continuity.
  • Supervise fundraising staff, communications staff, fundraising consultants, and communications consultants.

Qualifications
Candidates must meet the following requirements:

  • At least five years of successful fundraising experience, preferably in small to mid-size nonprofits and/or schools. Successful experience with an organization having an annual budget of between $5 and $25 million and raising $1 million or more in philanthropic revenue. Three or more years leading a development department or a team within a development department.
  • Experience effectively supervising and managing a staff of at least two other people. Proven ability to set goals, coach others, and effectively evaluate employees.
  • Proven experience in cultivating new donors and expanding donor relationships over time.
  • Excellent writing, verbal communication, and interpersonal skills.
  • Dedication to stewardship of donor gifts: prompt and accurate reporting of the uses of contributions; support of donor wishes; appropriate donor acknowledgement.
  • Ability to direct the implementation of marketing and communications plans.
  • Proficiency in managing systems and software to track and cultivate donors and prospects, specifically donor databases, Google Suite, Microsoft Office Suite, and wealth screening tools.
  • Ability to analyze and interpret data and prepare reports, statements, and/or projections.
  • Understanding of PreK-12 education and its political and policy landscape.

Please visit our Career Page at this LINK to apply.

City Garden Montessori School is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any applicant or employee because of race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, or military or veteran status in accordance with federal law. In addition, City Garden Montessori School complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every jurisdiction in which it maintains facilities. City Garden Montessori School also provides reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities in accordance with applicable laws.