BACKGROUND

The Organization

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.

To learn more about STRIVE, please visit www.strive.org

The Position

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 MacKenzie 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 equally comfortable developing long-term revenue strategies and driving day-to-day progress toward ambitious fundraising goals.

ROLE OVERVIEW

Revenue Strategy

·        In partnership with organizational leadership, translate STRIVE’s growth plan into national, regional, and site-level fundraising strategies, budgets, forecasts, and targets.

·        In partnership with Executive Directors, develop strategy and capacity to increase local fundraising and support local sites in achieving self-sustaining operations over time.

·        Coordinate institutional, government, individual, corporate, special event, and other potential revenue sources, while identifying new unrestricted and partnership-based opportunities.

·        Identify and prioritize high-potential institutional, corporate, government, and philanthropic prospects, developing actionable pursuit strategies that engage executive leadership, board members, and local leaders in successful cultivation efforts.

·        Help translate outcomes, return on investment, scale, and the organization’s distinctive value into compelling narrative and materials.

·        Lead the strategy, positioning, and development of complex institutional funding opportunities, including large-scale foundation investments, capacity-building grants, and growth capital opportunities that support STRIVE's expansion agenda.

·        Establish clear fundraising priorities, ownership structures, milestones, and performance metrics to ensure execution against revenue goals.

Fundraising Leadership

·        Serve as a visible ambassador with funders, donors, corporate partners, elected officials, board members, and community stakeholders.

·        Expand board fundraising effectiveness by helping members leverage their relationships, influence, and networks in support of donor cultivation, introductions, and revenue growth.

·        Recruit new board members for the national organization, and in partnership with Executive Directors, establish local advisory boards to expand STRIVE’s reach and impact.

·        Serve as a strategic fundraising partner to Executive Directors, helping translate local market opportunities into actionable donor, government, and community engagement strategies tailored to each site's unique context.

·        Partner with the CEO as chief spokesperson and fundraiser, providing strategy, briefs, and support for transformational gift cultivation and solicitation.

·        Execute stewardship plans for current funders, ensuring reporting requirements are met and renewal strategies are in place.

·        Personally source and manage a focused portfolio of major and principal gift prospects, including regular visits, quarterly asks, and measurable revenue generation.

·        Provide strategic direction for major institutional proposals, ensuring STRIVE's case for support, funding narratives, and growth story are compelling, differentiated, and responsive to funder priorities.

Team Leadership and Supervision

·        Lead a high-performing development team by providing strategic direction, prioritization, coaching, and resources that enable staff to execute at the highest level.

·        Ensure cohesion, collaboration, and communication throughout the team.

·        Partner with the Director of Institutional Giving to grow the corporate and foundation pipeline at the national and regional level.

·        Serve as a strategic thought partner on fundraising narratives, helping strengthen STRIVE's case for support, messaging, institutional proposals, and donor communications.

·        Identify opportunities for the development team to respond to RFPs and other public sector funding opportunities.

·        In partnership with Public Policy and Investment team members, monitor legislative, regulatory and budgetary activity to identify sustainable public funding sources, including discretionary and earmarked opportunities.

Organizational Leadership

·        Build trust and alignment across departments, helping bridge communication gaps and foster productive partnerships between development, finance, programs, operations, and site leadership.

·        Partner closely with Finance to align fundraising forecasts, grant commitments, cash flow timing, revenue recognition, and expansion planning.

·        Partner with Marketing & Communications to strengthen STRIVE's external positioning, case for support, and donor engagement strategy.

·        Bring a full leadership voice to executive and board discussions, assess market and funding opportunities, and balance ambition with financial and operational capacity.

·        Partner with program and impact leaders to identify funding gaps and connect donor interests to program priorities.

·        Partner with the Chief Program Officer, Executive Directors, and other leaders to cultivate federal, state, and municipal stakeholders and pursue public funding opportunities.

·        Collaborate on co-branded awareness campaigns, including educational materials, media placements, website content, and media and narrative training.

Revenue Goal

Current Markets

Development Team Size

$20M+ Annually

NYC, Atlanta, Birmingham, New Orleans, North Jersey, Houston (Spring 2027)

10+ Development Team Members

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

Strategic Mindset

Transforms STRIVE’s ambitious growth goals into actionable funding strategies, identifying opportunities and mobilizing resources to support sustainable national expansion.

Drives Results

Creates accountability for revenue performance by turning plans into measurable actions, maintaining momentum, and delivering ambitious fundraising outcomes.

Instills Trust

Builds deep credibility with funders, board members, executive leaders, and staff by leading with authenticity, consistency, and strong judgment.

Financial Acumen

Applies sophisticated understanding of forecasting, budgeting, funding structures, and revenue projections to support informed organizational decision-making.

Builds Networks

Cultivates and leverages relationships across philanthropy, government, corporate sectors, boards, and community stakeholders to expand STRIVE’s influence and funding opportunities.

Collaborates

Brings together diverse stakeholders across sites, departments, and leadership levels to align priorities, strengthen partnerships, and advance shared fundraising goals.

The ideal candidate for the CDO position possesses the following competencies: 

Additional Qualifications

·        Senior fundraising leadership experience, preferably as a Chief Development Officer or equivalent executive in a national, multi-site, or distributed organization.

·        Demonstrated success helping organizations grow revenue, expand programs or geographic reach, and scale through periods of significant organizational growth.

·        Proven track record securing transformational philanthropic investments, strategic institutional grants, and other complex funding partnerships.

·        Broad fundraising expertise spanning institutional, government, corporate, individual, and major gift revenue streams.

·        Experience developing and executing fundraising strategies across national and local markets, including support for regional sites, chapters, affiliates, or partner organizations.

·        Strong financial acumen, including revenue forecasting, budgeting, grant compliance, cash flow management, and long-range planning.

·        Demonstrated success identifying, cultivating, and securing new funding opportunities, rather than solely managing existing donor portfolios.

·        Experience engaging, activating, and supporting boards and volunteer leaders as fundraising partners and ambassadors.

·        Proven ability to influence and build trust across complex organizations, aligning diverse stakeholders around shared goals and priorities.

·        Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including experience shaping compelling proposals, investment cases, donor communications, and organizational narratives.

·        Skilled people leader with experience building high-performing teams, developing talent, and fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and results.

·        Mission-driven executive who thrives in dynamic, growth-oriented environments and brings sound judgment, adaptability, and strategic problem-solving to evolving challenges.

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

Work Environment

This role will be based out of the STRIVE NYC office on a hybrid schedule. There will be local and national travel required for this role.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

STRIVE considers applicants for all positions without regard to race; color; religion; gender; national origin; age; sexual orientation; marital or veteran status; the presence of a medical condition, genetic information or handicap, unrelated to performing the tasks of the job; or any other legally protected status.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

Salary

$270,000 - $300,000

Benefits

·        Health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance

·        Flexible Spending Accounts

·        401K with employer match

·        Paid vacation, paid holidays (including the week of Christmas), and sick leave

·        Early closing each Friday during the summer

TIMELINE AND NEXT STEPS

If you are interested in this position, please click here. All applicants will receive an email confirming receipt of their application.

We encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply even if you do not meet all of the qualifications outlined above. If you are selected to move forward for an initial screening call, we expect you to hear from us by the end of October.