Director of Development
Children's Defense Fund

Background

For more than 30 years, the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), has made great strides to protect the most vulnerable children in America. CDF, a Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, was founded in 1973 by Marian Wright Edelman and has its roots in the civil rights movement and in Dr. Martin Luther King's 1968 Poor People's Campaign. CDF's research, public education campaigns, budget and policy advocacy, and coalition building have contributed to millions of children gaining immunizations, health care, child care, Head Start, a right to education, adoptions, a chance to escape poverty, and new and important protections within our child welfare, mental health, and juvenile justice systems. The Children's Defense Fund Action Council, a related Section 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, engages directly in legislative advocacy and lobbying on behalf of children and the poor.

The Children's Defense Fund's Leave No Child Behind(r) mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. CDF provides a strong, effective voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby, or speak for themselves. CDF is dedicated to reducing the numbers of neglected, sick, uneducated, and poor children in the United States. Paying particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities, CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventive investment before they get sick or into trouble, drop out of school, or suffer family breakdown. CDF is financially supported by foundations, corporations, and individuals. CDF has never taken government funds.

Over the last 30 years, CDF has accomplished much for children:
 

• In its first decade, CDF researched and defined critical child needs in all racial and income groups, outlined and tested action strategies to meet those needs, began documenting the cost effectiveness of prevention and early intervention. CDF leadership played an important role in helping to pass the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (now IDEA), and the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act.

• In its second decade, CDF educated a wide range of mainstream networks, at the state and local level, about the importance of child and youth investment. On a national level, CDF influenced the Family Support Act, helped expand the Fair Housing Act to protect families with children, and exerted a leadership role in promoting the Act for Better Childcare, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit.

• In its third decade, CDF sought to strengthen and better integrate its field mobilizing, organizing, and communications efforts and now has 14 regional and state offices. A program of leadership development and spiritual renewal was strengthened and centered at CDF Haley Farm in Tennessee where young leaders, policy makers and community builders come to connect with and learn from each other. The CDF Freedom Schools(tm) program served more than 23,000 children through a summer program, integrating reading, conflict resolution, and social action. In the policy arena, CDF was a leader in the reauthorization of Head Start, strengthening the Child Support Enforcement program, the defeat of seven out of eight proposals to dismantle major children's income, healthcare, foster care, and nutrition programs, and working for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
  
  CDF helped to introduce in Congress in 2001 the comprehensive Dodd-Miller Act to Leave No Child Behind (not to be confused with the Bush Administration's single-issue No Child Left Behind Education Act). If fully enacted into law, all Americans would have the opportunity to:

• Prepare every child for school through full funding of quality childcare, Head Start and Early Head Start, and new investments in universal preschool education programs

• Lift every child from poverty by 2015;

• Ensure that every child and parent has health insurance as a first step toward coverage for all children;

• End child hunger through the expansion of food programs, living wages, tax credits, and family supports;

• Make sure every child can read by fourth grade and can graduate from high school able to succeed at work and in life;

• Provide every child safe, quality after-school and summer programs to learn, serve, work, and stay out of trouble;

• Ensure every child decent affordable housing;

• Protect all children from neglect, abuse, and other violence and ensure them the care they need;

• Ensure families leaving welfare the supports required to be successful in the workplace, including healthcare, childcare, education, and training.
   

 Specific Role

  The Director of Development reports directly to CDF's Chief Operating Officer and supervises the following staff members:
 

• Director of Corporate Relations/Special Events

• Director of Major Gifts

• Direct Marketing Manager

• Development Assistant

• Prospect Researcher

• Data Entry Clerk(s)

The strategic focus of CDF on mobilizing a national movement to change our values and priorities for children will require the Director of Development to create, in cooperation with the President and Founder and other key CDF staff, a comprehensive plan to increase diversity of funding sources as well as increase levels of support. Because CDF has never taken government funds, the Director must strategically focus on developing and implementing an effective, ambitious, fundraising strategy that will engage national, regional, state, and local resources. The Director's leadership and communication skills will be vitally important in building support for fundraising initiatives both internally and externally.

The responsibilities of the Director of Development will include raising sufficient funds to support a budget that will grow significantly over the next seven to ten years from the current budget of over $20 million. The Director will oversee the renewal and reporting process for over 100 direct grants and will work closely with CDF staff, including the President, to plan and present new grant proposals. Foundation and corporate grants currently provide over 70% of the organization's funding. In order to support major new efforts in the future, this area will require significant expansion, while at the same time the percentage contribution to the budget from grants should decrease as a result of improvements in other areas of giving. Support from major individual donors provides for just 7% of the 2006 budget, and is seen as potentially an area of exponential growth. Planned giving is an area in which considerable new growth can be achieved. The direct mail campaign provides the majority of funding for the CDF Action Council, currently budgeted at a level of about $600,000. This area will also need to be significantly enhanced in order to fund the Action Council's major additional efforts to impact public policy and legislation.

Primary responsibilities include the following:
 

• Direct and administer all fundraising activities;

• Implement cultivation and solicitation activities that will stimulate and significantly grow existing individual and institutional giving;

• Provide broad leadership and support to cultivate and solicit increased financial support from all sectors, so as to meet current and future fiscal needs;

• Create new fundraising initiatives, events and programs to expand the number of donors and private contributions;

• Create and implement a major gifts program;

• Recruit, train, manage and develop staff as needed;

• Serve as a member of the CDF's senior management team participating in the development and implementation of overall goals, policies and public image;

• Create long-range and short-term program and fiscal plans for the Development Division, and institute and evaluate measurable goals and objectives;

• Produce and distribute the Annual Report; and

• Analyze, prepare and present monthly reports to senior management.

 Major Objectives  

 Personal Characteristics

The following personal characteristics are preferred in the new Director: 

• A strong commitment to improving the lives of children and their families;

•  Understanding and commitment to CDF's mission;

• A team leader with exceptionally strong interpersonal skills;

• Healthy respect for colleagues, employees, and superiors;

• Goal-oriented, project-oriented, and results-oriented;

• Strong sense of honor and integrity;

• Sense of humor.

Compensation 

Compensation will be commensurate with skill and market.
 

 Please forward resumes immediately to: