Chief Philanthropy Officer
South Orange County, CA
Position Overview
The J.F. Shea Therapeutic Riding Center (sheacenter.org) in San Juan Capistrano has retained Sterling Search, Inc. to conduct a search for its new Chief Philanthropy Officer.
The Chief Philanthropy Officer (CPO) serves as a key leadership team member and an active participant in continuing to develop the strategic vision for The Shea Center. This position reports to the Chief Executive Officer, Dana Butler-Moburg who has led the organization for almost 28 years and is herself an accomplished fundraising executive. In partnership with the CEO, this position is responsible for all philanthropic and communications activities. The successful candidate will help forge new relationships to build upon The Shea Center’s visibility, impact and financial resources. The CPO will also design and implement a comprehensive strategic plan for developing key external alliances and philanthropic support.
Mission: The Shea Center is dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities through therapeutic horse-related programs.
About the Shea Center
The Shea Center, established in 1978, provides equine assisted services, including physical, occupational, and speech therapies, adaptive riding, mental health care, team building, and personal development. Located in a state-of-the-art facility in San Juan Capistrano, the Center serves over 1,400 participants annually with the help of 28 horses and 700+ volunteers.
The Shea Center offers specialized programs addressing more than 85 disabilities and provides financial aid to support clients. Accredited at the highest level by PATH Intl., it is recognized globally for its excellence in equine assisted therapy and training. Shea is the leading therapeutic riding center of the 800 centers in the U.S. and the largest worldwide, with the following 2 centers being half of the size of Shea. Recent fundraising efforts have completed the “Expanding the Vision” projects, a series of 17 transformative initiatives designed to enhance state-of-the-art facilities. These recent upgrades include a wellness outpost, dedicated therapy offices, improved access to local trails, a staff and volunteer oasis, a barn retreat, modernized amenities such as new parking lots, sunshine stalls, a euro walker for the horses, round pens, and a maintenance shop. The Shea Center is also committed to sustainability, having invested in infrastructure that promotes eco-friendliness. These enhancements are vital to better serving its community and enriching the experiences of all participants.
The Opportunity
The CPO will have primary responsibilities for establishing and implementing the infrastructure needed to grow a $7.6 million annual budget through the solicitation of major gifts, corporate sponsors, foundation support and special event revenue. Approximately $6.6 million represents the current philanthropic budget while the remainder is derived from earned revenue. The CPO will work to expand and diversify The Shea Center’s donor base by building a pipeline of support working closely with other fundraising team members to achieve goals. In addition, the CPO will work closely with the 23-member business and community leader board of directors and support all board members and committee members as they fulfill fundraising responsibilities and goals.
The board is 100% giving of their time, talent and treasure and commit to their gift pledge at the start of each year. The expectation is that the funds raised by The Shea Center will increase in future years as the Chief Philanthropy Officer systematically and effectively strengthens the organization’s overall fundraising capacity.
The new CPO will be joining a long-tenured, high-performing fundraising team (6.5 FTEs) at a time when the department has successfully built out a new Major Gift strategy within its Salesforce platform. The Shea Center utilizes technology for nearly all aspects of its operations to effectively move the organization towards data driven decision making. With the exception of the accounting function, Salesforce is integrated throughout the organization. Additionally, Shea uses high-level event focused software platforms.
The Shea Center has been extremely successful in building a pipeline of sustainable annual donors from its well celebrated and successful events. Donor retention at The Shea Center is very high, at approximately 64% and, within some donor levels, it is as high as 90%. Many of these donors have not yet been moved into a major gifts moves management process and so the CPO will be joining at a time of great opportunity to move them up to much higher levels of support. The next 18 months will focus on a variety of funding opportunities including the launch of an endowment campaign, technology improvements and the professional development of staff to increase leadership bench strength.
Although there have been recent cuts to public funding which has impacted many nonprofits, The Shea Center is already positioned for continued philanthropic growth and success with almost all of the funding coming through private philanthropic support (about 85%) with the remaining 15% made up of program fees.
The Shea Center leads with integrity and transparency and is proud of their efforts in recent years to establish a healthy balance sheet with both fixed and liquid assets and proud of its trusted financial stewardship as it enters its 10th year with no audit management letter.
Position Description
The successful candidate will have a demonstrated track record of institutional vision and leadership, with an emphasis on mentoring staff and establishing and overseeing efficient organizational systems, measurable fundraising/communications goals, financial forecasting, and fundraising/communications strategies.
Responsibilities
Provide innovative, visionary, and strategic operational planning and leadership for all development and communications activities. Serve as an active and collaborative member of the leadership team.
Serve as primary partner and supporter to the CEO and board members on all major development initiatives.
Collaborate with the CEO to develop and implement The Shea Center’s fundraising strategy.
Actively work with the CEO and staff team to develop and implement a comprehensive development strategy to include corporations, foundations and individuals.
Have primary responsibility for development and execution of all proposals.
Oversee the research of funding sources and trends with foresight, to help position The Shea Center ahead of major funding changes and trends.
Monitor and report regularly on all fundraising progress.
Develop and implement a stewardship program aimed at cultivating deeper ties with all donors.
Recruit, hire, support, train, coach, assess, and supervise fundraising and communications’ staff. Provide career development opportunities for all fundraising and communications staff.
Provide oversight for all events.
Collaborate with the Program Department to leverage relationships with The Shea Center community.
Supervise and manage the Communications team and work to create goals and strategy to ensure consistent messaging and outreach strategies.
Increase the agency’s visible presence in the philanthropic community to establish and advance relationships in support of achieving the agency’s vision and mission.
Oversee the development database and ensure quality prospecting, segmenting, trend identification, and relationship and communication management.
Recruit and manage a volunteer Development Committee.
Work regularly with the Volunteer Department regarding customer service standards and to identify and steward donor volunteers.
Ensure compliance with all relevant regulations and laws, maintain accountability standards to donors, and ensure compliance with code of ethical principles and standards of professional conduct for fundraising executives.
Represent The Shea Center in the local San Juan Capistrano Community as well as Orange County as a whole at priority events and activities.
Qualifications
High energy and passion for the mission of The Shea Center.
15+ years of professional experience with a non-profit organization with demonstrated success in the leadership role for all development functions, managing, retaining and forging new relationships with multiple donor sources.
Extensive knowledge of event production, sponsorship and event management.
Excellent communication skills both written and oral; ability to influence and engage a wide range of donors and build long-term relationships.
Demonstrated experience of having expanded and deepened an organization’s donor base and cultivated and stewarded existing relationships over time.
Strong organizational skills.
Flexible and adaptable style; a leader who can positively impact both strategic and fundraising initiatives.
Ability to work both independently and also serve as a team player who can productively engage with others at varying levels of seniority within and outside The Shea Center.
Bachelor’s Degree required, master’s degree a plus.
Ability to construct, articulate and implement annual strategic development plan.
Strong organizational and time management skills and attention to detail.
Customer, client and donor focus.
Professional and resourceful style and the ability to take initiative and manage multiple tasks and projects simultaneously.
Excellent computer skills including extensive experience with donor management software systems.
Extensive knowledge in all levels of development operations as well as volunteer recruitment and retention.
The ideal candidate will be a charismatic and inspiring servant leader with a genuine passion for serving others. Successful candidates will be energized by improving the lives of people with disabilities and have a strong passion for therapeutic horse-related programs, thereby amplifying the mission in an engaging and compelling manner while also building lasting relationships with a diversity of donors and community partners.
Top candidates will be innovative and inspiring development leaders with extensive experience creating and successfully executing forward-thinking development strategies that span major gifts, campaigns, annual giving, special events, foundation and corporate relations, and planned-giving. They will have considerable experience in designing, presenting, and negotiating high-level gift arrangements, including significant individual and institutional gifts from foundations and corporations. This role requires exceptional verbal and written communication skills while leveraging the communications to co-create fundraising collateral that furthers the organization’s message and deepens the relationship with its supporters.
Successful candidates will have strong leadership and coaching skills and will lead the philanthropy and communications team with authenticity and integrity. They will have the ability to inspire the team with creativity and energy, articulate a vision, set clear goals, and motivate individual and team success. As the senior leader in philanthropy, candidates must be able to work collaboratively with other senior leaders and staff. They will be able to cultivate an inclusive environment that encourages open and direct communication.
Compensation
Salary range of $175,000 to $210,000 with a competitive benefits package will be offered to attract an outstanding candidate. The Shea Center does have an employee horse-board benefit for those with a privately-owned horse at The Shea Center for a nominal fee. (employee only; offer does not extend to family members).
Please contact Julie Lugo or Linda Yeomans for a confidential conversation and to learn more about this opportunity.
Phone: (310) 909-4897 or (714) 388-8602
Email: Julie@SterlingSearchInc.com or Linda@SterlingSearchInc.com
Please direct all correspondence, emails, and telephone calls to Sterling Search, Inc. Any communication with The Shea Therapeutic Riding Center will be redirected back to Sterling Search.
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