Vice President of Communications & Development

Position Summary

The VP of Development and Communications will report to the President and responsible for global communications and private philanthropic fundraising strategy and execution. S/he will lead the expansion of our communications and development teams, oversee global communications, establish the Search brand with a new community of philanthropists, and build a major donor and private philanthropic fundraising base that advances the Search mission. 

The ideal candidate will have a proven track record developing and managing major donor and high networth fundraising programs, implementing processes for research, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship, and managing donor relations. In addition, s/he will have the demonstrated ability to build a service-oriented communications department that can elevate awareness of the Search brand and support private philanthropic fundraising, government donor grant solicitation, and program execution. 

Key Responsibilities

Private Philanthropic Fundraising

1. Develops and implements a global private philanthropic fundraising strategy to raise money from individual donors
2. Leads all private philanthropic fundraising including hiring and managing the development team
3. Partners closely with the CEO to cultivate, solicit, and steward major donors 
4. Designs the policies, processes, and systems to deliver a best-in-class private philanthropic fundraising operation 
5. Builds a high net worth fundraising program that achieves our fundraising targets and goals 
6. Manages development budget
7. Ensures that private philanthropic donors are engaged and stewarded 

Global Communications 

1. Builds and leads a global communications team that is highly collaborative and service oriented in its work with other departments across the organization 
2. Grows awareness and understanding of the Search brand across all critical stakeholders and constituencies 
3. Provides communication services for other teams across the organization including Global Affairs and Partnerships, Human Resources, and program teams 
4. Establishes and oversees standards for external communications, brand, and messaging worldwide 
5. Develops communication capacity within program teams to help ensure that Search is able to deliver quality communications at every level to advance the mission 
6. Sets the global communications strategy, oversees implementation of global communications, and manages the communications budget
7. Ensures the implementation of processes, roles, policies, and systems that lead to a high-performance communication operation   

As job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, the position holder may be required to undertake other duties that are broadly in line with the above key responsibilities.

Desired Outcomes

1. Develop a global communication strategy that defines the key results, messages, tactics, budgets, and timeline. 
2. Develop a global private philanthropic development strategy that defines the key tactics, budgets, and timeline. 
3. Successfully complete the current three year fundraising campaign to raise $21M in private philanthropic funding by the end of 2020.
4. Increase our annual giving from $1.5M to $8M in by the end of 2022. 
5. Make Search the most widely recognized citizen-led, peacebuilding, and conflict transformation NGO leader among our target donors and stakeholders so Search has brand among our constituency comparable to brand recognition achieved by leaders in other fields (e.g. IRC or WWF). 

Ideal Experience

1. 10+ years leading fundraising and communication
2. Demonstrated experience growing HNW fundraising programs
3. Hands on experience cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding six and seven figure gifts
4. Building repeatable and scalable fundraising operations and programs
5. Experienced with public relations, content marketing, and event marketing
6. Proven ability to work in a large-scale, global organization
7. Experience hiring and managing fundraising and communications teams
8. Fluency in English is required and additional fluency in French or Arabic is beneficial

Critical Competencies

1. Emotional Intelligence - works well with a wide range of people, successfully manages conflict, and creates strong collaborative relationships with peers and vendors
2. Strategic Thinking -  knows how to build and adapt high-impact development and communications strategies
3. Communication –  excellent writer and speaker who is able able to make persuasive cases for support to a range of different audiences
Resourcefulness - able to find creative solutions within budget constraints to deliver results without excessive costs
4. People Management - able to build and lead high-performance teams of senior professionals in communications and development
5. Collaborativeness - works exceptionally well with peers and colleagues across a diverse global organization
6. Organization – plans, organizes, schedules, and budgets in an efficient and productive manner with a clear focuses on key priorities 

To apply, interested candidates should send a current resume to our employment website here.  We are looking to fill this position with the right candidate. Only applicants invited for an interview will be contacted. No phone calls please. Please see our website www.sfcg.org for full details of our work.