Director of Development in Bridgeport, Connecticut at Connecticut Zoological Society Inc

Position Summary

The Director of Development is responsible for building and executing a comprehensive fundraising and philanthropic revenue strategy that advances the Zoo’s mission, strengthens donor engagement, expands contributed revenue, and supports the organization’s long-term sustainability.

This role requires a seasoned, results-driven development leader with a proven track record of securing significant philanthropic gifts, cultivating high-capacity donors, leading major gift strategies, developing institutional funding opportunities, and driving annual, planned, corporate, foundation, sponsorship, event, and campaign giving.

The Director of Development serves as the organization’s lead fundraising strategist and a confident external representative of the Zoo. This position partners closely with the Chief Executive Officer, Board of Directors, senior leadership, donors, corporate partners, foundations, community leaders, and key stakeholders to grow philanthropic support and deepen relationships with individuals and institutions that are committed to the Zoo’s mission.

The ideal candidate is a high-performing development professional who can move seamlessly between strategy and execution, build relationships with sophistication and authenticity, inspire donor confidence, develop compelling cases for support, and create the systems, discipline, and accountability necessary to grow contributed revenue.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Development Leadership & Fundraising Strategy

• Develop and lead a comprehensive, multi-year fundraising strategy aligned with the Zoo’s mission, strategic priorities, operating needs, capital needs, conservation initiatives, education programs, animal care priorities, guest experience goals, and long-term sustainability.
• Serve as the organization’s lead development strategist, setting clear revenue goals, donor engagement priorities, timelines, performance metrics, and accountability standards.
• Personally manage a portfolio of major gift prospects, high-capacity donors, corporate partners, foundations, and other key philanthropic relationships.
• Identify, cultivate, solicit, close, and steward major gifts, sponsorships, grants, planned gifts, campaign commitments, and other significant philanthropic investments.
• Build and execute individualized cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship plans for major donors and prospects.
• Develop a strong pipeline of new prospects through donor research, wealth screening, community engagement, Board referrals, existing donor relationships, corporate relationships, and strategic outreach.
• Expand current annual donors into higher giving levels through thoughtful donor segmentation, targeted engagement, and personalized solicitation strategies.
• Design and implement strategies to increase annual giving, major giving, planned giving, foundation support, corporate sponsorship, event revenue, membership revenue, and campaign participation.
• Create compelling cases for support, funding proposals, campaign materials, donor presentations, stewardship reports, impact updates, and other donor-facing communications.
• Establish clear activity metrics, including donor meetings, calls, proposals, solicitations, stewardship contacts, and revenue outcomes.
• Ensure timely and disciplined follow-up with donors, prospects, Board members, and community partners.
• Monitor fundraising performance and provide regular reports to the CEO, Board, and senior leadership on progress against goals.
• Create a culture of philanthropy across the organization by engaging leadership, staff, volunteers, and Board members in understanding and supporting development priorities.

Major Gifts, Campaigns & Institutional Giving

• Lead or support capital campaign planning, feasibility work, donor readiness assessment, campaign strategy, campaign messaging, leadership gift cultivation, and campaign execution.
• Develop and manage a robust major gifts program with clear donor tiers, engagement strategies, solicitation timelines, and stewardship standards.
• Identify naming opportunities, sponsorship opportunities, restricted giving opportunities, and multi-year funding priorities.
• Strengthen corporate giving and sponsorship programs by developing meaningful partnership packages aligned with business visibility, community engagement, and philanthropic impact.
• Oversee grant strategy, including identification of foundation opportunities, proposal development, reporting requirements, stewardship, and grant compliance.
• Advance planned giving opportunities by educating donors, identifying prospects, and developing appropriate messaging and engagement strategies.
• Ensure fundraising strategies are donor-centered, mission-aligned, ethical, sustainable, and consistent with best practices in nonprofit development.

Membership, Annual Giving & Donor Engagement

• Provide strategic oversight of membership programs to strengthen member acquisition, retention, engagement, upgrade opportunities, and conversion of members into donors.
• Partner with the Membership Manager to align membership strategy with broader development, donor engagement, visitor engagement, and revenue goals.
• Identify opportunities to deepen relationships with members through targeted communications, special events, stewardship, donor conversion strategies, and mission-based engagement.
• Ensure annual giving and membership strategies are coordinated, data-informed, and aligned with the Zoo’s broader fundraising priorities.
• Develop strategies to increase donor retention, recurring giving, member-to-donor conversion, annual fund participation, and upgraded giving.

CEO, Board & Donor Engagement

• Partner with the CEO to prepare for high-level donor meetings, presentations, solicitations, and stewardship opportunities.
• Support and prepare Board members to serve as effective ambassadors, connectors, cultivators, and advocates for the Zoo.
• Work with the CEO and Board leadership to strengthen Board engagement in fundraising, donor identification, stewardship, and community relationship-building.
• Lead planning and execution of cultivation events, donor recognition opportunities, stewardship gatherings, fundraising events, campaign briefings, and other donor engagement initiatives.
• Develop strategic funding requests tied to immediate operational needs, long-term growth priorities, capital projects, animal care, education, conservation, guest experience, and mission-driven initiatives.
• Represent the Zoo externally with donors, funders, sponsors, civic leaders, corporate partners, community organizations, and other stakeholders.

Donor Systems, Stewardship & Reporting

• Ensure donor records, moves management activity, gift documentation, pledges, stewardship actions, and prospect notes are accurately maintained in the donor database.
• Develop and maintain stewardship systems that ensure donors, members, sponsors, and funders are recognized, informed, appreciated, and engaged.
• Partner with Finance to support accurate gift reporting, pledge tracking, restricted fund monitoring, grant tracking, sponsorship revenue tracking, membership revenue reporting, and reconciliation of contributed revenue.
• Evaluate fundraising results, donor retention, membership trends, campaign performance, sponsorship outcomes, grant activity, and return on investment.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen internal processes, reporting, data integrity, donor communications, membership communications, and development operations.

Leadership, Management & Collaboration

• Serve as a key member of the senior leadership team, contributing to organization-wide strategy, planning, problem-solving, revenue growth, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Lead, supervise, coach, and develop the Development Manager, Membership Manager, Grant Writer, and any external partners supporting development operations.
• Establish department priorities, workflows, timelines, systems, and reporting practices to ensure effective execution of development, membership, grants, sponsorship, campaign, event, and donor engagement initiatives.
• Manage departmental budgets, monitor expenses, evaluate return on investment, and align resources with strategic priorities.
• Build strong relationships across departments to ensure fundraising and membership efforts accurately reflect organizational needs, programs, priorities, and impact.
• Partner closely with Marketing and Communications to ensure donor communications, fundraising campaigns, sponsorship materials, membership promotions, event promotions, and public messaging are brand-consistent and mission-aligned.
• Maintain the highest level of professionalism, discretion, confidentiality, and integrity in all donor, member, Board, staff, and community interactions.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities

This position supervises the Development Manager, Membership Manager, and Grant Writer, and may also oversee external partners, consultants, vendors, interns, volunteers, and other resources supporting fundraising, donor engagement, grants, sponsorships, campaigns, events, membership initiatives, and development operations.

Minimum Qualifications

Education, Certifications and/or Licenses

• Bachelor’s degree in nonprofit management, business, philanthropy, communications, public relations, or a related field required; equivalent combination of education and significant relevant experience may be considered.
• Advanced degree or fundraising certification, such as CFRE, preferred.
• Valid driver’s license required.

Experience, Knowledge and Skills

• Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible fundraising, development, advancement, or nonprofit revenue-generation experience, with demonstrated success securing major gifts and building donor relationships.
• Proven track record of personally cultivating, soliciting, closing, and stewarding significant gifts.
• Experience leading or supporting capital campaigns, major gift programs, annual giving, planned giving, corporate sponsorships, foundation relations, grants, membership programs, and fundraising events.
• Demonstrated ability to build and manage a donor portfolio and move prospects through a disciplined cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship process.
• Experience working closely with CEOs, executive leadership, Boards of Directors, major donors, sponsors, community leaders, and external stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of nonprofit fundraising best practices, donor relations, moves management, campaign strategy, sponsorship development, grant development, membership engagement, and philanthropic communications.
• Experience developing compelling cases for support, donor proposals, stewardship reports, campaign materials, sponsorship materials, grant proposals, and executive-level presentations.
• Experience overseeing or partnering with membership, grants, sponsorship, donor database, and development operations functions preferred.
• Experience in a zoo, aquarium, museum, cultural institution, conservation organization, education-focused nonprofit, or comparable mission-driven organization preferred.
• Strong leadership presence with the ability to confidently represent the organization externally.
• Excellent written, verbal, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Ability to inspire trust, build authentic relationships, influence stakeholders, and communicate the Zoo’s mission with clarity and passion.
• Strong business judgment, financial acumen, budget management skills, and results orientation.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, meet deadlines, work independently, lead teams, and execute in a fast-paced environment.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, donor databases, CRM systems, email marketing platforms, and related technology.
• High level of discretion and professionalism in handling confidential donor, financial, employee, member, and organizational information.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described below are representative of those required to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this role, the employee is regularly required to sit, stand, walk, talk, hear, use hands to handle or operate objects and tools, and reach with hands and arms. The employee may occasionally stoop, kneel, crouch, lift, or move items weighing up to 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

Working Conditions and Environment

The work environment includes both a standard office setting and an outdoor zoo environment. The position requires professional presence, the ability to share workspace, and appropriate attire for office, donor, member, public-facing, and outdoor settings.

Because the Zoo operates year-round, including weekends, evenings, holidays, and special events, this position requires flexibility and availability outside of regular business hours to support donor meetings, Board activities, fundraising events, cultivation events, membership events, community events, and other mission-critical activities.

Equal Employment Opportunity

The Zoo is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing a workplace free from discrimination and harassment. Employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit, and business needs. Reasonable accommodation may be provided to qualified individuals with disabilities in accordance with applicable law.