About Ascend Public Charter Schools

Ascend Public Charter Schools is a network of K-12 public charter schools serving 6,000 students in 17 schools across Brooklyn—New York’s most populous borough. Ascend schools are located in the Central Brooklyn neighborhoods of Brownsville, Bushwick, Canarsie, Cypress Hills, East New York, East Flatbush, and Flatbush. Ascend exists to serve every student – to help them embody their inherent excellence by providing rich, joyful learning experiences that unlock a life of boundless choice. Ascend Public Charter Schools honor, nurture, and challenge the whole child. Ascend fosters critical thinking skills and a love of learning through their inquiry-based learning approach, Responsive Classroom model, and anti-racist education. The team at Ascend is deeply committed to advancing educational equity for all of their students.

For more information on Ascend, its model, and core values, please visit www.ascendlearning.org.

About the Opportunity

Ascend Public Charter Schools is seeking its first Chief Advancement Officer (CAO). Reporting to the CEO, this is an opportunity for a seasoned and innovative fundraising leader to serve as an active member of the Senior Leadership team, who can build and execute an advancement strategy to match current and future opportunities for the organization.

Ascend has built and launched their first multi-year development strategy and campaign. The CAO will be charged with the strategic leadership of development, with a dual focus on amplifying revenue generation and enhancing brand visibility to achieve Ascend's multi-year plan and goals. The CAO will also guide the organization and the Board in fostering and cultivating constituent relationships (both public and private) to convert prospects into champions and investors.

Areas of Leadership

Passion for Ascend’s Mission: Brings passion for advancing educational equity for all students. Serves as a brand champion and an ambassador to elevate Ascend’s visibility in the community and sector. 

• Key Qualifications:
  • Familiarity with the K-12 education landscape, charter schools, and mission-driven organizations.
  • Understanding of and commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism (DEIA) principles. Read more about Ascend’s DEIA work here.
  • Personal, lived experience in Brooklyn or deep familiarity with the social and political context of cities with characteristics similar to Brooklyn.

Strategic Fundraising and Partnership:Pioneer and build Ascend's fundraising function from the ground up. Build upon and execute a development strategy, aligning with Ascend’s short and long-term goals. Establish ongoing and sustainable relationships with financial champions, grantmakers, high-net-worth individuals, and non-profit and community partners. Build, steward, and cultivate a strong pipeline of multi-year commitments to raise at least $11M over the next four years. Serve as a persuasive and visible spokesperson and be able to effectively articulate the organization’s goals and needs to different audiences with nuances in mind. 

• Key Qualifications: 
  • Demonstrated 7-10 years of experience and expertise serving in a leadership role in fundraising, either as a senior development or advancement professional. 
  • Proven ability to manage high-performing and multi-channel portfolios that contribute to the organization’s growth and sustainability, including the ability to successfully secure multi-year gifts and/or multi-million dollar campaigns through new and nontraditional approaches to fundraising.
  • Track record of successful relationship-building that has led to increased funding for organizations.
  • Deep knowledge of and relationships within the philanthropic community, ideally in New York City. 
  • Strong understanding and appreciation for systems and processes and how they play into a successful fundraising function.

Executive Leadership: Serve as a core thought partner to the CEO, President, and senior leadership team members, contributing to the full organizational vision, in addition to advancing the advancement strategy. Function seamlessly within the executive team and the board building trust through relationship building and accountability structures that support fundraising. Intentionally develop collaborative relationships across and engage staff in achieving fundraising goals. Create future-facing plans and structure for a successful advancement team. Communicate effectively, managing expectations, and providing clarity on timelines and milestones for financial goals. 

• Key Qualifications: 
  • Previous leadership team experience in an organization undergoing internal change and growth.
  • Experienced people leader with strong skills in managing cross-functional teams and projects, with the ability to lead staff and the Board in “call to action” toward fundraising efforts. 
  • Expert relationship and partnership builder who understands how to optimize internal and external stakeholders. 

Communication Expert and Brand Builder: Elevate Ascend's brand by narrating compelling and differentiated stories that resonate with various stakeholders. Work collaboratively with the Marketing and Communications team to articulate Ascend’s brand. Represent Ascend in high-profile circles, directing the Board, and collaborating with the CEO to build the organization's profile. Leverage existing and new connections to elevate Ascend’s brand recognition. 

• Key Qualifications: 
  • Outstanding interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to leverage storytelling and passion for the mission to engage new audiences and recommit existing supporters.
  • Experience in creating impactful messaging, refining branding, and enhancing visibility.
  • Comfortable being the face of an organization, representing it with charisma and confidence.

Salary, Benefits & Location 

The salary will range between $200,000-$230,000 annually, commensurate with level of experience. 

This position is a full-time, exempt role that is eligible for benefits. Eligible employees receive a wide range of benefits, including:

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• 403b with employer matching program
• PTO and other benefits

This position is based in Brooklyn, NY and requires some professional conference travel as needed, and has a hybrid work policy. Ascend Learning employees are required to report to work in person, at minimum, 3 days per week. 

In-person work includes but is not limited to: time spent at the network office; meetings with internal and external stakeholders that occur in-person; time spent working in Ascend schools; special events; and other duties specific to the employee’s job description and as determined by their manager. 

Employees may request two weeks per year to work remotely.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Ascend is committed to building a diverse and inclusive community, both through our hiring practices and our focus on creating a culture and environment where diverse perspectives, ideas, and identities are valued and integrated into our way of working and educating students. Ascend staff represent a wide diversity of racial, socio-economic, gender, religious, and national identities—opening a window to the entire Ascend community on the richness of humanity. We welcome all applicants who share our mission and vision to join us in our deeply consequential work.