About Us

For nearly 10 years, Dog Tag has empowered veterans with service-connected disabilities, military spouses, and caregivers to find renewed purpose and community through an innovative business and entrepreneurship-focused fellowship program. Fellows gain business skills in both the classroom and in practice at Dog Tag Bakery, our Washington, D.C.-based social enterprise. The Fellowship Program integrates holistic and experiential learning, challenging fellows to apply their knowledge in their thriving, real-world bakery. Dog Tag supports our fellows, as well as our growing alumni network (currently at 260 alumni), with ongoing peer and professional guidance to help them successfully transition—both personally and professionally—from military to civilian life.

In 2022, Dog Tag opened a second site in Chicago, and will soon host its fifth cohort there along with its 19th in Washington, D.C.

For more information on Dog Tag, please visit www.DogTagInc.org.

About the Role

Dog Tag is seeking a Chief Development Officer (CDO). This is an ideal opportunity for an entrepreneurial, proven development leader to join an impactful organization focused on changing the lives of veterans, military spouses, and caregivers at a critical moment of growth.

Reporting to the CEO, this position will be the lead strategist and project manager focused on growing Dog Tag’s roughly $3M philanthropic revenue portfolio. The CDO will lead, manage, and coordinate all fundraising efforts to increase the organization's support from corporations, foundations, and individuals. The CDO will manage one full-time Development Coordinator and one part-time Grant Writer.

Major gift work across corporate partners, foundations, and major donors will be a priority for this position. The CDO will be responsible for implementing a multi-faceted corporate partnership program to deeply engage current corporate partners and grow relationships with prospects. In addition, she/he/they will be responsible for deepening relationships with current foundation funders and identifying and developing new national and local funders. Lastly, identifying, cultivating, and stewarding individual major donors will be an essential aspect of this position.

The CDO can expect his/her/their work to include:

Leadership and Development Strategy:

• Develop, manage, and execute Dog Tag’s development and stewardship plans to achieve annual revenue goals
• Update existing development and stewardship plans annually with new ideas, industry best practices, and data-driven analysis
• Ensure Dog Tag’s development plan aligns with and is in service of the evolving organizational goals
• In partnership with the CEO and COO, set annual revenue goals
• Ensure a robust gift pipeline big enough to hit annual revenue goals by actively managing prospective and current corporations, foundations, and individual donors
• Project manage the CEO’s fundraising work, directing her where and how best to spend her time and efforts on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis
• Cultivate relationships with all board of directors to support their strategic development efforts, provide training, and facilitate the process to develop potential funder parameters
• Monitor and report regularly on the progress of the development plan, providing actionable analysis for the CEO and board of directors
• Identify suspected revenue gaps and develop tactics to generate new leads.
• Contribute positively to Dog Tag’s organizational culture and lead with Dog Tag’s values

Corporate and Foundation Fundraising

• Collaborate with CEO and Dog Tag’s board of directors to codify and implement a corporate partnership model that aligns with the organization’s values
• Build personal relationships with foundations and corporate funders. Research, design, and lead moves management plans
• Ensure Dog Tag has a robust pipeline of local, regional, and national grant opportunities to pursue
• Working with the part-time grant writer, create and manage a grant calendar to track all upcoming applications and reports
• Clearly and effectively draft dynamic, reader-friendly, and high-quality writing that is free of typos, jargon, and lackluster prose
• Collaborate across teams to gather materials and requirements for grant applications and reports

Individual Giving

• Research, design, and lead the moves management plans for major individual donors. Manage a portfolio of major donors
• Oversee the management and development of existing initiatives, appeals, and campaigns focused on targeting new and stewarding existing individual donors

Development Communications

• Help develop creative and mission-focused fundraising messaging that effectively articulates the special role and impact of Dog Tag in the community
• Partner with program team to effectively share their expertise, vision, and impact with donors
• Collaborate with the communications staff to update the communications plan/calendar to support development goals, and work together to ensure opportunities for both programs and development are elevated

Development Operations and Revenue Tracking

• Establish and monitor annual and long-term revenue goals and budgets
• Design and update a regular progress-to-goal reports and development dashboard for the CEO and the board
• Spearhead development-focused data input and ensure accuracy in all records and development reports in Dog Tag’s CRM system (Salesforce)
• Work closely with COO to ensure data integrity
• Work closely with the Finance team to support management of restricted funds and donor-required reporting

About You

To be maximally successful in this role, you need to be:

• A born project manager with a knack for working backwards from a deadline to create a plan
• Accustomed to working on multiple projects with different deadlines simultaneously
• A natural people person who appreciates that everyone has an important story to tell
• A dynamic, professional, and poised brand ambassador for Dog Tag
• A reliable and friendly communicator who reaches out and follows up
• A practiced public speaker who can think on your toes
• A stickler for details and quality
• A caretaker of sensitive information about donors and others in the organization’s community
• A strong self-motivator
• A creative thinker willing to test out new ideas

You need to have:

• A minimum of 7 years of nonprofit development experience
• A minimum of 3 years of nonprofit leadership experience
• Demonstrable experience with building successful corporate partnerships, foundation relations, and individual major gift relationships
• In-depth experience working in close partnership with senior management and board members on major philanthropic initiatives and campaigns
• Enthusiasm to propose fresh ideas without prompting by leadership, openness to feedback on those ideas, and a persistence to bring those ideas to life
• An excellent working knowledge of CRM systems for donor and revenue management
• Experience with and knowledge of the Washington, DC funder community is preferred

About Location, Compensation and Benefits

• Candidates must be within commuting distance to Washington, D.C.
• Dog Tag provides health and dental insurance, covering 50% of cost for both staff and dependents.
• Group Life, AD&D, Short-Term Disability, and Long-Term Disability coverage
• Retirement plan
• Paid vacation/sick leave
• Paid holidays (to include the week between Christmas and New Years!)
• 25% off at the Bakery
• Professional development reimbursement

To Apply:

Interested applicants should submit a (1) resume, (2) cover letter and (3) a writing sample representative of development work with “Dog Tag Chief Development Officer” in the subject line