Director of Development & Engagement

Malone Consultants Group is the Recruiting Liaison for the CACHE organization.

CACHE was formed in 2019 to connect, support, and develop the people who make Northwest Arkansas a creative place to live. We work alongside artists, nonprofits, civic leaders, and funders to build an arts ecosystem that lasts. We’re looking for a Director of Development & Engagement to lead that work financially and tell its story well.

This is a senior leadership role, and it’s a true partnership. We’re looking for someone seasoned enough to bring their own expertise and run with it — to set the fundraising strategy, trust their own judgment, and make the whole organization stronger by being part of it. You’ll design and lead CACHE’s comprehensive fundraising and philanthropic investment strategy, cultivate major donors and family foundations, build relationships across the corporate and public sectors, and position CACHE as the kind of organization smart philanthropy wants to invest in.

You’ll also be the keeper of our story.

This role supervises our communications team and protects CACHE’s brand, tone, and voice — owning the messaging framework, training the team to stay true to it, and making sure what goes out into the world sounds like us. You don’t have to be a communications wizard. You do have to be the kind of leader who builds the systems and holds the line.

We’re looking for someone with wisdom and real experience behind them. Someone who can sit in a room full of competing truths, land on a direction, explain why, and bring everyone along. Someone who can work a room of donors and then go build the CRM that tracks every one of them.

What we’re looking for:

Experience and track record

• 7 years of progressive nonprofit fundraising, philanthropy, or development leadership — this is a role for someone who’s done this before
• A track record securing major gifts and institutional funding, and building comprehensive, multi-year fundraising strategies from the ground up
• Experience supervising staff and leading teams of contractors, with a real gift for making the people around you successful
• Strong instincts for donor cultivation and stewardship — you know how to build a relationship, not just close a gift
• A storyteller at heart, able to turn mission and data into a case for support that moves people
• Comfort moving among high-capacity donors, civic leaders, and influential community circles, building genuine trust and rapport
• Fluency with CRM systems, grant platforms, and data tools — and the readiness to help CACHE stand up its first organization-wide CRM
• Arts, cultural, or creative-sector experience strongly preferred
• An understanding of how arts investment fuels regional economy, tourism, workforce, and quality of life

Who you are

• Bring your expertise and vision in providing strategic leadership for all development and engagement functions alongside the Executive Director
• You know how to develop and implement a multi-year comprehensive fundraising strategy aligned with CACHE's strategic priorities
• Your knowledge on how best to establish annual revenue goals and long-term philanthropic growth targets
• Expertise in building diversified revenue streams including major gifts, institutional grants, corporate sponsorships, public funding, and earned revenue partnerships
• Understand how to work in close partnership with the other leadership partners to introduce them to prospective donors, board members, and partners and converting those connections into sustained support
• Deeply committed to equity, access, inclusion, and belonging
• Serious about the arts — and about building something that lasts in Northwest Arkansas

The work is a mix of remote and in-person across Northwest Arkansas, with travel up to 20% for donor meetings, conferences, and partnership development.

We recognize that pathways into philanthropy vary widely, and we welcome candidates from all backgrounds who are serious about the arts and about building something that lasts here.