Director of Development

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT, RADA Foundation

Reports to: President, RADA Foundation Board of Directors

Organization: RADA Foundation

Location: Asheville, NC (preferred)

Position Type: Contract, with potential for full time upon successful completion of capital campaign

Position Overview

RADA Foundation seeks an experienced, entrepreneurial Director of Development to lead fundraising strategy and execution during a period of significant growth.

A top priority is advancing the RAD Creative Campus—a major initiative to establish permanent, resilient creative infrastructure in Asheville’s River Arts District—by leading internal campaign execution toward an approximately $20M goal for property acquisition and campus development. In parallel, the Director will strengthen and diversify annual fundraising to support operations, organizational capacity, and an expanding program portfolio.

This is a hands-on senior leadership role for a builder who can set strategy, cultivate and solicit major support, write strong proposals, manage grants, and implement systems that enable a sophisticated, sustainable development operation.

Key Responsibilities

RAD Creative Campus (comprehensive fundraising)

• Serve as the senior internal development lead for the Creative Campus campaign in partnership with the Board President, Board, Executive Director, campaign leadership, and the DeVos Institute.
• Translate campaign strategy into execution: prospecting, qualification, moves management, cultivation, solicitation planning, and stewardship.
• Develop campaign communications and materials (case for support, proposals, presentations, briefings) with organizational leadership and external counsel.
• Coordinate donor and funder engagement (meetings, site visits, follow-up) and support leadership solicitations.
• Maintain campaign tracking, forecasting, and reporting (prospect portfolios, activity, pipeline health, progress).
• Align capital and annual fundraising so campaign momentum strengthens long-term sustainability.

Institutional Giving and Grants

• Lead a multi-year institutional giving strategy supporting capital, programs, capacity-building, and operating support.
• Identify and steward relationships with foundations, corporations, and government/public funders.
• Manage the full grant lifecycle: research, LOIs/proposals, budgets and documentation, agreements, reporting, and compliance.
• Build and manage a proactive grants calendar and pipeline in partnership with program and organizational leadership.

Major Gifts and Individual Philanthropy

• Build and manage a portfolio of major donors and prospective philanthropic partners.
• Create individualized cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies.
• Partner with Board and executive leadership to open doors, prepare for asks, and close gifts.
• Design donor engagement opportunities connected to the Foundation’s work (e.g., site visits, artist experiences, programs/events).

Corporate and Strategic Partnerships

• Develop mission-aligned corporate partnerships and sponsorships that support the Creative Campus and ongoing programs.
• Identify cross-sector collaboration opportunities (nonprofits, philanthropy, government, higher education, private sector).
• Ensure partnerships are structured for meaningful, sustainable mutual value and community impact.

Board Leadership and Organizational Engagement

• Strengthen board and leadership fundraising engagement through preparation, materials, and clear roles.
• Provide regular reporting to the Board on progress, pipeline, forecasts, risks, and priorities.
• Develop annual and multi-year development plans with goals, strategies, timelines, and performance indicators.
• Build development operations and systems: CRM/data integrity, gift processing/acknowledgment, moves management, reporting, stewardship practices, and tool/technology recommendations.
• Assist with fundraising events in collaboration with the Executive Director

Partnership with Campaign Council

·      Serve as the primary internal partner to our external campaign council consultant team to maintain momentum, coordinate prospect development, prepare materials, and embed durable systems and capacity beyond the campaign.

Qualifications and Experience

• Significant experience in nonprofit development (institutional giving, major gifts, and/or capital/comprehensive campaigns). Experience within arts and culture, community/economic development, workforce development, or a related field is particularly relevant.
• Demonstrated success developing fundraising strategy and securing significant philanthropic support.
• Strong grants experience, including reporting and compliance.
• Campaign experience preferred (seven-figure goals and above).
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to translate complex vision into compelling philanthropic opportunities.
• Strong project management; able to manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Experience with donor databases/CRMs and development reporting.
• High integrity, sound judgment, and discretion with confidential information.
• Entrepreneurial, collaborative, and comfortable building systems in a growing organization.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience preferred; advanced degrees/credentials welcome.

Leadership Attributes

• Relationship builder grounded in trust, shared purpose, and long-term engagement.
• Strategic and detail-oriented—able to set direction and execute.
• Brings structure and accountability without dampening creativity and collaboration.
• Understands the Foundation’s priorities—capacity building, programs, artist investment, district recovery/evolution, and the capital initiative—as an interconnected story for funders.

Measures of Success (first 12-18 months)

• Launch and execute a multi-year development strategy aligned to annual needs and the Creative Campus campaign.
• Build and manage a qualified fundraising pipeline across campaign, institutional, major gifts, corporate, and public funding.
• Advance the Creative Campus campaign toward the approximately $20M goal in partnership with leadership and DeVos Institute.
• Implement reliable development operations (CRM, tracking, reporting, stewardship).
• Increase flexible/unrestricted revenue.
• Strengthen Board and leadership fundraising participation.
• Expand the Foundation’s philanthropic network locally, regionally, and nationally.

Key Stakeholders

This role reports into the President of the RADA Foundation Board. They will partner closely with the Foundation Executive Director who leads organizational strategy and program priorities to ensure fundraising priorities reflect mission. This role will also have access and working relationships with the full Foundation Board of 10 members, in particular the Buildings and Spaces chair.

Success Metrics

Longer-term success includes dollars raised and the creation of a diversified, sustainable development program that supports both RADA Foundation and the RAD Creative Campus well beyond the campaign.

Other Detail

Location: Asheville, NC (preferred)

This role is remote-flexible and does not require working from an office. However, the campaign includes frequent in-person meetings and events in the Asheville area, so we strongly prefer a candidate who is local (or can reliably be on-site as needed). We will consider exceptional non-local candidates, but please note that we are not able to cover routine travel to Asheville. Approved travel outside the Asheville area for campaign purposes (expected 25% of time) will be reimbursed.

Contract term: 12 months (1099 independent contractor), ~40 hours/week

Compensation: $80,000–$130,000 (annualized equivalent; based on experience and scope).  The upper end of the range is intended for candidates with a demonstrated track record leading major gifts and/or campaigns at a similar scale (e.g., $10M ). Candidates earlier in their fundraising career may be engaged toward the lower end with structured training, onboarding and clear milestones for growth. Not eligible for benefits during the contract term.

Conversion opportunity: Upon successful progress and/or completion of the capital campaign, we anticipate evaluating conversion to a full-time, benefited role.