What are the responsibilities and job description for the Chief Development Officer position at The SAFE Alliance?
Chief Development Officer (CDO)
Austin, Texas (Hybrid)
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The Opportunity
The SAFE Alliance is seeking a Chief Development Officer to lead a transformational phase of philanthropic growth and organizational impact.
This is not a maintenance role. This is a build, scale, and lead role.
The SAFE Alliance (SAFE) is one of the largest nonprofit organizations in Central Texas, operating at the intersection of crisis response, prevention, housing stability, and long-term healing. With an annual operating budget of approximately $30M and philanthropy as a critical revenue driver, SAFE is poised for its next phase of growth.
The Chief Development Officer will partner directly with the CEO, Board of Directors, and Executive Leadership Team to build a high-performing, accountable development function that can sustain and expand SAFE's impact across the region.
This leader will be responsible for both delivering near-term revenue results and building the long-term systems and strategy required to scale philanthropy.
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Why This Role, Why Now
SAFE has strong community credibility, mission urgency, and programmatic scale. The organization is already operating at meaningful size and impact-but the development function has not yet reached the level of discipline, infrastructure, and performance required to sustain the next phase of growth.
This role exists to close that gap.
The next phase of SAFE's trajectory requires more than incremental improvement. It requires building a development function that is both high performing in the near term and structurally sound for long-term scale. That means delivering revenue today while putting in place the systems, processes, and expectations that make growth repeatable.
This Role Is Designed To
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Growth Mandate and Revenue Accountability
This role carries clear responsibility for both fundraising performance and long-term revenue growth.
The Chief Development Officer is expected to deliver measurable results in the near term while building the systems, strategy, and relationships required for sustained growth over time.
Key Expectations Include
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The Role and Core Responsibilities
The Chief Development Officer is a senior executive responsible for building, integrating, and leading SAFE's overall external engagement and philanthropic strategy.
This leader will operate as both a strategic architect and a hands-on fundraiser-personally engaging top donors while building the systems, team, and cross-functional alignment required for long-term growth.
This role requires the ability to deliver near-term revenue results while strengthening infrastructure, performance, and accountability across the development function and related teams.
Revenue Strategy and Execution
Lead, coach, and develop a development team of approximately 10 staff, including individuals with varied levels of fundraising experience
Oversee communications and marketing staff (approximately 3 team members), ensuring alignment with fundraising strategy and organizational positioning
Assess team structure, capabil
Austin, Texas (Hybrid)
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Opportunity
The SAFE Alliance is seeking a Chief Development Officer to lead a transformational phase of philanthropic growth and organizational impact.
This is not a maintenance role. This is a build, scale, and lead role.
The SAFE Alliance (SAFE) is one of the largest nonprofit organizations in Central Texas, operating at the intersection of crisis response, prevention, housing stability, and long-term healing. With an annual operating budget of approximately $30M and philanthropy as a critical revenue driver, SAFE is poised for its next phase of growth.
The Chief Development Officer will partner directly with the CEO, Board of Directors, and Executive Leadership Team to build a high-performing, accountable development function that can sustain and expand SAFE's impact across the region.
This leader will be responsible for both delivering near-term revenue results and building the long-term systems and strategy required to scale philanthropy.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Why This Role, Why Now
SAFE has strong community credibility, mission urgency, and programmatic scale. The organization is already operating at meaningful size and impact-but the development function has not yet reached the level of discipline, infrastructure, and performance required to sustain the next phase of growth.
This role exists to close that gap.
The next phase of SAFE's trajectory requires more than incremental improvement. It requires building a development function that is both high performing in the near term and structurally sound for long-term scale. That means delivering revenue today while putting in place the systems, processes, and expectations that make growth repeatable.
This Role Is Designed To
- Build a disciplined, data-informed, and scalable fundraising engine from a partially developed foundation
- Expand major and principal gift capacity while strengthening donor strategy and execution
- Establish the systems, tools, and processes required for consistent performance and accountability
- Activate the CEO and Board more fully in fundraising through shared ownership of relationships
- Align development, marketing, communications, and external engagement into a cohesive external strategy
- Prepare the organization for ongoing capital needs and future campaign opportunities
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Growth Mandate and Revenue Accountability
This role carries clear responsibility for both fundraising performance and long-term revenue growth.
The Chief Development Officer is expected to deliver measurable results in the near term while building the systems, strategy, and relationships required for sustained growth over time.
Key Expectations Include
- Grow annual philanthropic revenue from approximately $15M to $20M over the next 2-3 years
- Build and manage a major and principal gift portfolio targeting gifts of $25,000 to $250,000
- Increase donor retention, average gift size, and multi-year commitments
- Expand revenue across individuals, corporations, and foundations
- Reactivate and grow a portfolio of dormant and lapsed donors, unlocking existing but under-leveraged relationships
- Strengthening the major gifts pipeline, including identification, qualification, and movement of high-capacity prospects
- Drive greater engagement and accountability from the CEO and Board in fundraising, resulting in increased participation and giving
- Establish clear performance metrics, reporting, and forecasting to enable disciplined revenue management
- Build a diversified and resilient philanthropic portfolio that reduces volatility and supports long-term sustainability
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Role and Core Responsibilities
The Chief Development Officer is a senior executive responsible for building, integrating, and leading SAFE's overall external engagement and philanthropic strategy.
This leader will operate as both a strategic architect and a hands-on fundraiser-personally engaging top donors while building the systems, team, and cross-functional alignment required for long-term growth.
This role requires the ability to deliver near-term revenue results while strengthening infrastructure, performance, and accountability across the development function and related teams.
Revenue Strategy and Execution
- Develop and execute a multi-year fundraising strategy aligned with organizational priorities and growth targets
- Lead all aspects of philanthropy, including major gifts, annual giving, corporate partnerships, and foundation support
- Personally manage a portfolio of high-capacity donors and prospects
- Translate SAFE's scale, impact, and system-level value into compelling philanthropic investment opportunities
- Build and grow a disciplined pipeline of major and principal gift donors
- Lead cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of top-tier donors
- Partner closely with the CEO to co-develop and execute strategies for high-level donor relationships
- Ensure shared ownership of key relationships, activating the CEO and Board effectively in cultivation and stewardship
- Lead strategy for ongoing capital needs, including development of cases for support and targeted fundraising efforts
- Assess and strengthen organizational readiness for future campaign opportunities
- Build the lead donor pipeline and structures required for capital investment over time
- Build and strengthen systems, processes, and reporting to support disciplined, scalable growth
- Optimize CRM, donor analytics, segmentation, and performance tracking
- Establish clear forecasting, goal setting, and accountability structures across the function
- Drive a data-informed culture that links activity to outcomes
Lead, coach, and develop a development team of approximately 10 staff, including individuals with varied levels of fundraising experience
Oversee communications and marketing staff (approximately 3 team members), ensuring alignment with fundraising strategy and organizational positioning
Assess team structure, capabil
Salary : $25,000 - $250,000