Description

Vice President of Development  
Full-time, salaried, exempt position 

Founded in 2003, GiGi's Playhouse Inc.’s mission is to change the way the world views Down syndrome and send a global message of acceptance for all. This is accomplished through national campaigns, purposeful programs, and by empowering individuals with Down syndrome, their families, and the community. All programs are free and are therapeutic or educational in nature. Each one of our programs is designed to work on specific skill development, including speech and language, literacy, socialization, and fine and gross motor skills. GiGi’s Playhouse currently has over 60+ locations across North America and is growing by several locations annually. 

Position Summary: 
The Vice President of Development is an executive leadership role responsible for designing and scaling a comprehensive national fundraising strategy that fuels GiGi’s Playhouse’s growth and long-term sustainability. 

As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, this leader drives multi-channel revenue strategy across major gifts, corporate partnerships, national sponsorships, grants, campaigns, and events. The VP balances direct revenue generation with enterprise leadership, dedicating approximately 40 percent of their time to managing a focused portfolio of high capacity individual and corporate donors, and 60 percent to strategic leadership, infrastructure development, and building a high performing national development team. 

This role requires a resilient, results driven leader who can build and retain A players, establish clear performance expectations, and create scalable systems that support national expansion and long-term financial strength. While the role is based at the National Office in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, remote consideration may be extended to an exceptional candidate. 

Primary Responsibilities: 

Enterprise Revenue Strategy and Growth

• Develop and execute a comprehensive multi- year fundraising strategy aligned with GiGi’s national growth and expansion plan
• Establish clear annual revenue targets across all fundraising channels and hold the organization accountable to measurable outcomes
• Diversify revenue streams to ensure long-term financial sustainability
• Build scalable fundraising systems, infrastructure, and reporting mechanisms to support national expansion
• Monitor revenue performance metrics, analyze trends, and adjust strategy to drive consistent growth
• Partner with executive leadership to align development priorities with program innovation, marketing strategy, and operational expansion 

National Revenue Execution and Donor Engagement

• Personally manage and grow a focused portfolio of 15 to 20 high-capacity individual donors and 5 to 10 national corporate or family foundation partners
• Secure transformational gifts and multi-year commitments that drive sustainable growth
• Lead integrated strategy across major gifts, corporate partnerships, institutional funding, campaigns, events, and peer to peer initiatives
• Provide executive oversight of national fundraising campaigns and future capital initiatives, including feasibility planning, execution, and ROI evaluation
• Ensure foundation and institutional funding strategies align with programmatic innovation and expansion priorities
• Oversee donor stewardship strategy and data driven lifecycle management to increase retention and lifetime value
• Partner with Marketing to align storytelling, brand positioning, and donor communications across all fundraising channels
• Cultivate national corporate sponsorships and mission aligned partnerships 
• Partner with executive leadership and board members to expand high level donor relationships 

Team Leadership and Talent Development 

• Recruit, build, and retain a high performing team of A players across all development functions
• Establish clear role definitions, performance metrics, and accountability systems
• Leverage individual team member expertise to elevate strategy and execution
• Provide coaching, performance feedback, and leadership development
• Make strategic talent decisions that strengthen the department
• Build dashboards and reporting structures that drive transparency and results 

Requirements

Qualifications:

• Minimum of 10 years of progressive senior leadership experience in fundraising or development
• Demonstrated success driving multi-channel revenue growth
• Proven experience securing six and seven figure gifts
• Proven success in fast paced, high growth, or changing environments
• Demonstrated ability to lead under pressure and manage competing priorities
• Experience building and leading high performing teams
• Strong financial literacy and forecasting ability
• Experience with Salesforce or comparable CRM systems
• Proven ability to lead through influence, build trust, and collaborate across functional teams.
• Strong executive presence and ability to influence at the leadership level
• Experience supporting fundraising campaigns and development strategy
• Familiarity with EOS or similar accountability frameworks preferred
• Experience within a franchise-like, network-based, or affiliate-supported model strongly preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree required or a minimum of 15 years of progressive senior level fundraising experience  
• Advanced degree, CFRE, ACFRE, CAP, or comparable professional credential preferred. 

Core Competencies:

• Strategic Revenue Leadership: Ability to design and execute multi-channel fundraising strategies that drive measurable revenue growth and long term sustainability.
• Business Acumen: Understands the financial and operational impact of marketing decisions. Aligns marketing strategy with fundraising, program growth, and expansion goals.  
• Analytical Thinking: Uses data, metrics, and insights to guide decisions and improve performance. Balances analytics with sound judgment.
• Systems and Infrastructure Orientation: Experience building scalable fundraising infrastructure, including CRM utilization, dashboards, donor lifecycle management, and performance tracking.
• Change Leadership: Thrives in a fast paced, evolving environment. Communicates changes effectively and leads teams through growth and shifting priorities.
• Team Leadership & Accountability: Builds and leads a high performing team. Sets clear expectations, delegates effectively, and drives disciplined execution.
• Executive Communication: Communicates clearly and persuasively in both written and verbal formats. Influences stakeholders and represents the organization with professionalism.
• Adaptability & Resilience: Manages competing demands and high-pressure situations with composure. Pivots quickly while maintaining strategic focus.
• Innovation & Problem Solving: Generates creative solutions and addresses challenges decisively and thoughtfully.
• Ethics & Organizational Alignment: Acts with integrity, supports organizational values, and collaborates across departments to advance enterprise goals.
• Ability to Develop People: This role leads senior leaders and managers. Success depends on coaching, strengthening leadership capacity, and building a bench for long-term sustainability.
• Strategic Thinking/Visioning: While not the visionary CEO role, this position must understand the big picture and translate strategy into operational reality across programs and playhouses.
• Calm Under Pressure: Playhouse crises, staffing gaps, growth pains, and competing priorities are constants. This role must provide stability, clarity, and sound judgment under stress.
• Ability to Hire A Players: Important, but more critical for functional leaders; this role focuses more on developing and aligning senior leaders.

GiGi’s Playhouse Core Values:

GiGi’s challenges all staff and volunteers to embody the following core values:

Enthusiasm: Bringing positive, high energy to our work

Best of All: Always looking to improve in all that we do. Challenge yourself every day.

Get ItDone: Making things happen and blasting through barriers when needed; figure it out.

Believe: Believe in ourselves, believe in our mission, believe we can achieve all that we set out to achieve

Locally Concerned, Enterprise Minded: Bringing our Best of All to our local playhouse while being mindful of how our work affects the broader GiGi’s network.