Development Director

Job Description

Saint John Institute
About Saint John Institute
The Saint John Institute is a nonprofit Catholic organization with a vision to become the premier center for Catholic leadership formation for business professionals and families in the United States. Through its ministries, the Institute exists to inspire, equip, and engage Christians to lead their family, business, and culture with courage, conviction, and faith.
Core values: Vision. Daring. Grit.
Position Title: Development Director
Reports To: Chief Operating Officer
Location: Remote - Toledo or Cincinnati, OH
Position Summary
The Development Director is a senior leader responsible for building, strengthening, and leading the Saint John Institute's development engine.
This is not simply a donor stewardship role. It is a build-and-lead role.
The right person will help the Institute move from a development model that has been highly founder-driven into a more structured, durable, and scalable development program. This person will work closely with the President and senior leadership to create greater clarity around fundraising strategy, donor pathways, campaign structure, development operations, reporting, and long-term growth.
The Development Director must be able to bring both judgment and authority. This person should be capable of stepping in, assessing what exists today, recommending what needs to change, and helping install a development program that can grow beyond any one personality.
For fiscal year 2026, this role is expected to help drive at least $150,000 in new giving growth, while also improving the systems, structure, and donor strategy required to sustain that growth over time.
Why This Role Exists
The Institute has meaningful donor goodwill, an important mission, and strong leadership. What it now needs is a more institutionalized development function.
That means this role exists to:
• Strengthen and formalize the overall development program
• Build donor support around the mission, not only around personal loyalty to the founder
• Create a more repeatable and visible system for development planning, donor movement, and fundraising execution
• Improve the Institute's ability to grow giving in current and future markets, including Denver
• Help leadership make stronger, clearer development decisions backed by process, reporting, and sound fundraising strategy
What This Role Must Deliver
In the first 6 months, this person must:
• Gain command of the current development landscape, donor history, systems, campaigns, and relationships
• Learn and organize the donor knowledge currently held by internal team members, especially through transition from Lisa and prior donor management practices
• Build greater clarity around donor segmentation, giving tiers, stewardship, and annual development priorities
• Improve structure around development reporting, donor tracking, CRM usage, and process discipline
• Strengthen the year-end and annual giving approach through better messaging, planning, segmentation, and execution
• Clarify the structure and benefits of the President's Circle giving program
• Help shape the 2026 development strategy, budget assumptions, and travel plan
• Assess the current case for support and improve how the Institute communicates why donors should invest in the mission
In the first 12 months, this person must:
• Help generate at least $150,000 in new giving growth for fiscal year 2026
• Strengthen the Institute's annual giving program and donor upgrade strategy
• Build clearer donor pathways for annual, mid-level, major, and pillar-level giving
• Create stronger development infrastructure that gives leadership visibility into donor pipeline, giving progress, stewardship activity, and future opportunities
• Reduce overdependence on informal or personality-based giving by building a stronger institutional development model
• Help create and support a development game plan for Denver and other priority growth opportunities
• Improve long-term readiness for future staffing, campaign growth, grant support, and major donor expansion
Key Outcomes
The Development Director will be expected to own the following outcomes:
• A stronger, more formal development operating system
• Clearer annual fundraising strategy and execution
• Measurable year-over-year giving growth
• Better donor segmentation and upgrade strategy
• A stronger case for support tied to the mission of the Institute
• Better integration between development, communications, leadership, and business office functions
• Greater confidence in donor reporting, donor movement, and development planning
• A development function that becomes more repeatable, more strategic, and less dependent on one person holding everything together
Capabilities Required to Win in This Role
The right person will not win this role based on charm alone or a generic fundraising background. They will win because they can do the work that this stage of the Institute requires.
This person must be able to:
• Build structure where systems and process are still developing
• Turn donor relationships and institutional knowledge into a usable development engine
• Make smart strategic fundraising recommendations with confidence and clarity
• Create order, discipline, and visibility in development operations
• Think beyond activity and focus on results, donor movement, and revenue growth
• Strengthen donor support for the mission itself, not just for a charismatic founder
• Move between strategy and execution without getting lost in theory
• Work with senior leaders and donors with maturity, judgment, and credibility
• Balance initiative and humility
• Help install a development model that can outlast the person in the seat
Relevant Experience
Strong candidates will likely bring several of the following:
• Meaningful experience in development, advancement, fundraising, donor strategy, or a closely related field
• Experience helping build or strengthen a fundraising or development function
• Experience creating or improving annual giving strategy, donor stewardship, major gifts processes, or campaign execution
• Experience working in a nonprofit, ministry, mission-driven, education, apostolate, or relationship-based organization
• Experience with donor databases, CRM tools, reporting systems, and fundraising operations
• Experience partnering closely with a founder, president, or senior executive in a highly visible development role
• Experience supporting or shaping grant strategy is a plus
• Experience with Kindful, KEAP, or similar systems is preferred
Mission and Cultural Fit
This role requires more than technical fundraising skill.
The right person must:
• Be aligned with and committed to the teachings of the Catholic Church
• Be able to represent the Institute's mission with conviction, maturity, and integrity
• Be comfortable operating in a faith-centered environment
• Show discretion, professionalism, and sound judgment in donor relationships
• Understand how to represent the Institute, its leadership, and the Catholic mission well in a variety of donor and public settings
• Bring confidence without ego
• Be a builder, not just a maintainer
Working Style
The best fit for this role will likely be:
• Strategic and organized
• Capable of bringing authority without arrogance
• Comfortable entering a growing environment that needs more structure
• Process-minded but not bureaucratic
• Strong in follow-through
• Clear in communication
• Good with both people and systems
• Able to create momentum without drama
• Comfortable being both hands-on and high-level
Internal Partnerships
Position Context
This is a strong fit for someone who wants to help build something meaningful.
It is not the right role for someone who only wants to inherit a polished development machine and manage what already exists. The Institute already has mission strength, donor goodwill, and momentum. What it needs now is a leader who can help turn that into a stronger institutional development model with clearer strategy, stronger systems, more visible reporting, and measurable giving growth.
Schedule and Travel
• Full-time role
• Standard hours are generally 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Mountain Time, with flexibility based on donor, event, and organizational needs
• Some evening and weekend work will be required
• Travel will be required at times, including for donor meetings, events, growth-market activity, and strategic relationship development

About the Employer

The Saint John Institute is a nonprofit Catholic organization with a vision to become the premier center for Catholic leadership formation for business professionals and families in the United States. Through its ministries, the Institute exists to inspire, equip, and engage Christians to lead their family, business, and culture with courage, conviction, and faith.