The Role
TITLE: Vice President of Development
REPORTS TO: Chief Executive Officer
STATUS: Exempt; full-time, 1 FTE (40 hrs/wk)
LOCATION: Minneapolis. Primarily onsite, some remote work possible
COMPENSATION: $130,000 - $175,000 annually
Job Summary
The Vice President of Development directs and strengthens the comprehensive fundraising program in support of MacPhail’s mission and goals. Reporting to MacPhail’s CEO and serving on the senior leadership team, the Vice President plays a key leadership role in MacPhail’s financial and mission success. In partnership with their five-person team, they are responsible for identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding key individual and institutional funders in concert with strategic priorities and needs while advancing a culture of philanthropy within the organization.
RESPONSIBILITIES & ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
Strategic Leadership
Experience
REPORTS TO: Chief Executive Officer
STATUS: Exempt; full-time, 1 FTE (40 hrs/wk)
LOCATION: Minneapolis. Primarily onsite, some remote work possible
COMPENSATION: $130,000 - $175,000 annually
Job Summary
The Vice President of Development directs and strengthens the comprehensive fundraising program in support of MacPhail’s mission and goals. Reporting to MacPhail’s CEO and serving on the senior leadership team, the Vice President plays a key leadership role in MacPhail’s financial and mission success. In partnership with their five-person team, they are responsible for identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding key individual and institutional funders in concert with strategic priorities and needs while advancing a culture of philanthropy within the organization.
RESPONSIBILITIES & ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
Strategic Leadership
- Create and articulate a strategic vision for long-term fundraising goals connected to MacPhail’s mission and community which is authentic and compelling to MacPhail CEO, Board, faculty, staff, and invested parties.
- Provide leadership, vision, and framework to develop, revise, improve, and implement strategic goals and inform programs in line with MacPhail’s mission and organization-wide strategic plan.
- Provide leadership in developing and implementing a multi-year fundraising strategy in partnership with the CEO, Senior Staff, Board, and development team in line with the organization's mission.
- Take a highly visible and active role in leading all aspects of growing MacPhail’s contributed revenue, including face to face donor solicitations, events, annual giving, and institutional fundraising.
- Ensure systems for donor data management, online giving, cultivation and stewardship are strategically leveraged and create processes to ensure a seamless experience for donors.
- Advance major and principal gift fundraising by partnering with the CEO and Philanthropy Officer to cultivate, solicit, and steward major and principal level gifts and manage a portfolio of high-capacity major donors, partners, and prospects.
- Manage a portfolio of major gifts
- Partner with Board and key volunteers to activate their networks and philanthropic leadership.
- Lead efforts to increase unrestricted and budget-relieving revenue.
- Serve as a “face” of MacPhail, nurturing relationships with supporters and the broader community as well as public sector, private sector and nonprofit stakeholders. Be able to “speak from the heart” regarding MacPhail’s mission, adding personal and student stories to reinforce impact.
- Partner strategically with Marketing staff to develop key marketing strategies and activities that increase the awareness and reputation of MacPhail; tell the incredible story of MacPhail and how it can serve the needs of the region and a variety of clients and stakeholders.
- Regularly attend MacPhail events and performances and develop relationships with faculty.
- Lead, mentor, and develop a team of development professionals.
- Ensure that MacPhail remains a vibrant and open place to work; practices active listening and collaboration; demonstrates a “service-oriented” mentality towards both external stakeholders and MacPhail colleagues; fosters and encourages an “open-door” policy with all employees; is hungry for new ideas among faculty, staff, stakeholders, and clients.
- Holds all employees accountable for their performance and uses data to inform their approach and decision making.
- Develop close partnership and collaboration with Finance and Marketing to ensure alignment across forecasting, revenue tracking and communications.
Experience
- 10+ years of experience successfully directing a multi-faceted organization’s advancement efforts for at least ten years
- 4+ years of experience successfully supervising, developing, and managing staff and teams.
- Experience as member of Senior Leadership preferred
- Experience with direct management and execution of a range of fundraising event types (i.e., gala, luncheon, salon, concerts.)
- Experience with successfully leading (design, planning, implementation, management, and successful conclusion) one or more program/capital campaigns that have raised at least $5 million preferred.
- Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Excellent communication (written and verbal), leadership, and interpersonal skills. Comfortable and confident talking with anyone at any level as well as speaking publicly on MacPhail’s behalf.
- An intelligent and astute learner who gladly relies on the expertise around them and desire to listen to the advice of their internal and external invested parties.
- Ability to bring a customer-first mentality and DEI lens to fundraising and strategic work.
- Ability to create and administer an effective fundraising dashboard for the institution.
- Working knowledge of Raiser’s Edge/Blackbaud products
- Skilled in understanding, developing and managing project and organizational budgets, financial statements, and cash flow.
- Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) preferred
- High level of confidence, humility, sense of humor and intellectual capacity to partner effectively with the CEO.
- Knowledge and experience of fund development strategies and practices.
- Skill in strategy development and deployment defining organizational goals and assessing internal and external environmental factors.
- A decision-maker who has a “strategic” view and can operate in a “hands-on” capacity, is proactive, and consistently provides rapid follow-up.
- Ability to work collaboratively and effectively with all levels of the organization.
- Consistency and goal orientation, problem-solving aptitude, flexibility, creativity, discretion, and passion for MacPhail’s mission and values.
To Apply
To apply fill out application including cover letter and resume which can be found in the employment section of MacPhail's website. Applications accepted through March 27, 2026.
To apply fill out application including cover letter and resume which can be found in the employment section of MacPhail's website. Applications accepted through March 27, 2026.
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The Company
What We Do
Mission: To transform lives and communities through exceptional music learning. Vision: To provide students of all backgrounds and abilities access to exceptional music learning experiences through extraordinary faculty, innovative programs and integrated learning technology to create successful outcomes. MacPhail offers the best music education in the region in 35 instruments at 132 different locations throughout the Twin Cities and statewide, serving 16,000 students annually.
