Director of Development

Heritage Conservancy

Position Summary
The Director of Development leads Heritage Conservancy’s fundraising strategy and operations, working closely with the President & CEO, Vice-President & COO, Board of Trustees, and program staff to secure the philanthropic support needed to advance the organization’s mission of land conservation, historic preservation, and environmental education across Bucks, Montgomery, and Northampton Counties. This is a player-coach role: the Director both personally cultivates and closes major gifts and leads a development team, translating organizational priorities into a coordinated fundraising strategy. Heritage Conservancy is preparing for its first-ever major capital campaign, and this role will be central to that effort, working alongside outside campaign counsel.

Reports To
Vice-President & COO, with close, regular partnership with the President & CEO on donor cultivation and board engagement.

Supervises
A development team of approximately five, spanning the following functions:

  • A major gifts officer currently focused on cultivating and soliciting significant contributions
  • Two senior development associates focused on membership, business partnerships, and events
  • A database and gift-processing administrator responsible for record keeping and reporting
  • A junior development associate focused on volunteers and event support

As the organization builds toward its capital campaign, this team is expected to grow, and the Director will play the lead role in assessing current team capabilities and recruiting additional talent as needed. Several team members are early in their fundraising careers and will benefit from close, hands-on coaching and regular check-ins on priorities and progress.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

  • Develop and execute a comprehensive, multi-year fundraising strategy aligned with Heritage Conservancy’s strategic plan and land conservation, historic preservation, and environmental education goals.
  • Be a driving force in moving the organization to the next level of impact securing bot short term and long term funding for programming.
  • Participate in senior staff meetings to understand organizational priorities and emerging projects, identify funding gaps, and translate them into fundraising strategy and team assignments.
  • Set annual fundraising goals and budgets in partnership with the President & CEO and Finance team, and report regularly on progress to the Board of Trustees.
  • Serve as the primary staff partner to the Board Chair and Board of Trustees (a 20-member board) on fundraising strategy, donor engagement, and campaign readiness.
  • Actively participate in, and in appropriate cases lead, board committees related to development, philanthropy, and the capital campaign.
  • Serve as a senior member of the leadership team, contributing to organization-wide planning and decision-making.

Major and Individual Gifts

  • Build and manage a portfolio of major donors and prospects, personally cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding key relationships, including the organization’s longest-tenured major supporters.
  • Manage board member giving and engagement in fundraising activities, including preparing board members for donor cultivation and solicitation.
  • Identify, research, and qualify new major gift prospects using wealth screening and moves-management practices.
  • Shape strategy and personalized proposals for major and principal gift opportunities in partnership with major gift officers.
  • Support the President and Board members in their own donor cultivation and solicitation activities.

Annual Giving, Membership & Events

  • Oversee annual appeal campaigns, membership programs (e.g., Pollinator Circle, Arbor Circle, Perennial Partners), and recurring giving initiatives.
  • Direct the planning and execution of fundraising, cultivation, and stewardship events, including legacy society events and sponsorship solicitation.

Institutional & Planned Giving

  • Support the organization’s cultivation of corporate, foundation, and government grant opportunities in coordination with program staff, including proposal writing and reporting.
  • Grow the planned giving program, working with donors, professional advisors, and legal counsel.

Systems, Data & Team Management

  • Strengthen the systems and processes used to track funding priorities, donor moves, and reporting — building more consistent, shared tools in place of ad hoc tracking — to prepare the organization for capital campaign demands.
  • Oversee the donor database (CRM), ensuring accurate gift processing, and reporting.
    Coordinate fundraising activities across the team to ensure donor touches, asks, and proposals are executed on schedule.
  • Recruit, train, supervise, and mentor development staff at all experience levels; foster a collaborative, goals-oriented team culture.
  • Ensure compliance with all applicable fundraising regulations, gift policies, and ethical standards.
  • Oversee production of donor communications and collateral in partnership with the communications/marketing function.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree or CFRE certification a plus.
  • A senior-level fundraising leader, ideally with experience a step beyond a director-level tenure — someone who can bring the program and team to a more sophisticated level of practice.
  • Typically 7–10+ years of progressively responsible nonprofit development experience, including major gifts and team management.
  • Capital campaign experience, or a clear readiness to lead one with the support of outside campaign counsel, strongly preferred.
  • Demonstrated success personally cultivating and closing gifts in the six- to seven-figure range.
  • Experience with donor database/CRM systems (e.g., DonorPerfect, Raiser’s Edge, Bloomerang, Salesforce) and building stronger data and reporting practices.
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills, including grant writing and donor correspondence.
  • Strong relationship-building, organizational, and project-management skills; comfortable coaching and evaluating a team with a range of experience levels, and comfortable recruiting new talent.
  • Experience across any nonprofit sector is welcome — prior experience in environmental, conservation, or historic preservation nonprofits is not required. What matters most is a genuine, demonstrated commitment to Heritage Conservancy’s mission.
  • Comfort working with a sizable, active governing board and its committees.
  • Ability to work occasional evenings and weekends for donor and community events.

Work Environment
Heritage Conservancy is a hybrid work environment. The office is located at Historic Aldie Mansion in Doylestown, PA. The expectation of this role is that the Director will be in office to support staff and the team as well as in front of donors and at events in Bucks, Montgomery, and Northampton counties as needed to fulfill the expectations of the role.

How to Apply

Please email a resume and cover letter to Matt Rudolph (mrudolf@orspartners.com) of our retained Executive Search firm, Ors Partners.