Chief Development Officer

About Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art

Founded in 1967, the organization is unique in the United States for bringing together two distinct programs: land conservation and a museum of American art. Through the efforts of these two programs the Brandywine protects both the natural resources of the Brandywine Valley in Pennsylvania and Delaware as well as the remarkable artistic legacy of the area, most notably three generations of the Wyeth family. The organization has an annual operating budget of $11 million. There are 75 full-time and 80 part-time employees. The Board of Trustees currently numbers 25 trustees with 8 honorary trustees.

The Brandywine Conservancy is one of the largest land trusts in the Pennsylvania/Delaware region and a leading local and national advocate for responsible land use, open space preservation and water protection. The Conservancy focuses on integrating conservation with economic development through its Land Stewardship and Municipal Assistance programs, and works with individuals, state, county, and municipal governments as well as private organizations to permanently protect and conserve natural, cultural, and scenic resources. To date the Conservancy has helped facilitate the permanent protection of over 70,200 acres of land in Pennsylvania and Delaware.

The Brandywine Museum of Art has a renowned collection of American art—in particular, paintings by three generations of the Wyeth family—including nineteenth- to early twentieth-century landscapes, portraits, still-lifes, and notable holdings in American illustration. Currently there are over 5,000 objects in the Museum’s permanent collection. It has a robust slate of temporary loan exhibitions, ranging from mid-nineteenth century to contemporary art. These activities have raised the visibility of the organization and garnered critical acclaim in both national (Wall Street Journal and Hyperallergic) and local (The Philadelphia Inquirer) publications. The Museum also owns and operates guided tours of the Andrew Wyeth Studio, N.C. Wyeth House & Studio, and the Kuerner Farm—all National Historic Landmarks.

The Moment

The Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art (Brandywine) is in an exciting period of artistic, programmatic, and institutional growth. The Brandywine Conservancy has recently acquired key parcels that significantly expand its public preserves and open space. The Brandywine Museum of Art has received national, critical praise for its exhibitions program and is embarking on a campaign to attract major gifts of works of art and acquisitions funds. In addition, with a recently completed Master Plan, Brandywine will soon launch an ambitious capital campaign that will transform the visitor experience, provide much needed gallery and educational spaces, and make stronger connections between visitors and Brandywine’s bucolic riverside setting. The organization seeks an outstanding Chief Development Officer to lead its philanthropic efforts, championing an ethos of partnership, accountability, and transparency among staff and Board on all development matters.

The Opportunity

The Chief Development Officer will build a sustainable culture of philanthropy at Brandywine and be responsible for conceptualizing, organizing, and implementing a comprehensive and strategic fundraising program in support of the organization’s mission and vision for the future.

This position will implement a multi-year expansion of fundraising efforts along with leading day-to-day fundraising activities and communications. Reporting to and partnering with the Executive Director/CEO and Program Directors (Director of the Brandywine Conservancy and Director of the Brandywine Museum of Art), the successful candidate will be deeply involved in the identification, cultivation, and stewardship of individual, corporate, and foundation prospects.

The Chief Development Officer will ensure best practices in fundraising and effective institutional communication. The position will maintain and expand public and private sector relationships that deliver on strategic plan priorities, cultivate transformative gifts, build deeper local and national corporate and foundation relationships, and energize teams across Brandywine to maximize short- and long-term revenue outcomes. The role offers a unique opportunity to shape the role of philanthropy in a project of multi-generational impact.

Under the leadership of the Chief Development Officer, Brandywine will have a significantly broader base of individual, corporate, and foundation support, higher annual contributed revenue, increased membership enrolled at newly articulated levels, an increased number of donors enrolled in planned giving, and greater communication and retention activities for all donors.

Specific Responsibilities

• Directs all development activity, including annual fund, sponsorships and grants, major gifts, planned giving, and special events.
• Cultivates and stewards relationships with a wide range of donors, grant funders, and volunteers.
• Creates and implements research and strategies to identify, prioritize, cultivate, solicit, recognize, and steward all prospects and donors.
• Maintains a portfolio of donors and prospects.
• Manages the development staff of 7, with 5 direct reports including Director of Development, Deputy Director of Development, Assistant Director of Membership and Leadership Giving, Associate Director of Fundraising Events and Sponsorships, and Grant Manager.
• Develops, proposes, gains acceptance for, and implements moves management and strategic plans designed to meet the organization’s short- and long-term contributed revenue objectives.
• Serves as staff liaison to the Development Committee.
• Creates and maintains a rolling three-year plan for growth.
• Serves as a welcoming presence in Brandywine’s donor community, earning respect and appreciation through advanced communications skills and a donor-first, service-oriented approach.

Candidate Profile

Proactive, dynamic, and people-oriented, the successful candidate will personify collaboration. An experienced leader with an aspirational vision to pursue Brandywine’s ambitious goals with creativity, focus, and determination, the Chief Development Officer will have a high degree of accountability and a commitment to exceeding expectations. This individual will balance tasks and projects with a sense of urgency and possess superlative, compelling interpersonal and communication skills. A self-managed professional with a highly organized approach, the Chief Development Officer will have the ability to achieve organizational objectives with staff, Board, donors, volunteers, and prospects. Through a genuine affinity and passion for Brandywine’s mission along with highly developed skills and an efficient best practices approach, the individual will be a key component of the organization’s long-term success. The successful candidate will model behavior that creates trust and encourages others to follow suggested paths or approaches.

While it is understood that no one candidate will bring every desired skill, characteristic, and experience, the following offers a reflection of the ideal candidate profile:

Strategic Leadership and Team Management

• Ability to authentically engage and inspire others.
• The flexibility to organize, mentor, and inspire others to accomplish goals while creating a sense of order, direction, positivity, and active participation among a variety of stakeholders.
• Ability to recruit, develop, lead, and retain a diverse and highly motivated team of development professionals and foster a high-functioning, results-oriented staff.
• The clarity to establish and achieve specific, measurable, attainable, reviewable, and time-sensitive goals regardless of obstacles or circumstances.
• The acuity to develop initiatives and demonstrate sound time and priority management while identifying and overseeing resources, tasks, systems, and people to obtain results.

Fundraising Expertise

• Knowledge of and fundamental adherence to the principles, ethics, and best practices of fundraising.
• Experience designing and implementing strategic, innovative plans to grow fundraising and exceed goals.
• Successful track record of personally identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding major gifts from individual, corporate, and foundation donors at the level of six to seven figures and greater.
• Experience working on capital campaigns strongly preferred. Experience securing public funds for capital projects preferred.
• Ability to engage senior leadership, Board members, campaign volunteers, and others in cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship activities.
• A forward thinker with a demonstrated knowledge of constituent management software as well as the ability to extract and analyze data to make effective, efficient decisions about donor strategy and process.

Communication and Relationship Building

• Direct and extensive experience in collaborating with non-profit staff and Board members.
• Exceptional communication skills and ability to craft concise, compelling messaging about the organization or any of its current or proposed programs and initiatives. Extensive experience in writing successful proposals for major grants, as well as Cases for Support. A track record of writing a communications plan (in collaboration with a Marketing staff).

Professionalism and Adaptability

• A high degree of professionalism, sound judgment, awareness, and discretion while maintaining complete confidentiality.
• The capacity to respond quickly and adapt to change with minimal resistance while overcoming setbacks and remaining optimistic regardless of circumstances.
• The dexterity to anticipate, meet, and exceed stakeholder needs and expectations internally and externally.

Mission Orientation

• Commitment to Brandywine’s mission, a genuine passion for the arts and land conservation, and a desire to gain a working understanding of the organization’s history, culture, and philanthropic networks, as well as trends in regional and national philanthropy and their implications for fundraising at Brandywine.
• Demonstrated commitment to diversity, inclusion, accessibility, and equity; culturally competent with respect to issues such as racial, cultural, religious, sexual, and gender identity. Skilled at delivering solutions in evolving, multi-cultural environments.

In addition, strong candidates will offer:

• Minimum of 10 years of development experience at a senior leadership level with increasing responsibility in the multi-disciplinary arts, education, or non-profit sector.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office; experience with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) databases.
• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Must be willing and able to travel regionally and work nights and weekends when necessary.

Compensation and Benefits

Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience and includes a robust benefits package. The salary range for this role is $165,000 to $175,000.

Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art is an equal opportunity employer and considers all qualified applicants equally without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Contact

Tenley Bank and Naree Viner of Koya Partners have been exclusively retained for this search. To express interest in this role please submit your materials at the "Express Interest" link at the top of this page. All inquiries and discussions will be considered strictly confidential.

Koya Partners is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals living with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual living with a disability and need assistance expressing interest online, please email [email protected]. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.