Chief Advancement Officer

Organizational Summary

For more than a century, United Way of Central Iowa (UWCI) has played a unique role in bringing together people and organizations from every corner of central Iowa to create and implement initiatives that address the community's most pressing needs. UWCI has purposely leaned into its expertise and has sought out the expertise of others in the community to ensure lasting impact. Growth and adaptation plus tried-and-true strategies are helping the organization to dig deep and foster an equitable, engaged, and empowered community.

Today, UWCI has 53 employees and approximately $35 million in net assets and is dedicated to authentically engaging nonprofits, businesses, elected officials, community leaders, and those with lived experiences to collaborate and implement long-lasting solutions. UWCI remains committed to building upon its work to eliminate barriers and challenges for all central Iowans. Our overall strategy – United to Thrive – creates an imperative that all individuals in the community should not just survive but thrive. The United to Thrive five focus areas include Essential Needs, Early Childhood Success, Education Success, Economic Opportunity, and Health and Well-Being. See the link above for more information about our organization.

Position Summary:

The Chief Advancement Officer (CAO) supports and advances United Way’s mission of improving lives by overseeing all aspects of UWCI’s resource development strategy and initiatives that align with and sustain the organization’s strategy of United to Thrive. This includes oversight of resource development, strategic communications and volunteer engagement.

A key accountability of the CAO is creating new resource streams and initiatives such as grants, planned giving, endowment and in-kind gifts, and year-round engagement to maintain superior donor relationships and meet measurable revenue goals. This position has responsibility for the oversight of all organizational marketing and public relations operations and initiatives that have a meaningful and compelling impact to broaden community support and advance the organization’s goals and mission. This role will also advance equity in all areas of work and foster an understanding of equity among staff, programs and initiatives related to donor relations, volunteer engagement and strategic communications.

Reporting directly to the UWCI President, this position leads a staff of 18 employees in the Advancement Department including five direct reports. The CAO is a member of the organization’s senior leadership team and the strategic planning team. UWCI is a volunteer-driven organization, and the CAO will work closely with key volunteers by engaging the Advancement, Volunteer Engagement and Strategic Communications cabinets to advance the organization’s work.

Essential Accountabilities:

• Identifies, develops and implements both short-term and long-term resource development and marketing strategies for UWCI in partnership with the President and volunteer leadership, which are consistent with the mission, strategic goals, and community impact plan objectives of the organization.
• Develops and implements a comprehensive marketing strategy to strengthen and broaden local public awareness, donor affinity, and message effectiveness in partnership with the Strategic Communications team. Collaborates with other senior management members on strategies/initiatives to increase revenue and UW presence through expansion into new services or market segments.
• Develops and maintains a staff structure that is capable of executing as a high performing team.
• Leads and manages staff to ensure donor relationship management plans are aligned with resource development strategies and goals. This includes championing the UWCI performance management culture, ensuring appropriate leadership, development planning, and other supports for the staff.
• Identifies, develops and implements operational efficiencies that support UWCI’s branding efforts and customer relationships that include may include eWay (pledge processing tool), maximizing Andar features (organizational data base) and year-round relationship building with companies.
• Develops and cultivates relationships with a diverse pool of key volunteers, business leaders, individual major donors, foundation program officers and corporate contribution officers. Ensures the development and effective management of an adequate and diverse pool of effective volunteers for the resource development function.
• Keeps abreast of current economic, political, legislative, technical or general business trends that may affect UWCI and key relationships. Recommends appropriate response (strategy revision, internal support processes, etc.).
• Evaluates and refines existing recognition programs, fundraising policies and guidelines.
• Evaluates and refines the information strategies, procedures and systems for resource development reporting, and for internal services including contribution processing, acknowledgements, tracking, and data mining. Continually evaluate resources to insure capacity to support growth of the organization.
• Helps promote a cooperative spirit within the organization, as well as externally through the regional association and throughout the UWW national network.
• Participates with the President and other management staff in providing a visible, strong, leadership presence across the organization, and as a member of the senior team.
• Participates in the organization’s budget planning process, and provide appropriate oversight to the department budget.