San Antonio Christian School is seeking a dynamic, experienced and collaborative advancement professional to serve as its Chief Advancement Officer. Located on a beautiful 71-acre campus SACS is a non-denominational covenant Christian school with small class sizes and high caliber academics, coupled with a wide range of art and athletic opportunities which provide students with a Christ-centered education while fostering a life of faith and service. The Chief Strategic Advancement Officer is responsible for the performance, direction, and success of each department including providing supervisory support to all personnel in these departments.  This position is instrumental in sustaining a school environment that is safe, encouraging, and fosters the development of the student.  This person shall be spiritually mature and shall instill a life of Faith, Character, and Academic Excellence in our students. 

The Chief Strategic Advancement Officer accepts the mission of San Antonio Christian School as a personal calling, which is to “partner with families to provide students a Christ-centered education while fostering a life of faith and service.”  This person is responsible for advancing the strategic plan of San Antonio Christian School by aligning the activities and messaging of the development, marketing, communications, and alumni departments. This includes all activities related to planning, managing, and executing comprehensive, diversified, and strategic advancement. Effort that sustains and grows revenues from all constituents including individual donors, corporate and foundation giving, endowment giving, planned giving, and special events.  Overseeing the strategy, structure, and management of all fundraising efforts

To apply for this position, please contact:

Ron Haas 
rhaas@timothygroup.com

616-224-4060

HEART OF A LION CORE VALUES

• Demonstrate a desire for spiritual growth as evidenced by his or her prayer life, Bible study, and spiritual outreach to others.
• Lives out and promotes the school’s Spiritual, Service, and Academic Values.
• Recognizing the role of parents as primarily responsible before God for their children’s education and prepared to assist them in that task.
• Have the spiritual maturity, academic ability, and personal leadership qualities to “train a child in the way he should go.” Prov. 22:6 (NIV).
• Memorize and help fulfill the school’s mission statement.
• Agree with the school’s statement of faith.
• Live by the school’s lifestyle statement as a condition for employment and continued employment in this ministry.
• Participate in the school’s development programs and activities in areas of constituency relations, fundraising, and student recruitment and retention.
• Represent the school and its philosophy in a favorable and professional manner to the school family and the general public.
• Participate in beginning-of-year staff orientation, staff devotionals, staff meetings, and parent/teacher fellowship meetings.
• Supervise extracurricular activities, organizations, and outings as assigned.

Essential Job Duties:

Professional Competencies/Responsibilities

• Uphold ethical, honest, and respectful conduct in personal and professional matters, appreciating the diversity of conservative Christianity and following the Matthew 18 principle for conflict resolution.
• Demonstrate the importance of discernment, discretion, and confidentiality concerning the sharing of information.
• Demonstrate emotional stability, objectivity, flexibility, and optimism in dealing with everyday stress and communicating the Gospel of Christ to young people.
• Maintain a clean, modest, and tasteful personal appearance that models Christian values and follows school policy.
• Supervise daily functioning of the school, extracurricular activities, and school functions as assigned.
• Participate in orientations, trainings, meetings, development programs, and activities that support the school's mission and vision, and model good attendance and punctuality.
• Respectfully submit and be loyal to constituted authority.
• Engage in professional development opportunities to remain current on trends in nonprofit advancement and innovative approaches.
• Maintain an effective record and acknowledgement system within the donor platform.
• Develop and maintain multi-year measurements of overall advancement of performance using dashboard metrics and reports. Use these metrics for evaluation and goal setting.
• Reports weekly and monthly to the head of school with verbal and written reports.
• Develop, implement, and evaluate policies, procedures, and systems for the advancement department to ensure consistency with school policies and legal requirements.
• Works with board, staff, committees, and consultants as needed to accomplish specialized tasks such as galas, auctions, annual fund, briefings, brochure development, additional training, and marketing strategy.
• Entrepreneurial approach with outstanding work ethic and initiative.

 Chief Strategic Advancement Officer Competencies/Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Planning

o    Day-to-Day Operations: Lead day-to-day operations of the advancement department using effective planning, interpersonal, and project management skills.

o    Leadership: Manage the advancement team by setting clear expectations and supporting their work in development, marketing, and communications.  Provide leadership for fundraising special events.

o    Team Collaboration: Collaborate with the head of school, school board, and senior leadership team to align strategies across the school community.

o    Strategic Planning: Achieve key strategic plan goals outlined in the school’s strategic plan. Develop and execute comprehensive capital campaigns as needed for campus redevelopment and future capital needs. Design and implement fundraising strategies for long-term financial stability. 

Fundraising and Donor Relations

o    Major Donor Strategy: Develop a comprehensive strategy for major donors. This includes identifying potential prospects, cultivating relationships, engaging in personal interactions, effective solicitation, and maintaining meaningful connections.

o    Annual Fund: Supporting Director of Development in meeting goals for all annual fund initiatives and campus projects.

o    Internal Engagement: Involve internal stakeholders (such as staff, board members, and volunteers) to generate leads and identify potential donors.

o    Portfolio Management: Manage a portfolio of qualified major gift prospects, including parents, grandparents, and alumni.

o    Volunteer Organization: Organize key volunteers to address operational capital and deferred gifts from various sources (individuals, churches, businesses, foundations, and corporations).

o    Targeted Cultivation: Create specific strategies for donor cultivation and solicitation. 

Capital Campaigns and Major Gift Management

o    Capital Campaigns: Direct all capital campaigns. Collaborate with the head of school and the Capital Campaign Committee. This involves support, campaign readiness, recruiting volunteers for campaign committees, silent phase solicitations, and public phase launch components (such as print collateral, solicitation letters, website updates, pledge cards, emails, and social media posts).

o    Major Gift Strategies: Lead major gift strategies.  Coordinate the identification, cultivation, solicitation, recognition, and stewardship of prospects.

o    Planned Giving Program: Establish a comprehensive planned giving program that supports endowment funds, trusts, estate bequests, gift planning, and foundation giving.

Marketing and Communication Strategy

o    Collaboration: Oversee and collaborate with the director of marketing and communication.

o    Comprehensive Strategy: Develop and implement a comprehensive marketing and communications strategy.

o    Multifaceted Communication: Implement and oversee communication across various channels, including all school emails, websites, social media platforms, and print media.

o    Community Awareness: Use these channels to raise community awareness and share success stories and news related to the school.

o    Positive Constituent Relationships: Provide leadership for internal and external marketing, communications, and public relations activities related to development, as well as other programs important for maintaining positive relationships with constituents.

To achieve the key targets:

• Cultivate a nucleus of top 125-150 prospects/donors.
• Conduct a minimum of 5 face-to-face presentations or meetings weekly.
• Make 10-15 phone calls weekly to facilitate connections, invites, and directly asks as needed.
• Complete and close 25-30 one-on-one presentations with potential donors per month either as direct asks or ongoing relationship connections.

Contact for more information:

Ron Haas
rhaas@timothygroup.com

616-224-4060

• Acknowledge Christ as Lord and Savior.  Seek to live life as His disciple. Share the Christian faith with others.
• Advanced degrees preferred.  Possess evidence of other adequate preparation, background, or experience as determined by the Head of School.
• Outstanding communication skills, both written and oral, and superior interpersonal skills with a natural way of connecting with people.
• Excellent interpersonal skills to establish, build, and maintain effective and trusted relationships.
• Excellent organizational, managerial, and project management skills with keen attention to details
• Resourceful and skillful problem solver and strategic, critical thinker who will meet challenges with creative and effective solutions.
• Knowledge of IRS regulations as they relate to philanthropic giving.
• Active member of a local evangelical church that aligns with the essential beliefs and statement of faith.
• Highly relational with established record of cultivating strong, appropriate relationships with students/adults.
• Strong computer skills with the ability to integrate technology into curriculum to design interactive and engaging lessons.  PC proficient with knowledge of standard software.
• Must pass a criminal background check.  Have reliable transportation to and from work.

MINIMUM PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.  For this position an employee must be able to:

• Remain in a stationary position for extended periods of time.
• Use repetitive arm, hand, and finger movements.
• Stoop, bend, push, kneel, squat, pull, reach, stand, walk, and sit.
• Exercise mobility to promptly move around campus.
• Communicate effectively with students, staff, and parents.
• Lift/carry up to 30 lbs.
• Be outdoors for extended periods of time year-round.
• Travel locally, as well as nationally as needed.