Upstream USA Vice President of Development & External Affairs Strategy & Operations
$230,000–$250,000 year
HybridSouth Attleboro, Massachusetts, United States
Job Summary
Lead the operating strategy for Development and External Affairs, including annual planning, resourcing decisions, and team coordination for a group of eight. Manage core functions such as systems and operations, donor communications, major giving, and external affairs while establishing the team's operating cadence and performance standards. Serve as the primary decision maker for prioritization, training, and cross-team alignment to enable high-touch donor engagement at scale. Oversee CRM, analytics, budgeting, and portfolio management infrastructure in partnership with Finance. Define the service menu for top donors, recommend strategic engagement approaches, and oversee executive deployment for high-impact investor and donor interactions.
Required Qualifications
- 12-15+ years of progressive experience in development, external affairs, revenue strategy, or a closely related field
- demonstrated success as a senior operating leader responsible for enterprise-level strategy, systems, planning, performance management, and cross-team coordination
- Experience on a development team that has secured eight- or nine-figure (transformational) gifts
- demonstrated understanding of what excellent transformational donor stewardship, engagement, and operational support require
- Proven experience designing and overseeing investor relations, external affairs and major gifts strategies through teams
- including portfolio design, resourcing models, and accountability frameworks
- Strong track record of leading and developing senior leaders across multiple development-adjacent functions
- such as operations, fundraising, external affairs, communications, content, and training
- Demonstrated experience partnering closely with C-suite leaders and boards
- including preparing executives for high-stakes donor and investor engagements
- managing executive deployment, and elevating executive effectiveness in fundraising contexts
- Demonstrated ability to operate as a buffer and integrator
- absorbing complexity, resolving tensions, and protecting executive and frontline capacity
- while exercising day-to-day decision-making authority aligned with executive leadership
- Exceptional executive presence, credibility, and judgment
- with the ability to coach and enable executives and senior staff to communicate confidently and persuasively with ultra-high-net-worth donors and investors
- Experience building or overseeing training, enablement, and content systems
- that strengthen executive presence, donor communications, and narrative consistency across the organization
- Deep understanding of fundraising operating models
- including CRM systems, analytics, portfolio management, reporting, planning cycles, and functional budgets
- Demonstrated ability to set and manage KPIs, goals, and performance frameworks tied to ambitious revenue targets
- Proven ability to evaluate strategic tradeoffs, allocate limited resources, and make prioritization decisions
- in fast-moving, high-expectation environments
- Demonstrated ability to remain focused, adaptable, and solution-oriented in the face of challenges, setbacks, or ambiguity
- Approaching obstacles with a growth mindset and maintaining a steady commitment to goals, even under pressure or changing circumstances
- resilience
- Must be comfortable and able to participate in an on-camera culture during meetings
- This role will require up to 25% business travel
- All Upstreamers can expect a minimum of 8 days of business travel per year to attend 1 annual organizational retreat and 1 or 2 annual team/department meetings
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