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.

For more information on Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art,
please visit https://www.brandywine.org/.

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 motivate 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, motivated, 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 & 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.

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 this link, or email Tenley
directly at [email protected]. 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.

About Koya Partners

Koya Partners, a part of Diversified Search Group, is a leading
executive search and strategic advising firm dedicated to
connecting exceptionally talented people with mission-driven
clients. Our founding philosophy—The Right Person in the Right
Place Can Change the World—guides our work as we partner with
nonprofits & NGOs, institutions of higher education,
responsible businesses, and social enterprises in local communities
and around the world.

For more information about Koya Partners, visit diversifiedsearchgroup.com/koya-partners.

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