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The Position

Trinity Valley School, a PreK – 12th grade, coed school in Fort Worth, Texas, is seeking an experienced fundraising professional to partner with the Head of School to build philanthropic support for the school and the engagement of key stakeholders. The start date is on or before July 1, 2025. Reporting to the Head of the School, the Director of Advancement is the chief architect of development efforts, including creating, implementing, and supervising appropriate fundraising efforts to meet the financial goals of the School, including annual, capital, planned giving, stewardship, and alumni relations. Along with the Head of School and the Director of Strategic Marketing and Communications, s/he is responsible for strengthening a positive public perception of Trinity Valley in the community, communicating the mission and objectives of the school, building relationships with donors, and obtaining the financial support necessary to ensure a strong and vibrant future.

Trinity Valley School is committed to attracting and retaining exceptional faculty and staff by offering the following: highly competitive salaries; fully paid employee health, disability, and life insurance; family dental insurance; TIAA-CREF 403(b) plan with immediate vesting; vision insurance; flexible spending accounts; professional development opportunities; tuition reimbursement for advanced degrees; and more. Faculty members at Trinity Valley School value the camaraderie, support, and sense of purpose among their peers. TVS considers its faculty “experts in education” and affords them a fertile teaching environment.

TVS actively seeks to recruit and hire faculty and staff whose diversity is reflective of our community. TVS is deeply committed to the School’s mission and goals of equity, Inclusion, and belonging.

 Opportunities and Challenges:

The Director of Advancement at Trinity Valley School will first assess recent fundraising history, performance, and strategies, and formulate a comprehensive plan moving forward to engage all constituencies; focus on increased financial support from alumni; and develop strategies to meet goals for both new and existing initiatives. The successful candidate will be someone who can easily integrate into the entire school community and is willing to do the work in the trenches. S/he will need to be a person of high emotional intelligence, someone who will take full ownership of the development function, but still work collaboratively. The candidate will provide thoughtful strategies to retain and reinvigorate a constituency that has significant capacity to support the school’s operations and capital needs going forward, while optimizing the department’s infrastructure in order to meet and exceed goals.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Ensure that the fundraising functions of the school can sustain the institution over the long term through a clearly articulated vision, the application of a set of fundraising best practices, a willingness to model successful fundraising practices, and strong relationships with donors
• Establish and maintain both short- and long-range goals for capacity assessment, cultivation, stewardship, annual and capital fundraising, and planned giving that will increase the culture of philanthropy across all constituencies of the school
• Using a data-driven approach, create a long-range strategy for giving
• Mentor, support, and provide supervision to staff members
• Ensure that the department functions in an efficient and cost-effective manner
• Anticipate future programmatic needs and take initiative to address them thoughtfully and creatively
• Cultivate, solicit, and steward a number of the school’s top prospects
• Activate, support, and elevate the Head of School’s engagement and leadership in fundraising
• Act as administrative liaison to the Development Committee of the Board
  • Prepare regular reports
  • Advise on and prepare agendas for meetings
  • Support the decisions of the Committee
  • Assist the Committee in developing policies and procedures to guide the School’s fundraising efforts

Other Duties:

• Serve on the Senior Leadership Team
• Attend all TVS Board meetings, including subcommittee meetings, as needed.
• Participate in professional development that provides for continual learning about best practices and trends in the field.
• Perform other duties as requested.

Qualifications and Qualities of the Position:

TVS seeks a Director of Advancement who possesses proven leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills and can lead with imagination, initiative, vision, energy, and drive.

The ideal candidate will have

• At least five (5) years of fundraising experience, including annual fund and major gifts, ideally in an independent school
• Proven track record of conceptualizing, planning, and cohesively integrating a full range of development programs
• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written, and an understanding of what should be communicated to different audiences
• Thorough grasp of the current trends in development and issues facing independent schools

Additionally, the ideal candidate will be

• A firm believer in the School’s values and the capacity to articulate the case for support of TVS
• A contributor to the overall strategic planning of the School
• A decisive and confident leader, embracing the School’s culture
• A highly professional team player, with a strong sense of integrity and desire to work effectively with colleagues, volunteers, and Board members

Trinity Valley School is an equal-opportunity employer. It is our policy to provide equal opportunity in all aspects of employment practices. Trinity Valley School does not discriminate against any qualified employee or applicant for employment due to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, mental or physical disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected category under federal, state, or local laws.

To Apply

Interested candidates should provide a résumé, a cover letter highlighting their interest in and fit for the position, and a list of five (5) professional references with contact information, as a single attachment, by June 1, 2025. These materials should be sent to the consultant for this search listed below:

Marci McLean | marci@educationgroup.com

Candidates will be evaluated as received.