Port Discovery Children’s Museum as a rare opportunity to join our Development team as a Director of Development, to lead key aspects of the museum’s fundraising efforts, focusing on individual giving and corporate relations.

Summary of the Job:

The Director will manage the museum’s Annual Fund, business memberships, event sponsorships, and will cultivate partnerships to further advance the organization’s mission. This position ensures that all donor relations—whether individual, corporate, or community-based—are strong, growing, and align with the highest standards of the museum's mission and values. As a critical member of the Development team, the Director collaborates closely with colleagues to meet and exceed fundraising goals.

This position is expected to predominantly work on-site, but occasional work from home is permitted. Reporting to the VP of Development & Marketing, this position will function as an individual contributor. Therefore, there are no direct reports.

The salary range for this position is $80k to $85k, based on experience.

Essential Responsibilities:

Individual Giving and Relations

• Provide leadership for all aspects of the museum’s Annual Fund, including planning, strategy, and implementation of an annual workplan for the program.
• Strategize and execute the annual timelines and work plans as related to all appeals processes.
• Prospect and acquire new annual fund donors via targeted appeals, acquisition appeals, and the cultivation of general members and other partners.
• Steward the full Annual Fund participation of the museum board of directions.
• Maintain and steward relationships with Annual Fund donors through regular communications, engagement, and outreach.
• Assist the Vice President of Development in prospecting and creating strategy around major gift donor cultivation.
• Prepare regular reports on progress, updates, and projections in relation to goals for the annual giving program.

Corporate Giving and Relations

• Provide leadership for all aspects of the museum’s Corporate Membership program, including planning, strategy, and implementation of an annual workplan for the program.
• Co-lead in the management of Corporate sponsorships, contracts, and communications.
• Maintain and steward relationships with corporate contacts through regular communications, engagement, and outreach, including identifying and delegating connections to the Director of Development and/or President as necessary.
• Manage and strategize the timeline, stewardship, and work plan as related to all corporate appeals processes.
• Research new potential corporate relationships and regularly prepare prospecting plans to museum leadership.
• Prepare regular reports on progress, updates, and projections in relation to goals for the corporate membership program.

General Donor Relations

• Prepare and implement an annual overall museum engagement strategy that may be applied to various donor entities (corporate, major gift, individual, board of directors, various councils, or community partners).
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge and be the department’s point person regarding the museum-wide annual event calendar.
• Be the staff lead on select donor events and engagements, as well as assist on other events as needed.
• Contribute to maintaining, updating, and implementing donor recognition policies, procedures, and practices.

Other duties and Initiatives

• Collaborate with development staff to develop consistent communications and marketing resources to support fundraising initiatives.
• Ensure that all donor related interactions within this position’s purview are accurately entered into the museum’s donor database CRM system. Prepare reports, lists, data, and other analytics from the CRM system.
• Work collaboratively with development and financial staff to ensure that all pledge reminders and gift acknowledgements are processed and sent to donors in a timely manner.
• Be part of rotating staff that participates in off-site outreach events (some weekend hours).
• Be available to support other special event activities as needed.

Essential Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university, or related experience as demonstrated on resume.
• 5-7 years (minimum) experience in working in fundraising/development for non-profit charitable organization.
• Understanding of and experience working on individual and/or annual giving programs.
• General knowledge in fundraising strategies and tactics, particularly annual fund, direct mail, one-on-one / face-to-face fundraising. Experience with major fundraising campaigns is a plus.
• Must embrace the mission of the Port Discovery Children’s Museum.
• Possess a strong business acumen.
• Exceptional interpersonal and leadership skills that can work with a variety of people, personalities, constituencies.
• Excellent oral and written communications skills.
• A self-starter and solutions-oriented individual capable of initiating and executing an array of tasks
• Well-organized, detail-oriented.
• A positive and empathetic attitude.
• Demonstrate presence, self-confidence, common sense, listening skills.

Port Discovery provides you with the opportunity to make a difference in the community and in the lives of children. Additional benefits include:

• Free parking
• Free admission to the Museum for family
• Group medical, dental and / or vision insurance options
• Vacation, personal and sick leave
• Retirement savings with Museum match after 6 months
• Museum provided life and disability insurance, as well as EAP, travel assistance and grief counseling support

Physical Demands and Work Environment:

• Frequent sitting and sedentary office work for normal work duties.
• Occasional standing & walking throughout the museum, bending and reaching with hands and arms. Use of hands to finger, handle, or feel and talk or hear.
• Ability to occasionally lift and/or move up to 20 lbs.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.
• This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, and filing cabinets.
• Must be comfortable working around large crowds.
• The noise level is typically moderate; it can be louder on busier days.
• Normal working hours for this position are Monday through Friday, but occasional special events and donor meetings will be required.
• Occasional local travel may be required for off-site meetings.
• Occasional work from home will be permitted.

Send us your resume and cover letter, and let’s start this journey together!

About Port Discovery:

The mission of Port Discovery Children’s Museum is to provide unique opportunities and high-quality experiences that make play accessible, educational, and fun for all. Since 1998, Port Discovery has served over 5 million visitors as one of the mid-Atlantic’s leading children’s museums. Our core programming includes exhibits and creative activities in our 80,000 square foot museum, access programs for students and low-income families, educational programs and workshops for local school districts, and two generational programming for parents and early childhood educators.

To learn more about Port Discovery Children’s Museum, visit https://www.portdiscovery.org/. Port Discovery is an Equal Opportunity Employer.