Coordinator, Development (Chicago/Hybrid)

Responsibilities:

• Maintains and manages a highly complex executive calendar, ensuring the CDO's time, travel, donor engagements, external commitments, and strategic relationships align with departmental and enterprise priorities. Develops a strong understanding of departmental priorities, key stakeholders, and fundraising objectives to support executive prioritization and decision-making. Proactively identifies opportunities, anticipates conflicts, recommends solutions, and optimizes the highest-value use of executive time and attention, ensuring appropriate capacity for strategic planning, donor engagement, relationship management, travel, and other leadership activities.
• Tracks strategic priorities, decisions, and commitments made by the CDO, Development Leadership Team, and cross-functional working groups. Maintains action logs, monitors progress, identifies obstacles, follows up with stakeholders, and alerts the CDO to emerging risks, delays, or opportunities requiring attention.
• Coordinates planning and execution of cross-functional initiatives by developing work plans, tracking milestones, facilitating communication among stakeholders, monitoring risks, and supporting accountability for deliverables and outcomes.
• Conducts research, assembles background information, synthesizes stakeholder input, and develops concise briefing materials, presentations, and meeting plans to support executive decision-making, donor cultivation and stewardship, Board interactions, strategic planning discussions, and external stakeholder engagement.
• Supports donor and prospect engagement planning through research coordination, briefing preparation, meeting tracking, CRM documentation, and management of key engagement records and follow-up activities. Ensures donor interactions, next steps, and engagement plans are accurately documented and maintained to support effective cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, and portfolio management.
• Provides coordination and project management support to the Development Leadership Team and other people leaders for critical enterprise processes, including planning, budgeting, talent management, and organizational initiatives. Serves as a liaison with HR, Finance, and other internal partners to support successful completion of department deliverables and organizational requirements.
• Supports the planning and execution of leadership meetings, retreats, and planning sessions by coordinating agendas, logistics, materials, decision tracking, and follow-up actions.
• Coordinates executive and departmental administrative operations, including travel arrangements, meeting logistics, offsite planning, expense reporting, vendor coordination, and other activities that support effective department operations. Develops and improves processes, tools, and systems that enhance executive effectiveness, streamline coordination, and support efficient department operations.
• Supports department-wide meetings and communications through scheduling, agenda development, note-taking, meeting logistics, action-item tracking, and follow-up communications. Identifies cross-functional implications, recommends next steps, and helps ensure commitments are completed.
• Communicates on behalf of the CDO and Development leaders with professionalism, discretion, and confidentiality when interacting with network partners, donors, vendors, Board members, staff, and internal departments. Serves as a primary point of contact for internal and external stakeholders on matters related to the Office of the Chief Development Officer and builds effective working relationships with executive assistants, donor representatives, Board liaisons, and other key stakeholders.
• Other duties as assigned.

Required Competencies, Experience and Certifications:

• Three years of experience supporting senior leaders in a complex stakeholder environment requiring executive scheduling, prioritization, project coordination, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Demonstrated ability to manage competing priorities and highly complex schedules with exceptional organizational skills, attention to detail, sound judgment, and discretion.
• Strong written communication skills, including the ability to research, synthesize information, and prepare concise briefings, presentations, meeting materials, and executive communications.
• Project coordination experience, including the ability to translate strategic priorities into actionable work plans, track progress, and coordinate stakeholders to achieve desired outcomes
• Demonstrated professionalism, trustworthiness, and ability to handle confidential information while working independently, managing multiple priorities, and adapting to changing circumstances and deadlines.

Preferred Competencies, Experience and Certifications: 

• Experience supporting a senior executive or executive leadership team.
• Experience in a nonprofit, fundraising, philanthropy, or other mission-driven environment.
• Experience using AI-enabled tools to support research, content development, meeting preparation, and workflow management.