Vice President, Development

Job Title: Vice President, Development 

Department: Development

Location: Remote/Virtual within the continental US

Reports to: Senior Vice President of Development

Classification: Exempt 

Position type: Full-Time Employee

Anticipated Pay Range at Commencement of Employment: $128,000 - $177,000

Blue Star Families

Blue Star Families is the largest nonprofit dedicated to making military life better for families. Each year, we support over 1.5 million military- and veteran-connected family members through a national network of 300,000+ members and local chapters in communities across the country.

Our mission is simple and bold: We make military life awesome for families. 

We listen, share, partner, and act to deliver evidence-based, data-driven solutions that work for real people. We’re a lifestyle organization, a friend and neighbor, and a trusted partner. Our approach is collaborative, human-centered, and designed with the whole family in mind.

A Blue Star Family is one with an immediate family member — a spouse, parent, or child — actively serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, including the Guard and Reserves. These families face unique challenges: frequent relocations, deployments, career disruption, and isolation. We respond with research-informed programs that create connection, build resilience, and foster a true sense of belonging.

We serve with urgency but build trust over time — because change happens at the speed of trust. Whether we’re driving spouse employment, supporting caregivers, or helping communities welcome military families, we strive for upstream solutions.

Who We’re Looking For:

• Bold thinkers. Fast movers. Smart collaborators. People who want to build, lead, and drive measurable change — and who care deeply about making an impact that matters.

What You’ll Do Here:

• Solve complex challenges with data, heart, and humility
• Build cross-sector partnerships that get things done
• Help military families feel at home wherever they live

If you're ready to work in a high-performance, mission-driven environment — and to make life better for those who serve — Blue Star Families is where you belong.

General Description

The Vice President, Development serves as the senior operational and programmatic leader of Blue Star Families’ Development Department, overseeing the execution of all fundraising strategies and revenue-generating initiatives in alignment with organizational goals.

Reporting to the Senior Vice President of Development, the Vice President translates enterprise fundraising strategy into coordinated, high-performing operational plans across individual giving, mass-market fundraising, grants and institutional funding, major gifts infrastructure, events, development operations, and cross-functional execution.

This role is responsible for ensuring that Development initiatives are effectively planned, integrated, resourced, and executed across departments including Impact, Marketing, Chapters, Finance, and Technology. The Vice President provides day-to-day leadership of the Development team, ensuring accountability, performance management, operational excellence, and cross-functional coordination.

The Vice President represents Blue Star Families externally with funders and partners as needed and plays a key role in strengthening internal systems, processes, and performance metrics to support sustainable growth.

As a fully remote organization, this position requires the ability to travel overnight several times per year to attend leadership gatherings, strategy sessions, donor meetings, and organizational events.

As a fully remote organization, we rely on regular in-person gatherings to fulfill core business functions, including strategic planning, cross-functional collaboration, and culture-building. This role requires the ability to travel overnight several times per year to attend team offsites, leadership sessions, and company-wide events.

These events are critical to performing the essential functions of the role, enabling team alignment, effective decision-making, and strong interpersonal connection. Attendance and participation in these gatherings is a non-negotiable component of the position.

Key Job Functions

Strategic Partnership with SVP

• Serve as primary operational partner to the SVP, Development.
• Provide insight and recommendations to strengthen revenue performance and organizational capacity.
• Support Board Development Committee reporting and fundraising performance updates.

Department Leadership & Execution

• Translate strategic fundraising priorities established by the SVP into clear operational plans, timelines, and measurable outcomes.
• Oversee execution across individual giving, mass-market fundraising, grants, events, stewardship, and development operations.
• Ensure alignment between revenue strategy and operational implementation.
• Establish and monitor performance dashboards and revenue pacing across fundraising channels.

Team Leadership & Performance Management

• Directly supervise Development staff as assigned, including project management, development operations, grants, events, and individual giving personnel.
• Develop, coach, and appraise Development staff to ensure high performance and professional growth.
• Ensure clear role differentiation and accountability across the Development team.
• Foster a collaborative, solutions-oriented team culture aligned with BSF values.

Mass-Market & Individual Giving Oversight

• Oversee annual and mass-market fundraising strategy implementation in partnership with the Associate Director, Development and Development Project Management Lead.
• Ensure effective coordination with MissionWired and other external vendors.
• Monitor campaign performance, ROI, donor acquisition, retention, and lifetime value metrics.
• Support testing, innovation, and data-driven optimization strategies.

Major Gifts & Pipeline Infrastructure

• Partner with the SVP and Senior Directors, Major Gifts to ensure strong portfolio management, moves management discipline, and pipeline development.
• Ensure integration between annual giving, mid-level donors, and major gift cultivation pathways.
• Support capital campaign coordination as required.

Events Strategy & Revenue Integration

• Provide strategic oversight and supervision of the Development Events team to ensure alignment with overall fundraising goals and revenue targets.
• Ensure events are designed as cost-efficient, high-impact revenue platforms with clear financial benchmarks and measurable ROI.
• Position signature and regional events as strategic cultivation opportunities for prospective major donors, corporate partners, and high-net-worth individuals.
• Integrate events intentionally with major gifts and mass-market strategies to create strong donor pipelines and conversion pathways.
• Oversee structured post-event follow-up and stewardship processes to maximize long-term donor engagement and revenue growth.

Institutional Funding & Stewardship

• Oversee foundation and grant execution infrastructure, ensuring proposal quality, timely reporting, and compliance.
• Ensure strong coordination between Development and Impact teams for program-aligned funding strategies.

Cross-Functional Integration

• Oversee structured coordination with Impact, Marketing, Chapters, Finance, and Technology.
• Ensure Development initiatives are properly scoped, resourced, and executed across departments.
• Lead or delegate enterprise project management support for complex fundraising initiatives.

Systems & Operational Excellence

• Oversee development operations systems including CRM utilization, reporting integrity, gift processing standards, and donor stewardship workflows.
• Ensure continuous process improvement, risk mitigation, and documentation of best practices.
• Strengthen campaign readiness and enterprise-level execution discipline.

Additional Responsibilities

• Represent BSF at events, conferences, and donor meetings as needed.
• Some travel is required to attend meetings, training, and events.
• May be required to work nights, weekends, and holidays as necessary to carry out key job functions.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Required Experience, Skills, Background

• 10+ years of progressive nonprofit development experience across multiple fundraising channels.
• 5+ years of experience managing a development team or comparable functional area.
• Demonstrated experience overseeing multi-channel fundraising programs (mass-market, major gifts, grants, events).
• Experience translating strategic plans into operational execution frameworks.
• Proven track record managing revenue performance, pacing, and team accountability.
• Strong cross-functional leadership experience in complex organizations.
• Demonstrated success working with CRM systems (preferably Salesforce) and fundraising analytics.
• Experience managing vendor partnerships and external consultants.
• Strong organizational, analytical, and decision-making skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to manage multiple complex initiatives simultaneously.
• Commitment to collaborative leadership and shared accountability.
• Ability to travel overnight several times per year for organizational gatherings and donor engagement.
• May be required to work nights, weekends, and holidays as necessary to carry out key job functions.
• Ability to lift and carry supplies and equipment up to 30 lbs.

Desired Experience, Skills & Background

• Master’s degree in nonprofit leadership, public administration, business, or related field.
• Experience in membership-driven or chapter-based organizations.
• Experience supporting capital campaigns or large-scale growth initiatives.
• Familiarity with the military and Veteran-connected community.
• Demonstrated success building scalable fundraising infrastructure in growing organizations.
• Strong systems-thinking mindset and operational leadership capability.

More About Blue Star Families

Blue Star Families empowers military and Veteran families to thrive by connecting them with their civilian neighbors — both people and organizations — to create strong communities of mutual support. We believe we're all stronger when we take care of one another.

Our groundbreaking research is raising the nation's awareness of the unique challenges of military family life. With the help of neighbors across the country, Blue Star Families is overcoming the isolation and alienation of frequent moves, deployments, and reduced support from the government. Our innovative programs are solving specific challenges for military families, including fighting economic insecurity with resources that foster spouse career development, creating family strength with rich family programming, and providing critical peer support for caregivers, whose numbers are only increasing.

Blue Star Families is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. 

EEO Policy

Blue Star Families is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Why Blue Star Families?

• Virtual/remote nonprofit organization that moves with you (position specific)
• Career growth opportunities
• Excellent benefits (Health, Dental, Vision, 403(b) with matching, Flexible Spending, Life, Disability, and more)
• Permanent Change of Station (PCS) Leave for Active Duty Military Spouses
• On-the-job professional development training
• Front-line opportunity to positively impact the military experience
• Competitive salaries
• Workplace flexibility