Chief Development & Communications Officer
Location: Oakland, CA (Hybrid: in-office Tuesdays & Thursdays)
Position: Full-time, reporting to the CEO
About ICA Fund—Not Business as Usual
ICA accelerates great businesses through mentorship and mission-aligned investments to catalyze value in missed markets to transform communities. With a deep commitment to identifying, supporting and helping to grow small businesses run by underrepresented entrepreneurs, ICA is innovating ways to leverage coaching, capital and connections to amplify our impact.
By offering targeted acceleration workshops and operating tools, alongside hands-on advising from a network of highly experienced business operators, ICA is democratizing access to resources that catalyze value and growth in small businesses.
The Role
ICA Fund is entering its next chapter of impact, and we are seeking an entrepreneurial, strategic, and relationship-driven Chief Development & Communications Officer (CDCO) to help build the capital, visibility, and market presence required to realize that opportunity.
This is not simply a fundraising role. The CDCO will help articulate and advance the enterprise-capital case for ICA Fund’s next decade, moving beyond an additive story of more products, more entrepreneurs, or broader geography to a multiplication story about how adequate, flexible, and sustained capitalization can fundamentally change the organization's capabilities, economics, durability, and impact.
Reporting directly to the CEO and serving as a member of the executive leadership team, the CDCO will develop and lead an integrated development, marketing, and communications strategy that positions ICA Fund for long-term growth and impact. The role will build the case for investing not only in annual programmatic needs, but also in the organizational capacity, talent, infrastructure, systems, and strategic capabilities that enable ICA Fund to multiply its impact over time.
The ideal candidate is a strategic visionary with executional discipline and an entrepreneurial development spirit. They also have a keen ability to see around corners, build a compelling narrative and fundraising strategy, cultivate sophisticated relationships, and create the systems and operating rhythms required to execute at an executive level.
Key Responsibilities
Enterprise Capital & Development Strategy
- Develop and lead an integrated, multi-year development strategy aligned with ICA’s strategic direction and next chapter of impact.
- In partnership with the CEO and Board, build a compelling “multiplication” narrative, grounded in organizational strategy and financials, that articulates how adequate capitalization changes the organization's capabilities, economics, durability, and impact over the next decade, rather than simply funding incremental growth.
- Translate ICA’s organizational strategy into a compelling enterprise-capital investment thesis that demonstrates how capitalization can multiply organizational capacity, financial sustainability, reach, and impact.
- Develop a diversified fundraising portfolio encompassing major gifts, individual philanthropy, institutional funders, foundations, corporate and strategic partnerships, campaigns, and other sources of long-term capital.
- Establish fundraising goals, strategies, priorities, metrics, and accountability mechanisms that balance near-term revenue generation with long-term market development.
- Design and manage a rigorous pipeline and capitalization campaign, including case development, prospect identification, relationship mapping, cultivation strategy, leadership engagement, and campaign infrastructure.
- Partner closely with the CEO, executive leadership and board to structure gift levels, campaign phasing (quiet and public phases), and board/leadership engagement in solicitation.
Fundraising Infrastructure & Organizational Capacity
- Assess and strengthen the infrastructure required to support a more sophisticated and ambitious development function.
- Build scalable systems for prospect research, list development, portfolio management, pipeline tracking, donor intelligence, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.
- Establish clear fundraising operating rhythms, dashboards, metrics, and accountability practices.
- Identify the staffing and external resources required to support the organization's fundraising ambitions and recommend investments accordingly.
- Develop clear roles and expectations for the CEO, Board, executive team, and other organizational leaders to take fundraising and external relationship development to the next level as this function expands.
- Build the internal capacity required to have strong proactive, strategic relationship development across fundraising channels.
- Improve systems and partnerships with external consultants, grant writers, communications professionals, and other specialized resources.
Major Gifts & Market Development
- Build and manage a sophisticated major-gift and principal-gift pipeline, with particular attention to developing relationships with high-net-worth individuals and other significant philanthropic investors.
- Expand ICA’s external network and prospect universe through strategic list development, relationship mapping, research, introductions, events, thought leadership, and other market-building activities.
- Create a disciplined prospect lifecycle encompassing identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.
- Cultivate and steward high-value relationships and serve as a senior external representative of ICA.
- Support the CEO, Board, and other organizational leaders with information, guidance and skill-building coaching to serve effectively as fundraisers and relationship-builders.
- Develop the systems, expectations, and leadership practices necessary to make fundraising an organization-wide responsibility rather than a function owned solely by the development team.
Funder-Facing Strategic Communications, Marketing & Storytelling
- Oversee the day-to-day work of the team, providing direction, coaching, and mentorship to support a high-performing, collaborative culture.
- Elevate funder-facing communications to a sustained communications effort purpose-built to reach high-net-worth individuals and institutional/philanthropic investors.
- Develop and execute a communications plan targeting key funder audiences, defining the channels, touchpoints, and cadence needed to build visibility and trust over time.
- Shape organizational storytelling and messaging that supports the enterprise capital narrative, ensuring consistency across donor communications, campaign materials, website, and public-facing channels
- Identify opportunities to increase ICA’s visibility, credibility and influence across relevant philanthropic and entrepreneurial ecosystems through public relations, social media, and thought leadership that strengthens and amplifies the organization’s investment case.
- Partner with leadership to identify stories, data, evidence, and community outcomes that demonstrate ICA’s distinctive value and potential.
- Ensure communications and storytelling consistently reinforce fundraising, relationship-building, and long-term market-development objectives.
Grants Strategy & Management
- Strengthen ICAs institutional fundraising portfolio aligned with ICA Fund's long-term priorities.
- Provide direction and oversight to third-party grant writing and grants management partners.
- Ensure grant opportunities, proposals, and reporting reinforce the broader enterprise-capital narrative rather than functioning as isolated funding transactions.
- Strengthen grant pipelines, calendars, reporting systems, and prospect intelligence to increase internal efficiency and reduce requests from finance and programmatic teams.
- Ensure institutional communications consistently articulate ICA Fund's broader strategic value and long-term impact.
Executive Leadership & Organizational Support
- Serve as a strategic thought partner and trusted advisor to the CEO and executive leadership team.
- Bring an enterprise-wide perspective to decisions about organizational growth, investment, capacity, positioning, and external relationships.
- Work collaboratively with leadership and internal teams to build shared understanding, alignment and support.
- Advise the CEO and Board on philanthropic market opportunities, donor trends, positioning, and fundraising strategy.
- Prepare the CEO and Board for high-value donor and funder engagements, including briefings, messaging, relationship-building approach, and solicitation opportunities.
- Lead and develop staff and external partners responsible for development, communications, and related functions.
- Foster a culture of strategic ownership, collaboration, accountability, and disciplined execution.
Required Qualifications
- 10+ years of progressive, full-time experience in nonprofit development, fundraising, and/or communications, with demonstrated executive-level leadership.
- Demonstrated success building and executing capital campaigns or enterprise-level fundraising strategies, including closing principal- and major-gift-level investments.
- Experience developing a compelling case for investment or capital case statement for sophisticated funders, and translating organizational strategy into a long-term fundraising narrative.
- Track record of cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding high-net-worth individuals and institutional funders.
- Strong strategic thinker who can operate with significant autonomy while building infrastructure and systems from the ground up.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to craft and deliver a strategic narrative for diverse and sophisticated funder audiences.
- Experience with donor management/CRM platforms (e.g., Salesforce NPSP, Bloomerang, Little Green Light, or similar) and building or upgrading fundraising infrastructure
- Demonstrated ability to lead and develop a team, including communications, marketing and/or development staff
- Ability to move fluidly between strategy and execution in a resource-constrained, entrepreneurial environment while building toward enterprise scale
Preferred Qualifications
- Leading a major-gifts, comprehensive, capitalization, or multi-year philanthropic campaign.
- Developing an organization's philanthropic market or building a donor pipeline from the ground up.
- Experience in a nonprofit, social enterprise, community development, entrepreneurship, economic mobility, or impact-investing environment.
- Experience with repositioning an organization's narrative and external presence for sophisticated philanthropic audiences.
- Experience working with Boards and executive leaders to increase fundraising engagement and effectiveness.
- Managing internal teams and external development, communications, marketing, and fundraising partners.
Compensation & Benefits
The salary range for this position is $180,000 - $220,000, dependent upon background and experience. Compensation also includes a discretionary bonus paid annually based on organization and individual performance.
ICA’s full benefits package includes: 13 paid holidays per year; 3 weeks of annual paid vacation; 10 days of annual paid sick leave; at least 3 employer-identified mental health days; employer-paid health, dental, vision, life insurance and disability benefits; 50% employer-paid dependent health, dental, vision; employer-paid mental health counseling; 24-hour online virtual healthcare; 401(k) plan with matching; and mobile phone / Internet reimbursement.
ICA Fund evaluates qualified candidates without regard to protected characteristics and is fully committed to fostering equity and inclusion.
Hiring Process & How to Apply
People are key to our success, and we’d like to get to know you. Depending on your progress through our hiring process, you may go through the following steps: Three rounds of interviews; review of work samples; and reference-checking of previous supervisors and colleagues.
Please submit a resume and a brief cover letter (combined into one PDF or Word document) to: [email protected]. Please do not apply via Indeed.
Pay: $180,000.00 - $220,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Dependent health insurance coverage
- Employee assistance program
- Flexible spending account
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Parental leave
- Professional development assistance
- Retirement plan
- Vision insurance
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Oakland, CA 94607
