Chief Advancement Officer (CAO)
Louis S. Wolk Jewish Community Center of Greater Rochester
Location
Rochester, NY (on-site)
Reports to
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Compensation
$110,000-$125,000 annual salary; comprehensive benefits package
The Louis S. Wolk JCC of Greater Rochester is more than an institution. It is a living, breathing reflection of what a community can be - diverse, vibrant, welcoming, and resilient. A place where a child takes their first steps, a teen finds their voice, an adult rekindles purpose, and Jewish & Israel life flourishes across generations.
As we look ahead, we are filled with both urgency and optimism. The future of our JCC is not about survival - it is about becoming more vibrant, more inclusive of all abilities and identities, more Jewish, and more essential than ever before. We are not just preserving a legacy - we are becoming the tomorrow of JCCs.
Over the past year, the JCC has made meaningful progress: strengthening philanthropic momentum, clarifying campaign priorities, deepening donor relationships, and building a stronger foundation for long-term sustainability. This next chapter is about building on that progress with disciplined, strategic, and relational advancement leadership.
We remain profoundly grateful to the members, donors, volunteers, and partners who make this possible. Their commitment fuels impact across Early Childhood, Fitness/Wellness/Aquatics/Recreation (FWAR), Arts & Culture, Jewish Life, Camp Seneca Lake, Camp Sisol, and Active Agers (55+). To sustain and grow this impact, we are investing in executive-level advancement leadership that will steward today's donors, welcome new partners, strengthen our story, and build an enduring culture of philanthropy.
Kehillah - Community
An intentional community that nurtures physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being; we foster belonging by building connections, shared responsibility, and common purpose.
Hachnasat Orchim - Welcoming + Belonging
We center the needs of every guest and member, creating a true sense of home and belonging across our community center.
Chesed - Compassion
Loving-kindness in action; we show care that improves well-being and brings warmth and joy, acting to carry goodness into the world.
Kavod - Honor + Respect
We treat people and traditions with dignity, embrace difference with a flexible mindset, and cultivate authentic connections so all can be their true selves.
Shmirat HaGuf - Being Our Best Selves
We honor the body as a gift, promote whole-person wellness, and continually improve while celebrating and motivating one another.
Guided by these values, the JCC is poised for its next chapter of service and impact.
The Chief Advancement Officer (CAO) is a key member of the Executive Team who will lead an integrated, agency-wide advancement strategy for the Louis S. Wolk JCC of Greater Rochester. The JCC operates with an annual budget of approximately $14M and a staff of 90+ full-time employees and 250+ part-time, seasonal, and contracted team members. The CAO will grow annual philanthropic revenue beyond its current approximately $2.5M baseline while helping advance comprehensive campaigns, capital, endowment, sponsorship, and institutional funding priorities.
This role is not starting from zero. The JCC has made important progress in recent months through stronger donor engagement, clearer prospect understanding, active campaign work, and more disciplined development practices. The next CAO will build upon that foundation - moving from momentum to a more mature, integrated advancement platform that connects philanthropy, storytelling, sponsorships, grants, donor communications, and stewardship.
The CAO's scope spans the JCC's full program portfolio - including Early Childhood, FWAR, Arts & Culture, Jewish Life, Camp Seneca Lake (CSL), Camp Sisol, and Active Agers (55+) - with thoughtful partnership to program directors and senior leaders. Two signature programs, the Ames Amzalak Rochester Jewish Film Festival and the Lane Dworkin Authors + Innovators Festival, will require close collaboration with their respective Directors to design donor strategies and sponsorship packages while honoring each program's leadership, brand, audience, and identity.
As Chief Advancement Officer, this leader will partner closely with the CEO and Senior Leadership Team - including the Chief Operating Officer, Chief Creative Officer, Executive Director of Camp Seneca Lake, Chief Jewish Life & Engagement Officer, and General Manager of FWAR - to translate mission, impact, and institutional priorities into compelling opportunities for philanthropic investment.
The CAO will be a visible ambassador to donors, prospects, foundations, corporations, civic partners, and the broader Rochester community. This is a hands-on, externally facing role for a relational fundraiser who can move comfortably between strategy and execution, read a room, build trust quickly, and help the JCC tell its story with clarity, warmth, and purpose.
- Develop and execute a multi-year advancement plan to grow unrestricted annual giving, major gifts, planned giving, grants, corporate partnerships, sponsorships, and event-based revenue in alignment with agency priorities.
- Translate the JCC's strategic priorities into clear, fundable cases for support that connect donor interests to institutional impact and long-term sustainability.
- Lead a data-informed advancement culture with clear KPIs and dashboards, including pipeline health, donor retention and upgrade rates, proposal activity, grant hit rate, corporate revenue, event ROI, and stewardship completion.
- Partner closely with the Chief Creative Officer and Marketing/Communications team to align fundraising strategy with brand visibility, donor storytelling, community engagement, public relations opportunities, and consistent audience-centered messaging.
- Maintain a clear advancement coordination rhythm with program, finance, operations, marketing/communications, and senior leadership to align calendars, priorities, cases for support, and donor strategy without creating donor fatigue.
- Co-lead the comprehensive campaign and related future capital priorities with the CEO and Board leadership, including gift table refinement, case alignment, prospect strategy, solicitation planning, and volunteer engagement.
- Build upon existing prospect knowledge, donor history, campaign work, and current relationship intelligence to prioritize the strongest near-term and long-term opportunities.
- Manage a personal portfolio of high-capacity donors and prospects; conduct discovery, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship using disciplined moves management.
- Develop individualized strategies for major donors, family foundations, institutional funders, corporate partners, and prospective transformational gifts.
- Design and manage recognition and naming opportunities; ensure fulfillment, gratitude, impact reporting, and enduring stewardship.
- Grow a high-performing annual giving program from the current approximately $2.5M baseline, with intentional strategies for leadership annual giving, mid-level donors, recurring monthly giving, lapsed-donor reactivation, and upgraded member philanthropy.
- Align donor journeys with membership, program participation, and community engagement so members and participants see themselves as investors in the JCC's future.
- Partner with the Director of the Ames Amzalak Rochester Jewish Film Festival and Lane Dworkin Authors + Innovators Festival to co-create sponsorship, underwriting, and major-gift strategies unique to each signature program.
- Evolve events from transactional sponsorship opportunities into mission-rich experiences that drive retention, upgrades, stewardship, and pipeline growth.
- Ensure appeals, donor communications, and impact reports are timely, segmented, emotionally compelling, and connected to the JCC's unified agency case.
- Lead foundation strategy, including landscape analysis, proposal development, grant calendars, compliance, reporting, and relationship management.
- Grow corporate revenue through sponsorships, program underwriting, cause marketing, and strategic partnerships with clear benefits packages for FWAR, Arts & Culture, Early Childhood, Family Programs, Camp Seneca Lake, and agency-wide initiatives.
- Identify new philanthropic and institutional partners whose priorities align with Jewish life, youth and family engagement, wellness, arts and culture, older adults, inclusion, security, and community building.
- Partner with Finance and program leaders to ensure proposals are realistic, budgets are accurate, grant obligations are understood, and outcomes are tracked.
- Leverage Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT as the system of record for philanthropy and strengthen its use for segmentation, moves management, reporting, stewardship, and forecasting.
- Integrate advancement strategy with DAXKO and other membership/program data to identify donor pathways, participation patterns, and cultivation opportunities.
- Strengthen policies and infrastructure, including gift acceptance, pledge management, acknowledgments, donor recognition, campaign tracking, data hygiene, and audit readiness.
- Partner with Finance on forecasting, reconciliation, pledge payment tracking, revenue recognition, and ethical and compliant fundraising practices.
- Establish reliable routines for portfolio review, pipeline management, proposal tracking, donor communications, and monthly advancement reporting.
- Serve as lead staff partner to the Board's Philanthropy/Advancement Committee (and Sub-Committees), preparing materials, strategy updates, dashboards, and discussion items that support informed governance and volunteer engagement.
- Recruit, coach, and support volunteer ambassadors, campaign leaders, and lay partners so they are equipped with clear cases for support, talking points, and appropriate next steps.
- Develop and lead a nimble advancement team structure across major gifts, annual giving, grants, corporate partnerships, events, stewardship/donor relations, and advancement operations, aligned with budget and institutional priorities.
- Clarify roles, workflows, cadences, and decision rights across the advancement function and among staff who support fundraising, events, communications, finance, and program-based donor engagement.
- Train staff, lay leaders, and program directors in donor-centric best practices, confidentiality, prospect coordination, and mission-based storytelling.
- Camp Seneca Lake (CSL): Work closely with the Executive Director of Camp Seneca Lake and CSL’s development team to coordinate best practices and donor journeys for a flagship program with a largely out-of-market alumni and donor base, and a multi-million-dollar, Board-approved capital campaign that represents one of the JCC’s most significant long-term advancement opportunities.
- Collaborate across departments - including Early Childhood, FWAR, Arts & Culture, Jewish Life, Camp Seneca Lake, Camp Sisol, and Active Agers (55+) - to prioritize opportunities, prevent overlap, and connect program needs to the unified agency case.
- Create a clear intake and vetting process for fundraising initiatives across departments, including program pilots, events, sponsorships, grants, and capital needs.
- Maintain a master advancement calendar, institutional priority list, prospect assignment protocol, and stewardship schedule.
- Ensure every appeal, proposal, visit, and event connects back to mission, impact, Jewish values, and the JCC's broader future.
- Complete a structured transition review of current donor portfolios, prospect notes, campaign materials, active solicitations, pending proposals, grant deadlines, sponsorship commitments, stewardship obligations, naming opportunities, and Raiser's Edge NXT data.
- Meet with the CEO, Executive Team, program directors, Board/Philanthropy leadership, key volunteers, advancement staff/support partners, and a select group of top donors and prospects.
- Identify immediate stewardship needs, open proposals, pending asks, and time-sensitive donor follow-up to ensure continuity during the leadership transition.
- Assess the current 12-month fundraising calendar, donor communications, campaign materials, signature event sponsorship packages, and advancement reporting practices.
- Establish the CAO's personal portfolio and confirm the first wave of CEO/CAO donor visits, stewardship conversations, and near-term solicitation opportunities.
- Present a refreshed 12-month Advancement Operating Plan that builds upon the JCC's recent development progress and includes revenue targets, major gift priorities, annual giving strategy, grants, sponsorships, endowment/planned giving, stewardship, and communications alignment.
- Validate and prioritize the top 75 prospects and donors, with individualized strategies for the highest-value near-term opportunities and a clear portfolio management structure.
- Refine the unified Case for Support and campaign priorities, incorporating programmatic, capital, endowment, and agency-wide needs into a coherent donor-facing narrative.
- Publish a stewardship and solicitation calendar that coordinates appeals, campaign moves, grant deadlines, corporate sponsorship opportunities, and signature event touchpoints.
- Outline the next-stage team/workflow plan for advancement, including roles, dotted-line supports, meeting cadences, prospect assignment protocols, and reporting expectations.
- Conduct CEO/CAO and volunteer-supported donor visits, advancing at least 20 meaningful moves across cultivation, stewardship, renewal, upgrade, proposal, and solicitation activity.
- Move priority campaign and major gift prospects to clear next steps, including written strategies, assigned relationship owners, target ask amounts or ranges, and expected timing.
- Launch or refresh segmented annual giving and donor communications using Raiser's Edge NXT reporting and clear audience-specific messaging.
- Refresh sponsorship and underwriting packages for key events and programs, including the Film Festival, Authors + Innovators Festival, FWAR, Early Childhood, Family Programs, and Camp Seneca Lake.
- Roll out a monthly advancement dashboard and pipeline review process for the CEO, senior leadership, and Board/Philanthropy Committee, including progress against revenue goals and priority moves.
- Deliver a six- and twelve-month revenue forecast with clear assumptions, risks, opportunities, and recommended next investments in advancement capacity.
- 7+ years of progressive fundraising or advancement experience, with a strong record in major gifts, campaigns, institutional giving, and relationship-based philanthropy; success in six- and seven-figure solicitations preferred.
- Demonstrated ability to design strategy, build and lead teams, strengthen systems, and deliver measurable revenue growth across multiple giving channels.
- A confident, relational fundraiser who can read a room, build trust quickly, move between strategy and execution, and personally manage a significant donor portfolio.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills, including storytelling, case development, proposal writing, presentation, facilitation, and donor correspondence.
- Experience partnering with Marketing/Communications to align brand, campaigns, public relations, digital engagement, and donor journeys.
- Proficiency with fundraising CRMs and analytics; experience with Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT or similar systems strongly preferred.
- Strong organizational judgment, discretion, emotional intelligence, and ability to operate in a complex, fast-moving, multi-stakeholder environment.
- Knowledge of the Rochester philanthropic landscape and/or Jewish communal life is a plus; passion for the JCC mission is essential.
- Ability to work some evenings/weekends and participate in occasional regional travel.
- Salary range: $110,000-$125,000, commensurate with experience.
- Comprehensive benefits package and JCC membership; details provided during the interview process.
- Additional perks include opportunities for professional development, networking, and participation in Jewish communal events and conferences.
The JCC of Greater Rochester is an equal opportunity employer. We value diverse identities, backgrounds, and perspectives and are committed to building an inclusive culture in which staff, members, and community partners can thrive.
