Edtech.com's Summary

Ascend Charter Schools is hiring a Senior Director of External Relations. This role leads the integration of board governance and philanthropic growth by strengthening board engagement, professionalizing governance infrastructure, and building a sustainable fundraising operation aligned with the organization's strategic plan. The Senior Director drives board-driven fundraising efforts and ensures donor stewardship supports long-term sustainability.

Highlights

Lead board relations, governance workflows, and trustee engagement plans to ensure active participation and accountability.
Develop and implement donor pipeline management, grant proposal processes, and collaboration with executive leadership on major donor cultivation.
Serve as primary liaison for board fundraising, coaching trustees on donor engagement and establishing clear giving expectations.
Align board agendas, dashboards, and donor narratives with Ascend's 5-Year Strategic Plan and build data-driven reporting systems.
Requires a Bachelor's degree (Master’s preferred) and 8+ years of advancement, governance, or development leadership experience in complex nonprofit or education settings.
Demonstrated experience partnering with CEOs and executive teams on board governance and fundraising strategies.
Strong strategic thinking with disciplined execution and exceptional relationship-building skills among executives and trustees.
Salary starts at $115,000 per year, adjusted based on experience and education.
Reports to the Chief of Strategy and works closely with executive leadership.
Focuses on aligning fundraising and governance efforts to support Ascend's long-term strategic priorities and organizational growth.

Senior Director of External Relations Full Description

Senior Director of External Relations

Full time • Ascend Charter Schools
Salary

Starting at $115,000.00 per year

Grades

Early Childhood, Elementary School, Middle School, High School

About Ascend

Ascend is Brooklyn’s premier K–12 public charter network, committed to graduating high-achieving students who have access to boundless choice in their futures—not only through college acceptance, but through meaningful preparation for career readiness and thriving adult lives.

Across our schools, we pair rigorous academics with strong systems, supportive adult culture, and a deep belief in students’ brilliance and potential. Our work is grounded in the understanding that preparing students for long-term success requires excellence in instruction, intentional culture-building, and disciplined execution at every level of the organization.

At Ascend, adults are held to high standards because our students deserve nothing less. How we teach, lead, collaborate, and make decisions every day directly shapes the opportunities our students will have tomorrow.

Join us in shaping learning environments where curiosity is nurtured, excellence is the norm, and every student is prepared for a lifetime of boundless choice.

About the Role

Ascend seeks a Senior Director of External Relations. This role is a senior enterprise leader responsible for unifying Ascend’s governance excellence and philanthropic growth into a single, disciplined strategy. This leader ensures Ascend’s Boards function as high-performing Boards of champions, deeply engaged, consistently generous, and fully leveraged to accelerate the network’s long-term sustainability. In the first 12–24 months, this leader will strengthen board engagement and accountability, professionalize governance and advancement infrastructure, and build a sustainable fundraising engine aligned to Ascend’s long-term strategic priorities.

This role bridges governance, fundraising, and strategic storytelling, ensuring board engagement and donor investment are directly tied to Ascend’s 5-Year Strategic Plan. This role is accountable for the overall health and performance of Ascend’s advancement strategy, including building the systems, board capability, and executive partnership required to drive philanthropic growth.

Competencies

Strategic Thinking with Execution Focus

Demonstrates the ability to think expansively and strategically, while also driving disciplined execution.
Ability to develop and implement clear, data-informed board and fundraising strategies that align with Ascend’s multi-year goals.
Possesses the ability to identify and anticipate challenges and opportunities, both internally and externally, and proactively plans backwards from ambitious revenue targets.
Establishes clear metrics and processes to measure success and adjust course as needed, driving efficiency and scalable impact across the development function.

Relationship Building and Stewardship

Demonstrated ability to build and sustain authentic, trust-based relationships with various stakeholders, including donors, board members, executive leadership, and community partners.
Ability to actively listen, adapt communications to different audiences, and demonstrate curiosity and emotional intelligence in donor engagement.
Maintains high standards of responsiveness, follow-through, and attention to detail in stewarding supporters.
Possesses and utilizes a sophisticated understanding of people and intellectual curiosity to deepen and sustain relationships, create opportunities, and influence others towards outcomes; effectively builds and leverages relationships to achieve goals.

Key Responsibilities

Board Strategy, Governance & Engagement

Own board relations and governance workflows, including agenda architecture, materials preparation, committee cadence, compliance tracking, and annual calendars.
Serve as a strategic advisor to the CEO, Chief Strategy Officer, and executive team on governance pathing for enterprise priorities.
Build and manage trustee engagement plans to ensure strong attendance, preparation, committee participation, and annual giving norms.
Lead board onboarding, leadership succession planning, self-evaluations, and annual retreats.
Maintain and improve governance policies, bylaws, training resources, and reporting structures.

Donor Strategy & Advancement Leadership

Own donor pipeline management, prospect research, moves management, and segmentation strategy.
Lead grant proposal development, submission, tracking, and reporting for private foundations.
Partner with the CEO and CSO to cultivate major donors and strategic partners.
Ensure donor stewardship journeys are high-touch, strategic, and grounded in Ascend’s impact story.
Own the overall performance and sustainability of Ascend’s philanthropic revenue engine, ensuring strategies, pipelines, and stewardship efforts support long-term organizational growth.

Board-Driven Fundraising

Serve as the primary liaison for Board fundraising, ensuring trustees are trained, equipped, and accountable for donor engagement and giving.
Design and execute board-led campaigns with clear metrics, scripts, and tools.
Coach board members in donor cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship practices.
Establish clear expectations and accountability for trustee participation, preparedness, and annual giving in support of board-led fundraising efforts.

Strategic Integration & Infrastructure

Ensure all board agendas, dashboards, and donor narratives are explicitly aligned to Ascend’s 5-Year Strategic Plan.
Partner with Data & Strategy teams to build dashboards tracking board engagement, fundraising health, donor retention, and campaign performance.
Build scalable systems, templates, calendars, and CRM discipline to professionalize advancement operations.
Ensure Ascend’s external narrative and donor-facing storytelling consistently reflect enterprise priorities, impact, and the goals of the 5-Year Strategic Plan.

Staff and Reporting Relationships

The Senior Director of External Relations reports to the Chief of Strategy.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred
8+ years in advancement, governance, or development leadership in a complex nonprofit or education organization.
Demonstrated experience partnering directly with a CEO or executive team on board governance, fundraising strategy, or enterprise-level advancement initiatives.
Proven experience managing donor pipelines, board engagement, and revenue growth.
Strong strategic thinker with disciplined execution orientation.
Exceptional relationship-builder with credibility among Executives, trustees, and senior leaders.
Highly organized, analytically strong, and fluent in data-informed storytelling.

Compensation

The salary for this position begins at $115,000. Salaries are determined using an equitable compensation scale that accounts for years of experience and levels of attained education.

Location & Work Arrangement

Based in our Brooklyn, NY office
Hybrid work schedule requiring in-office presence at least three days per week

In-person work expectations include network office time, stakeholder meetings, school visits, special events, and other role-specific responsibilities as determined by management.

This full-time, exempt position offers a comprehensive benefits package including:

Medical, dental, and vision insurance
403(b) retirement plan with employer matching
Generous paid time off and additional employee benefits

Original Job Description

Senior Director of External Relations

Full time • Ascend Charter Schools
Salary

Starting at $115,000.00 per year

Grades

Early Childhood, Elementary School, Middle School, High School

About Ascend

Join us in shaping learning environments where curiosity is nurtured, excellence is the norm, and every student is prepared for a lifetime of boundless choice.

About the Role

Competencies

Strategic Thinking with Execution Focus

Demonstrates the ability to think expansively and strategically, while also driving disciplined execution.
Ability to develop and implement clear, data-informed board and fundraising strategies that align with Ascend’s multi-year goals.
Possesses the ability to identify and anticipate challenges and opportunities, both internally and externally, and proactively plans backwards from ambitious revenue targets.
Establishes clear metrics and processes to measure success and adjust course as needed, driving efficiency and scalable impact across the development function.

Relationship Building and Stewardship

Demonstrated ability to build and sustain authentic, trust-based relationships with various stakeholders, including donors, board members, executive leadership, and community partners.
Ability to actively listen, adapt communications to different audiences, and demonstrate curiosity and emotional intelligence in donor engagement.
Maintains high standards of responsiveness, follow-through, and attention to detail in stewarding supporters.
Possesses and utilizes a sophisticated understanding of people and intellectual curiosity to deepen and sustain relationships, create opportunities, and influence others towards outcomes; effectively builds and leverages relationships to achieve goals.

Key Responsibilities

Board Strategy, Governance & Engagement

Own board relations and governance workflows, including agenda architecture, materials preparation, committee cadence, compliance tracking, and annual calendars.
Serve as a strategic advisor to the CEO, Chief Strategy Officer, and executive team on governance pathing for enterprise priorities.
Build and manage trustee engagement plans to ensure strong attendance, preparation, committee participation, and annual giving norms.
Lead board onboarding, leadership succession planning, self-evaluations, and annual retreats.
Maintain and improve governance policies, bylaws, training resources, and reporting structures.

Donor Strategy & Advancement Leadership

Own donor pipeline management, prospect research, moves management, and segmentation strategy.
Lead grant proposal development, submission, tracking, and reporting for private foundations.
Partner with the CEO and CSO to cultivate major donors and strategic partners.
Ensure donor stewardship journeys are high-touch, strategic, and grounded in Ascend’s impact story.
Own the overall performance and sustainability of Ascend’s philanthropic revenue engine, ensuring strategies, pipelines, and stewardship efforts support long-term organizational growth.

Board-Driven Fundraising

Serve as the primary liaison for Board fundraising, ensuring trustees are trained, equipped, and accountable for donor engagement and giving.
Design and execute board-led campaigns with clear metrics, scripts, and tools.
Coach board members in donor cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship practices.
Establish clear expectations and accountability for trustee participation, preparedness, and annual giving in support of board-led fundraising efforts.

Strategic Integration & Infrastructure

Ensure all board agendas, dashboards, and donor narratives are explicitly aligned to Ascend’s 5-Year Strategic Plan.
Partner with Data & Strategy teams to build dashboards tracking board engagement, fundraising health, donor retention, and campaign performance.
Build scalable systems, templates, calendars, and CRM discipline to professionalize advancement operations.
Ensure Ascend’s external narrative and donor-facing storytelling consistently reflect enterprise priorities, impact, and the goals of the 5-Year Strategic Plan.

Staff and Reporting Relationships

The Senior Director of External Relations reports to the Chief of Strategy.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred
8+ years in advancement, governance, or development leadership in a complex nonprofit or education organization.
Demonstrated experience partnering directly with a CEO or executive team on board governance, fundraising strategy, or enterprise-level advancement initiatives.
Proven experience managing donor pipelines, board engagement, and revenue growth.
Strong strategic thinker with disciplined execution orientation.
Exceptional relationship-builder with credibility among Executives, trustees, and senior leaders.
Highly organized, analytically strong, and fluent in data-informed storytelling.

Compensation

The salary for this position begins at $115,000. Salaries are determined using an equitable compensation scale that accounts for years of experience and levels of attained education.

Location & Work Arrangement

Based in our Brooklyn, NY office
Hybrid work schedule requiring in-office presence at least three days per week

In-person work expectations include network office time, stakeholder meetings, school visits, special events, and other role-specific responsibilities as determined by management.

This full-time, exempt position offers a comprehensive benefits package including:

Medical, dental, and vision insurance
403(b) retirement plan with employer matching
Generous paid time off and additional employee benefits

Let me find your next job.

Thanks - you're signed up.

Senior Director of External Relations

Edtech.com's Summary

Senior Director of External Relations Full Description

Senior Director of External Relations

Senior Director of Development for the College of Engineering

Development Officer

Assistant Dean of Development, School of Professional Studies

Director of Major Gifts, College of Engineering

Assistant/Associate Director of Development, College of Engineering