#development director

Gus Romo has over 30 years of civic experience working for jurisdictions throughout Southern California; in charge of 7 to 25 staff members at any one time; Gus Romo has served as a Community Development Director since 2007 for the following five (5) California cities on a full-time basis: Calimesa, Irwindale, Baldwin Park, Bell, and Bell Gardens. Romo received his Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Planning from Cal Poly Pomona before graduating with an MBA from the University of Redlands in 1999.

What is DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR? What does DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR mean? DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR meaning

The position works closely with a chief financial officer, CFO or treasurer. A director of development is chiefly responsible for bringing in revenue streams to a non-profit grants. Donations, special events and a CFO is responsible for the fiscal management of the organization.

A CFO is rarely assigned to write grand narratives but may oversee the budget section of a grant application or a…

1. Write 10 facts about yourself

2. Describe a time your nonprofit failed horribly 

3. Describe the daily life of an archetype of one of your donor bases

4. Where will your nonprofit be in 6 months?

5. Where will your nonprofit be in 10 years?

6. A dialogue where you fail to secure a donation.

7. A dialogue where you win the heart of a prospect. 

8. What was your journey into the nonprofit world?

9. A time where one of your volunteers did something extraordinary

10. The first paragraph of a grant of your ideal program 

11. One of your favorite personal successes 

12. Dialogue of a conversation you wish you could have with your Board Chair

13. Describe the journey of a major donor to your nonprofit 

14. The hardest day at your job 

15. Compose 10 tweets about one of your programs 

16. The first paragraph of a blog announcing exciting news from an existing program 

17. The first paragraph of an email announcing a new program 

18. Why should someone donate to your nonprofit?

19. What do your nonprofit fundamentally do?

20. Were your nonprofit to be successful, what would the world look like?

21. Tell the story of the demise of your competitor 

22. From the perspective of a donor, why are they loyal to your nonprofit?

23. From the perspective of a volunteer, why are they loyal to your nonprofit?

24. Imagine a hypothetical event where everything that could go wrong did go wrong. 

25. You receive a mystery box sent to your nonprofit. What’s inside?

26. Compose an email celebrating the next big milestone for your nonprofit (5 years, 10 years, 25 years, etc.) 

27. What would be someone’s experience if they walked into your office the day before a grant was due?

28. What’s your favorite story to tell a donor?

29. Why did you join your nonprofit?

Do you want to know why you can’t find a great development director?

Good development directors are precious. It seems there is a great demand for good development directors. Turnover is a tremendous problem. In their study, Underdeveloped, CompassPoint and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund found “high levels of turnover and lengthy vacancies in development director positions throughout the sector”.  I know in my community it seems like a game of musical chairs…