Join our Revenue Team – Development Lead

Description

Charlottesville Tomorrow is growing our team in 2025 and seeks an experienced development lead to expand the work of our fundraising team. This is the first time that the nonprofit news organization has an operational budget of well over $1 million.

This development lead will report to our chief of revenue in our Charlottesville office, and work with our CEO and 15-person community board to help grow our capacity and engage stakeholders. We are seeking a mission-driven colleague who will express our value to major donors, local businesses, local and state government agencies and philanthropic investors.

We work hard to create a healthy and inclusive work environment that is rethinking how local news is produced, both for the sake of journalists and business staff doing the work and the communities we serve. While we are outlining job responsibilities and skills here, above all we are looking for someone who wants to join our team to help build on that culture.

About Charlottesville Tomorrow
Charlottesville Tomorrow is a community-driven, socially conscious news organization. We serve our neighbors by connecting them to each other and to the issues that affect them most.

This is a newsroom at the forefront of local news. It’s a place for talented journalists and big thinkers to dig into mission-driven work that impacts people’s lives regularly.

Our reporters and editors dig deeply into issues that affect our community, regularly producing work that highlights issues often ignored by other media. We center our organization and news processes on our values — truth, community, and equity — and we work to improve the health of our local news community and ecosystem through our inclusive practices in hiring, journalism and partnership.

Our newsroom covers the issues that are most important in our community with a focus on race and equity and reaches a large share of our market through our free email subscriptions, news apps, social media and events.

Job Duties

Here’s some of what the development lead will do:

We don’t expect any single candidate to have experience or skills in every area, so if you think you can bring something to the team, please apply!

– Work with our chief of revenue, board and board committees to develop and meet our fundraising goals, as outlined in our strategic plan.
– Develop our business sponsorship and corporate funding program.
– Manage fundraising projects in collaboration with our product and audience, editorial and business teams.
– Maintain relationships with our local donor base and actively participate in lead generation and cultivation.
– Work directly with our tech stack, including Salesforce, WooCommerce and Mailchimp.
– Attend local events and network in our central Virginia communities as a representative of Charlottesville Tomorrow.
– Travel several times a year for conferences and meetings.

Skills Required

Here are some skills that will help:

While no single candidate is expected to have all these skills and experiences, the ideal candidate will possess some of the following qualifications:

– Experience with philanthropy, nonprofit fundraising and/or business development
– Proficiency with websites, spreadsheets and technical tools, and the ability to learn new systems.
– Experience selling products for advertising or underwriting.
– The ability to communicate with and earn the trust of people from diverse communities.
– Personal or professional experience in multiple cultural settings and/or non-English language skills.
– The ability to work with a diverse team, help boost colleagues and seek help when you need it.

We seek someone who understands that being visible, present and accountable with our community and knowledgeable about its people is core to our success as a local news outlet. We are looking for a seasoned fundraiser who understands that all good work starts with being a good human being and that the future of local journalism relies on including a diversity of voices at every level.

Work Schedule

Location: Charlottesville is a college town with many opportunities for learning and recreation, and good quality of life. It is a competitive and fast-changing small media market with high visibility in state and national news cycles. t is a fast-growing, multicultural node in the region’s knowledge and finance economy. The quality of living is high, and it is a short drive from Washington D.C. and Richmond.

This is not a remote position. Our team lives and works in the communities we cover, in central Virginia, and regularly spends time in our newsroom.

Compensation: We are building compensation packages to help create equity in the news industry. Our pay is competitive for our local area and among nonprofit news organizations around the country.

Paid time off: At least 20 days, plus Virginia holidays.

Benefits: Medical, dental and vision insurance, health savings account, retirement plan with up to 3% match

Flexible hours: We pride ourselves on building a newsroom that allows you to do work in the ways and hours that are best for you and the community. You have the option of working where you like or at our office location in downtown Charlottesville most of the time. This is not, however, a remote position because we expect our staff to spend time in person in the communities where we work. We’ll have some required in-person meetings throughout the week, and use Slack, email and phone to communicate throughout the day.

Additional Info

Career advancement: We invest in our team. You will have opportunities to develop your skills and broaden your networks through trainin
g and conferences. We support our colleagues as they pursue fellowships and leadership programs and seek to grow as professionals.

How to apply: Our application process is designed to help us find candidates who will thrive in our newsroom.
The first step is a written application. Candidates who progress should expect two to three rounds of interviews. This job listing will be open to applicants until we fill the position.

To get started, please tell us or provide: Why are you interested in working with Charlottesville Tomorrow?

Tell us about something you’ve built as part of a revenue strategy — it can be a lead generation strategy, a tracking tool, a fundraising channel — something that you are proud of. How did it help your team succeed?

To apply, send your resume (and/or LinkedIn profile) and answers to this question to hiring [at] thedpi.org, with the subject line “Charlottesville Tomorrow Development Lead.” Due to the volume of inquiries we receive, we will not be able to answer emailed questions about this role.