Chief of Development chez NEVADA PARTNERSHIP FOR HOMELESS YOUTH

Description

Letter from Arash Ghafoori, CEO

Dear Candidate,

Thank you for your interest in the Chief of Development (CD) position at the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth (NPHY).

I’m Arash Ghafoori, and I’ve had the privilege of serving as NPHY’s CEO for nearly 15 years. Over that time, I’ve witnessed firsthand how our community’s generosity and our team’s dedication have fueled NPHY’s growth from a small local agency into Nevada’s most comprehensive service provider for youth experiencing homelessness.

Today, NPHY stands at a critical and exciting juncture. We’re intentionally building internal capacity and positioning the organization for long-term sustainability in a changing landscape. As part of this work, we’ve restructured our Community Development & Engagement (CDE) Department into three specialized but highly collaborative departments:
Development (DEV); Impact, Systems, & Policy (ISP); and Communications & Advocacy (CA).

This change isn’t just structural—it’s strategic. It allows each department to focus deeply on its area of expertise while continuing to collaborate closely to advance our mission.

The Chief of Development role is one of the most important hires we’ll make in this next chapter. We’re not filling a vacancy—we’re expanding our leadership team. Two of our long-time leaders will head the new ISP and CA departments, opening space for the right person to lead Development alongside two seasoned peers who’ve been here as long as I have.

That means we’re looking for someone who’s not only skilled, but also the right fit—a leader who can build on a strong foundation, strengthen what already works, and introduce creative strategies to diversify our revenue streams.

We’ve taken time to craft a detailed job description that outlines exactly what this position will take on and the kind of leadership it requires. If you’re reading this and feel a spark of excitement, I hope you’ll take the next step. This is a rare opportunity to join a stable, respected, mission-driven organization at a moment of growth and reinvention—to help shape how we sustain our work and deepen our impact for years to come.

To help us get to know you beyond your resume, I’d like you to include a short cover letter that also responds to two of the three prompts below. These will give me my first sense of your personality, your approach to leadership, and how you see yourself stepping into this role.

Please respond to prompt 1 and your choice of prompt 2 or 3 (explain why you chose the prompt 2 or 3):

1. Grants Leadership Prompt (required)

Grants have long been NPHY’s financial backbone including various government (federal and local) and private grants. Tell us about your experience with writing and managing grants like these. As our new Chief of Development, how would you familiarize yourself with NPHY’s grants portfolio and processes to ensure you don’t miss a beat? 

2. Growth & Innovation Prompt 

Imagine you’ve been in the role for six months. What’s one new fundraising or donor-engagement idea you would launch to diversify NPHY’s revenue? Why that idea, and how would you measure success.

3. Culture  & Leadership Prompt

The development team you’d inherit is capable, mission-driven, and used to operating in a grants-heavy environment. How would you lead them through this evolution into a full-scale development department while maintaining enthusiasm, clarity, and teamwork?

Thank you again for your interest. I’m looking forward to learning how you think, what drives you, and how you would help shape the next chapter of NPHY’s growth and impact.

Warm regards,
Arash Ghafoori
Chief Executive Officer
Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth

Job Title: Chief of Development
Reports To: Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Status: Full-Time, Exempt
Compensation: Commensurate with education and experience

Agency Description

Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth (NPHY) is the most comprehensive service provider for the thousands of young people experiencing homelessness in Southern Nevada, serving hundreds of youth through our core programs and touching the lives of thousands more through outreach each year. NPHY’s programs stabilize homeless teens' lives, meeting their immediate needs and providing a safe, supportive environment and a path to self-sufficiency.

Strengthening and complementing our high-quality direct services, NPHY is dedicated to advocating for this population and serves as a leader in systems-level efforts to eliminate homelessness among all Nevada’s youth.

Agency Culture

NPHY offers a positive, mission-driven work environment: we encourage each staff member to cultivate their unique talents and training and come together as a strong, synergistic team to better serve homeless young people. While working in a challenging yet rewarding field, you will be surrounded by compassionate, energetic, fun, happy, and friendly staff members who are like-minded and love what they do.

In addition to everyday interactions with youth, NPHY offers countless opportunities for youth and staff to experience new and fun things together to help the NPHY family create stronger bonds and model positive relationships and healthy boundaries with the young people we serve. NPHY also offers quarterly training to better equip our staff with up-to-date continuing education, skills, and resources to best serve and respond to a wide array of situations and needs.

NPHY doesn’t just accept diversity—we celebrate it, support it, and thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, clients, programs, and community. NPHY is proud to be an Equal Opportunity workplace. NPHY is dedicated to maintaining a welcoming, respectful, and supportive workplace where every employee, volunteer, and client feels valued. We seek to build a team that reflects the communities we serve and the young people whose lives we aim to change for the better.

Position Summary

At NPHY, our mission remains steadfast: to end youth homelessness in Nevada. In recent years, our Community Development & Engagement (CDE) Department carried an ever-growing scope of work that extended well beyond its original design. To sustain this growth and give each area the focus it deserves, NPHY has restructured CDE into three distinct but highly collaborative departments: Development (DEV); Impact, Systems, & Policy (ISP); and Communications & Advocacy (CA). This restructure gives Development the dedicated space and leadership it needs to concentrate fully on revenue generation and resource growth.

The Chief of Development (CD) will be the architect and driver of this new standalone Development Department. Reporting directly to the CEO and serving as a key member of the Executive Leadership Team, this leader will inherit a core team already experienced in grants, outreach, volunteer management, and special events, while also taking on an established grants program that has consistently delivered results. With grants remaining a cornerstone of NPHY’s funding, the CD must be both an exceptional grant writer and grant manager—able to sustain and grow this critical funding mechanism while also diversifying revenue through equally strong systems for individual giving, major gifts, recurring donors, corporate sponsorships, and stewardship. These streams exist today but need specialized leadership, infrastructure, and attention to achieve their full potential—just as we have already achieved for grants.

This is a rare opportunity to take an already respected organization with strong grant-based fundraising and elevate it into a comprehensive, best-in-class development operation. The Chief of Development will immediately implement a new CRM system, oversee a robust calendar of fundraising events, deepen donor and volunteer stewardship practices, and manage community outreach through events, tabling, and partnerships. They will also oversee Safe Place partner relationships, working closely with Programs (operations), ISP (reporting), and CA (marketing) to ensure this lifesaving program thrives.

While this is an executive-level role, the successful candidate must also be a hands-on builder that can manage and grow a team—someone who can both set strategy and roll up their sleeves to write a grant, meet a donor, or lead an event when needed. They must be deeply committed to inspiring their team, donors, and volunteers to connect directly with NPHY’s mission and the voices of the young people we serve. They will collaborate closely with peer Chiefs across ISP, CA, Finance & Operations, and Programs, drawing on strong support in reporting, storytelling, fiscal infrastructure, and youth outcomes to fuel development efforts.

The ideal candidate is a bold leader with an entrepreneurial yet down-to-earth spirit who thrives in both designing systems and doing the groundwork. Creative and innovative by nature, they will be energized by the chance to remodel and grow a department, launch new donor strategies, and find clever ways—independently and in collaboration with others—to diversify funding streams and ensure NPHY has the resources to achieve its mission to end youth homelessness in Nevada.

Essential Responsibilities

Fundraising Strategy & Execution

Grants Leadership (cornerstone revenue stream)

• Sustain and grow NPHY’s cornerstone revenue stream by leading the full grants function with staff support.
• Personally write and manage complex, competitive grant proposals during high-volume periods or when strategy requires executive-level leadership.
• Oversee and mentor NPHY’s grant writer, ensuring the function is well-supported, continuously improving, and strategically aligned.
• Build sustainable systems and structures that allow grants to be effectively managed by the Development Department as a whole over time.
• Partner with ISP to secure accurate, timely data for grant reporting, monitoring, or other compliance/grant requirements and with CA to integrate compelling narratives and impact storytelling.
• Ensure compliance with all grant requirements and deadlines, maintaining strong relationships with government, foundation, and corporate funders.

Diversified Fundraising (growth priorities)

• Design and execute strategies to expand individual giving, major gifts, recurring donors, corporate sponsorships, foundation giving, and institutional philanthropy (such as a monthly giving program, new initiative-specific fundraising mechanisms, 25th anniversary-related giving).
• Build and manage a robust donor pipeline, cultivating relationships with individuals, foundations, and corporations, and soliciting major gifts in collaboration with the CEO and Board of Directors.
• Lead stewardship and donor recognition efforts, ensuring all contributions are acknowledged promptly and relationships are nurtured.
• Inspire donors to connect directly with NPHY’s mission, creating experiences and opportunities that highlight youth voices and impact.
• Innovate new approaches and creative strategies to diversify and expand fundraising outcomes.

Engagement

Events & Campaigns (donor engagement and visibility)

• Lead the planning, execution, and evolution of NPHY’s fundraising and community events portfolio, including annual signature events and new initiative-specific gatherings.
• Partner closely with the CA Department to ensure events are powerfully branded, strategically marketed, and fully aligned with NPHY’s messaging and advocacy goals.
• Design events that authentically connect donors, volunteers, and partners to NPHY’s mission and to the youth we serve, emphasizing storytelling, impact, and community engagement.
• Integrate creative donor engagement elements such as youth participation, behind-the-scenes experiences, or thematic giving opportunities that highlight NPHY’s work.
• Collaborate with all NPHY teams to identify and cultivate sponsorships, in-kind contributions, and community partnerships that enhance event reach and revenue.
• Evaluate event performance and return on investment, using data and post-event analysis to continuously improve effectiveness, donor retention, and visibility.

Safe Place Partnerships & Community/Youth Outreach

• Oversee relationships with partner agencies and businesses that host Safe Place pick-up locations, ensuring strong stewardship, problem solving, and expansion of the partner base.
• Collaborate with Programs (operations), CA (marketing), and ISP (reporting) to ensure Safe Place success.
• Supervise the Outreach Coordinator in leading community partner and youth engagement, Safe Place partner stewardship, and event-related outreach.
• Guide and support youth-focused outreach efforts designed to raise awareness among young people about NPHY’s programs, resources, and Safe Place sites, ensuring that materials, events, and strategies resonate effectively with youth audiences.
• Ensure NPHY maintains a consistent and visible presence across the community by directing Development staff participation in partner-facing, youth-facing, and outreach events—working collaboratively with CA to ensure alignment in messaging, branding, and communications.

Volunteer Program

• Provide strategic leadership to NPHY’s unique and robust volunteer program, which goes far beyond traditional service.
• Leverage volunteers as vital partners in donor cultivation, youth engagement, advocacy-building, and problem-solving.
• Ensure volunteer opportunities are designed to engage directly with youth in meaningful, mission-centered ways while also strengthening donor and community ties.
• Recognize, celebrate, and steward volunteers as essential advocates and champions of NPHY’s mission.

Leadership

Team Leadership & Department Development

• Supervise and grow the Development team, currently including a grant writer, Community Engagement Coordinator, and Outreach Coordinator.
• Mentor and coach staff, cultivating a culture of collaboration, accountability, creativity, and innovation.
• Implement and oversee a new CRM system to enhance donor tracking, reporting, and stewardship.
• Establish performance benchmarks and evaluation tools for team and department success.

Collaboration & Organizational Leadership

• Serve as a member of the Executive Leadership Team, actively shaping agency-wide strategy and cross-departmental initiatives.
• Work closely with ISP to align grant funding/monitoring and development activities with impact data, evaluation findings, and policy goals.
• Partner with CA to co-develop donor materials, impact stories, and donor-facing campaigns.
• Collaborate with Programs to integrate youth voice and impact into donor engagement.
• Partner with Finance & Operations to ensure accurate revenue tracking, budget development, and compliance.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Nonprofit Management, Business, Communications, or related field required; Master’s degree preferred.
• Minimum 7 years of progressive leadership experience in nonprofit development or advancement, with direct supervision of staff.
• Demonstrated success in writing and managing grants, with proven track record of securing significant foundation, corporate, and government funding.
• Experience leading comprehensive fundraising strategies across multiple revenue streams, including individual giving, major gifts, recurring giving, corporate sponsorships, and events.
• Strong technical skills in CRM systems, donor databases, and fundraising technology.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with ability to inspire and steward donors, partners, and staff.
• Ability to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
• Proven history of cultivating relationships with diverse stakeholders including donors, volunteers, corporations, and community leaders.
• Valid driver’s license, insurable driving record, and ability to travel locally and occasionally nationally.

Benefits

• NPHY offers a competitive benefits program including three weeks Paid Personal Leave (PPL) and fourteen paid holidays per year.
• NPHY also offers fully paid medical, dental and vision insurance plans. 
• Employees can also participate in a 403(b) Thrift retirement plan with up to 3% employer match that immediately vests.  
• Employer paid $10,000 Life and AD&D Insurance.
• Other Voluntary Insurance Plans. 
• NPHY offers a unique benefit to all employees in the form of a Health And Personal Investment (HAPI) reimbursement of $50 per month.

How to Apply & Deadline

If you are interested in this position and meet the qualifications outlined above, please email your cover letter and resume to [email protected] or apply via NPHY’s recruitment page.

Position is open until filled. We hope to hire someone to start around December. Applications will be reviewed in batches until filled. Application review dates are: October 21 and November 21. Therefore, please do not expect any communication prior to those two dates. Applications will be reviewed then and qualified candidates will be contacted for next steps. 

If you’re excited about this role but don’t meet every requirement, we still encourage you to apply—even if your professional journey doesn’t check every box—especially if your passion, skills, and drive align with this mission.