Executive Director, Los Gatos Education Foundation
What is LGEF?
Los Gatos Education Foundation (LGEF) is a growing organization with a vision: to unite the Los Gatos Union School District’s (LGUSD) parents, local businesses, and the community-at-large to provide funding to elevate the educational experience for all students, beyond the basic state-funded curriculum. LGUSD is a high-performing district with 3,000 students split across 4 elementary and 1 middle schools. LGEF was founded in 1983, currently has14 volunteer board members and 2 paid staff (including the full-time Executive Director and a part-time Finance Operations Manager). The organization raised $2,200,000 in the 2022-2023 school year, as the centralized fiscal partner of One Community LG, all of the parent facing organizations in LGUSD. LGEF is targeting to raise $2.6M in the 2023-2024 school year to support the LGUSD strategic plan. For more information visit www.lgef.org and www.onecommunitylg.org.

Who are we looking for?
LGEF seeks a dynamic fundraiser, leader, and a hands-on manager who will inspire, guide and build an organization that: achieves consistent revenue growth, attracts high-performing team-oriented board members, and has a great reputation in the community.
This is a full-time, exempt position based in Los Gatos, California. The organization currently has one part-time staff member (in addition to the Executive Director).

Job Responsibilities

Reports to: President of the LGEF Board of Directors

Overall Responsibility
  • Build and execute a strategic plan that will grow revenue every year to support LGUSD’s strategic plan while engaging a broad base of parent and community support.

Revenue
  • Within the context of our strategic revenue goal, work with the LGEF board to set an annual revenue target and lead the effort to achieve the target.
  • Set and achieve targets for parent participation, major donors, and business partnerships.

Planning and Strategy
  • Work with the LGEF board to oversee planning and development of strategy.
  • Develop a strategy to achieve the revenue target set by the LGEF Board (current target is $2.6 million by the 2023-2024 school year).
  • Ensure suitable practices are put in place to develop and maintain consistent annual growth.
  • Develop and execute engagement plans to nurture relationships with high donor communities to create a spirit of giving.
  • Oversee an annual survey of parents (and possibly other constituencies such as businesses) to understand what will drive greatest donor participation.
  • Lead exploratory team to understand strategy and structure required to shift towards an endowment fundraising model.

Board recruitment and development
  • Ensure we have a proactive and engaged board who are leaders within the parent community and town of Los Gatos.
  • Lead the effort to recruit and develop board members.
  • Work with the board president to organize and manage the board.

Communication and relationships
  • Cultivate and maintain relationships with: the parent community, the school district, Home & School Clubs, school principals, other bay area education foundations, and the broader Los Gatos community.
  • Be a primary spokesperson and champion for the education foundation.

Operations
  • Provide leadership, direction, and development of staff and volunteers.
  • Oversee budget and (in partnership with board) set specific annual goals and targets.

Work Experience
  • Experience leading a non-profit organization
  • Proven track record of growing fundraising revenues
  • Exceptional people skills to engage and inspire others to achieve goals
  • Experience in recruiting and developing non-profit boards
  • Experience developing a strategic plan, setting long range policy, and establishing annual program plans and goals
  • Proven track record of establishing and cultivating relationships with high donor community
  • Experience in building and managing endowment fundraising model
  • Experience managing a budget and paid staff
  • Experience managing volunteer staff preferred
  • Previous experience in the educational sector is a plus but not a requirement

Further Details
  • This document covers responsibilities at a high level.
  • A specific set of trackable annual goals and tasks will also be established.
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Compensation
  • Salary range of $120K - $140K based on experience
  • Bonus based on achieving key metrics
  • Medical, dental and vision benefits
  • Retirement + matching
  • Paid vacation and sick time

Submission Process
For more on LGEF, please watch this video!