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PelotonU - Development Director Application

Context. Today’s college students have changed. They’re now 74% post-traditional, which means they’re older than 24, working more than 30 hours, or caring for a dependent. Despite their best efforts, only 16% ever graduate, leaving 45 million Americans who started college without graduating. What’s worse, the system says it’s their fault, when college was never designed to serve those who would benefit most from a degree.


Over eight years, we have built a flexible and supportive college pathway for working adults, one that ensures 80% of our students graduate. The model is called a hybrid college, and we’re one of over a dozen in the country and the only one focused on growing the national field.


That’s where you come in. As our first Development Director, you’ll work alongside the Executive Director to lead fundraising and communications as we grow. In 2021, we’ll debut an ambitious strategic plan to take our work further than we ever thought possible. With that comes a need for even stronger fundraising and communications, which has been a day-a-week job until now. Far from a traditional development role, this position is equal parts writing compelling copy, testing creative ways to advocate for working adults, and crafting a strategy to grow not only our work but also a national field that will serve millions of working adults.


Your work entails three key responsibilities. First, you’ll be our messaging guru while leading grant writing and all forms of student storytelling. Second, you’ll professionalize our fundraising until we’re the best in Central Texas at gratitude, connecting with our funders, and raising capital to provide our students all the resources they need. Third, you’ll build a communications strategy to grow awareness for the hybrid college field and shape the national conversation around adult college students.


You likely enjoy writing long letters and finding creative strategies for getting the word out. You're a strategist by day and a reader by night who wants to leave the world better than you found it. Your interests are wide enough that no job has felt like a perfect fit and you're ready to roll up your sleeves to grow a higher education model that will serve millions of working adults. You might be tired of working at nonprofits that felt slow-paced; you may come from a relationship-focused role in the for-profit sector and want more meaning in your day job; or, you could be  itching to build your own development team from the ground up.