Job Summary

The Chief Growth Officer will be a strategic decision maker and leader on the executive team. You will be responsible for resourcing SOF’s next phase of exponential growth. You will lead our efforts to grow donations, sponsorship, and brand awareness, helping shape the futures of thousands of students who will one day be investors managing billions of dollars. You will work closely with our team, boards, and donors to help us rapidly scale from $1M in donations to $10M+. This is a tremendous opportunity to invigorate the brand and grow the resources and impact of Scholars of Finance.

About Scholars of Finance

We’re a close, motivated team with a big vision of a future where all finance leaders steward the world’s capital to serve the greater good. We’re on a mission to inspire character and integrity in the finance leaders of tomorrow. Together, we are building a membership organization with cutting-edge programs to fulfill this mission.

Scholars of Finance is a national team, with members in Minneapolis, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, New York, and more. Since our organization’s launch, we’ve raised over $1M and brought together 1300+ students with 450+ executives for leadership development. 

We are fortunate to be backed by world-class partners like Charles Schwab, Goldman Sachs, U.S. Bank, Piper Sandler, and are being advised by titans in the industry, like Teri List, Board Director at Microsoft or Richard Davis, the former CEO of U.S. Bank.

What You’ll Do

• Lead Revenue and Growth teams, including Development, Corporate Partnerships, and Marketing; coach and build exceptional teams of Management Associates and Interns
• Ensure effective development operations and drive fundraising best practices by building and/or refining the appropriate systems, tools, and processes to support our work, including prospecting, research, pipeline management, analytics, and communications
• Support the Board of Directors, Advisory Board, and Associate Board in their efforts to build and strengthen their identification, cultivation, and solicitation of potential donors
• Build relationships with and inspire leading CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, Partners, MDs, and Board Directors at top investment firms and funds to support SOF with their time and/or capital
• Optimize the CEO’s fundraising activity for high ROI conversations and major gifts
• Own the marketing and branding of SOF across all platforms and build a world-class brand that is appealing, captures hearts and minds, and drives action among investors
• Oversee all outward-facing communications and events, including leading PR efforts
• Stay informed on cutting-edge fundraising, partnership, marketing, and branding best practices and continuously advance our team’s collective expertise

Transformation You’ll Drive

• Partner with the Board of Directors, CEO, COO, CPO, and broader team to grow our funding from $1M/yr to $10M+/yr so we can deepen our impact, grow our team, and scale our mission to thousands of universities across the globe
• Inspire dozens of top private equity firms, VC funds, investment banks, asset managers, and commercial banks to become partners, sponsors, and hire our future leaders; making SOF one of the most sought after organizations in the world for hiring top early talent
• Evolve our Development, Partnerships, and Marketing teams by training and hiring world-class fundraising and communications leaders
• Develop SOF from a growing brand to a household name among current and future finance professionals that signifies character, integrity, altruism, and high-performance

What You’ll Need

Leadership and Management

• Experience analyzing, building, and running highly effective revenue and marketing engines–staying informed of progress and driving growth objectives. You must have the ability to develop strong relationships, escalate when necessary, and get results.
• Adept at accomplishing things through other people. You can run multiple work streams to which interns, part-time employees, contractors, and senior executives contribute. 
• Comfort with ensuring ongoing revenue and brand excellence, rigorous process evaluation, and consistent quality of fundraising execution across many channels.
• You possess sophisticated verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills; you build strong followership among your teammates; you can earn respect of and build relationships with donors, board members, or sponsors.
• Experience directly managing others, working within, leading, and growing small & nimble teams.

Foundational Qualifications

• 5-10 years of directly relevant work experience with a track record of growth and success.
• BA/BS or equivalent with a strong academic record. 
• Strong critical thinking skills. You can identify opportunities, anticipate challenges and gaps, and contingency plan accordingly.
• Ability to effectively research and recommend strategies, tactics, timelines and resources needed to grow revenue streams.
• Experience marketing programs or products through key partnerships, email campaigns, social media, referral campaigns, and other key channels increasing member and stakeholder awareness and engagement
• Ability to work independently and take ownership for outcomes while prioritizing and juggling multiple projects in a deadline-driven environment.
• Outstanding communication of requirements to build effective systems to scale financial resources; you can regularly evaluate fundraising strategies and tactics, so as to measure successes that can be effectively communicated to our team, the board, funders, and other constituents.
• Ability to travel up to 25% of your time, including on nights and weekends if needed.
• Ability to work remotely in San Francisco or New York City.

Mentality for Success

• You love our mission and are passionate about helping us transform the lives of as many students as possible.
• You have a passion for finance as a force for good and a commitment to developing ethical & morally sound leaders.
• Unwavering commitment to quality fundraising, branding, and data-driven processes.
• You are ready to jump on a flight to meet a CEO or executive who could make a big gift.
• A desire and willingness to contribute beyond your job description. You’re ready to do whatever it takes to push the mission forward. 
• Humility to be both a leader and a “do-er.” After building a strategy, you’ll roll up your sleeves and do whatever it takes to get it done.
• Courage to challenge the status quo when logic and reason require it. Is something broken? Fix it.

High Value Nice-to-Haves

• Advanced degree, ideally an MBA or Master’s Degree.
• Experience leading sales, business development, or partnership teams.
• Experience in product marketing, brand marketing, or growing large audiences.
• Proven background of scaling a successful revenue or fundraising engines
• Significant experience working directly with finance executives and investors.
• An existing network of finance professionals you’d want to share our mission with.
• Experience working with teams in multiple cities & multiple time zones.