OVERVIEW
The Global Leadership Network (GLN) is a $17.7 million nonprofit organization with 50+ full-time staff, with the office located in South Barrington, Illinois, and employees located across the United States. The GLN’s purpose is to introduce more people to Jesus and fully follow Him. They accomplish this by serving pastors, equipping churches, inspiring Kingdom-oriented leaders around the world through the Global Leadership Summit and other leadership development resources. The Summit is attended by 60,000+ leaders in 400 sites (primarily churches) throughout the United States. In addition, it is translated into 40+ languages for more than 100 countries reaching over 270,000 international leaders.
Coming alongside this impactful movement, GLN seeks a VP of Development to expand the organization’s funding and thereby extend its impact. As a member of the senior leadership team, this person will exemplify GLN's values: excellence, humility, authenticity, and collaboration. The ideal candidate will be an exemplary servant leader who others love to be around, is hungry to contribute and genuinely seeks to become their absolute best to advance the Kingdom.
ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION
Founded in 1992 as the Willow Creek Association, the Global Leadership Network (GLN) serves pastors, churches, and Kingdom-oriented leaders through world-class leadership experiences and resources. GLN is committed to a singular idea: that inspired, encouraged, and equipped Christian leaders create thriving local churches and communities where more people come to know and follow Jesus.
Hosting the world’s largest annual leadership event, the Global Leadership Summit (GLS), the GLN reaches hundreds of thousands of leaders around the world. In addition, the GLN has several targeted ministry initiatives to reach key populations, including:
GLS Next Gen reaching 68,000 global leaders between ages 12–22.
Prisons Ministry serving 20,000 inmates in 200 facilities in the U.S.
Ministry Connect delivering the Summit to at-risk populations through partner organizations.
Women Leaders Network encouraging leaders in cohorts around the world.
While the GLN seeks to inspire and equip Kingdom-oriented leaders in all spheres, the organization’s focus and passion is the pastor of a local church. They believe that the local church is the hope of the world. God ordained the church to be the body of Christ, as each one of us is called out to live as people of faith in our world.
THE GLOBAL LEADERSHIP SUMMIT
The Global Leadership Summit (GLS) is a two-day, world-class leadership event attended by 60,000+ leaders at 400 sites (primarily churches) throughout the United States. The Summit is also translated into 40+ languages and held in over 700 sites in 100 countries reaching over 270,000 international leaders from September to April.
GLS is a resource for both the local church—to raise up their leaders, engage seekers, and drive transformation in their communities—and local business leaders to grow in their innovation and leadership. The GLN also provides tailored experiences and resources to inspire and equip pastors/church leaders, the next generation, women leaders, and leaders in prisons.
The GLS has featured some of the most gifted and experienced global leaders in the world as key speakers, including Craig Groeschel, Patrick Lencioni, Erwin McManus, Andy Stanley, Carly Fiorina, Jeffrey Immelt, former President George W. Bush, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, John Maxwell, Gary Haugen, Seth Godin, Albert Tate, Ron Howard, Jossy Chacko, Bob Iger, Tony Dungy, Jack Welch, Christine Caine, Louie Giglio, Henry Cloud and Jim Collins—to name a few.
What makes the Global Leadership Summit unique is that it plants seeds for God to use and grow leaders into fully committed followers. The GLN believes that each Summit attendee is there for a purpose. At some point – at just the right time – God will bring the seeds, that were planted deep in a person’s heart and mind at the Global Leadership Summit, to life… resulting leaders who transform churches, communities, and countries for Christ.
LEADERSHIP, STAFF AND STRUCTURE
In May 2023, David Ashcraft was named as President/CEO of the Global Leadership Network. Prior to coming to GLN, David led LCBC church in Pennsylvania for 32 years, growing it from 150 attendees in 1991 to become the largest church in the northeastern United States, averaging 22,000 each Sunday across 19 sites.
Under David’s leadership, a six-member Executive Team leads GLN’s day-to-day operations and 50+ staff. The 2025 budget anticipates $17.7 million in revenue, with 50% from Summit registrations, 40% from contributions, and the remaining 10% from sponsorships, products, and other income.
The Vice President of Development position reports to GLN’s Chief Operating Officer, Robert Yi, with a dotted line to CEO Ashcraft. Yi was previously the President/COO of Westfall Gold, a leading major donor fundraising firm. His leadership style involves delegating–giving the team a high degree of autonomy, letting them make decisions and manage their work. He also values servant leadership, prioritizing the needs of the team and focusing on helping them develop. GLN’s senior leadership team consists of the ministry’s 12 vice presidents. As a member of the senior leadership team, the VP of Development will exemplify GLN's values as a cross-functional leader who positively shapes the ministry's culture.
This role will define and execute GLN’s fundraising plan. They will primarily focus on major donors by leading a team of gift officers while managing their own portfolio of donors. The VP will implement moves-management best practices and coach gift officers in cultivating donor relationships. The VP will also oversee grant requests, gift administration, reporting, and prospect research.
MAJOR DONOR FOCUS
The role will lead a team of four, that includes three major gifts officers and one development manager (who handles events and gift administration). The immediate prior leader for the team was the COO, with a leader before that who held the position for around 10 years. This season needs a major donor development leader to implement best practices, coach the team, and generate consistent and growing results.
The preferred leadership style for this role is first a servant-leader, prioritizing the team’s needs and helping them grow and develop. In addition, this individual must excel at coaching and developing the team’s abilities to cultivate major donors. In addition, the VP of Development will need to lead situationally, adapting their style based on an individual’s needs for the task at hand.
The top attributes needed are:
Leader
Manager
Detail–oriented
Relational
Fundraiser.
The ideal candidate excels at these skills: servant leadership, relationship building, communication, planning, organizing, and problem solving. She or he might be serving as CDO or CAO with a smaller or mid-sized organization, as a VP of a similar-sized nonprofit, or possibly as a rising major donor Development Director.
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
Every role in every organization has both opportunities and challenges. We profile these here, based on interviews of those who work closely with this role, to guide candidates who may consider if these are the kinds of opportunities and challenges that suit them best.
OPPORTUNITIES
The VP will have opportunities within the first 90 days to:
Gain an understanding of the GLN and its fundraising approach
Begin managing the development team
Coach gift officers regarding year-end solicitations
Work with the COO to create the 2026 plan and budget.
The GLN believes fundraising is ministry, and has adopted a donor-centric model of fundraising based on Henri Nouwen’s Spirituality of Fundraising.
About 90% of giving comes from 100 major donors. GLN’s major donors are extremely loyal to the ministry resulting in high retention rates.
GLN’s donor pipeline begins with the 60,000 U.S. leaders attending the Global Leadership Summit each year. The VP of Development will build and execute a plan to identify and engage potential high-capacity donors from the Summit audience.
The President/CEO is an experienced, effective, and engaged fundraiser who desires to build relationships with key donors.
The GLN hosts two major donor events each year: the President’s Circle (during the Summit for 200 donors) and the President’s Gathering (a 4 day event for 40+ donor families).
It is expected that, in the first full year (2026), this leader will guide the team to raise $7 million in contributions. (This is up from $6 million the previous year.) The fiscal year runs from January to December.
CHALLENGES
Some challenges include the need to:
Steward and retain the approximately 100 givers who generously donate 90% of contributions.
About 5% of the U.S. Summit audience gives at the event. The VP of Development will work with the VP of Marketing to convert more attendees to donors.
General donor retention rates are extremely low, with year-over-year giving largely dependent on whether or not the donor attends the Summit each year. In addition, conversion rates outside of the Summit (throughout the year) is very low.
Grow the major donor base, providing personalized follow-up to cultivate high-giving-capacity individuals who attend or give at the Summit.
Implement moves management best practices, coaching the team in effective cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship activities, and holding the team accountable to activities.
Understand the GLN’s donor value proposition: Those who attend the Summit and experience transformation want to give back, and help other leaders have the same opportunity.
Further define effective reporting and the case for support. This is while balancing the reality that reporting back on results focuses on stories of transformed lives, “seeds planted at the Summit that later grow into Kingdom impact.”
Embrace the reality that certain individuals (often high-level organizational leaders) love giving to build Christ-centered leaders, but this case can be more challenging to make than more visible causes such as clean water, hunger relief, and so on.
Create a legacy (planned) giving program, to help existing donors go deeper with their investment in the GLN’s impact and attract new donors who want to give from assets.
POSITION PROFILE
Job Title: Vice President of Development
Reports to: Chief Operating Officer
Job Status: Full-time, exempt
Location: Remote, with three (3) days per month in Chicagoland office, plus additional travel.
PURPOSE
The Vice President of Development is responsible for stewarding the GLN’s Fundraising Philosophy (see below) in leading the fundraising efforts of GLN’s Donor Development team by developing and executing a fundraising plan, effectively managing major gift officers and other team members, overseeing gift administration and donor management systems, prospect research, special event support, and other activities to support fundraising. This person leads the Donor Development team of four people and will work alongside team members, taking on any task to accomplish the organization’s goals.
GLN’s Fundraising Philosophy
We believe that fundraising is ministry (see Spirituality of Fundraising by Henry Nouwen) and strive to reflect these principles in our donor development activities:
Donor-centric. We support donors in their journey of listening to how God is calling them to steward their resources.
Relational, not transactional. We desire to cultivate long-term relationships that honor donors and their generosity.
Abundance, not scarcity. We believe that God can and will provide all that we need to accomplish His will through the ministry of the Global Leadership Network.
A Call to Obedience. We enthusiastically invite donors to support our mission and vision because it gives them an opportunity to demonstrate their obedience to God’s call.
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES
Strategy and Team Leadership. Develops and executes donor development strategies, plans, and budgets designed to achieve organizational objectives. Manages the major donor development team to ensure organizational fundraising goals are met by utilizing best practices. Coaches team members and monitors donor engagement activity. Conducts donor and prospect research to inform development activities. Provides oversight over key fundraising initiatives, including special events.
Major Donor Relationships. Cultivate relationships with major donors through personalized communication and donor-centric meetings. Develop and implement a moves management plan for each assigned major donor. Engage in stewardship and solicitation activities that effectively motivate donors to support the GLN.
Other Fundraising Initiatives. Oversees planned giving, grant management, and mid-level donor activities. Working with marketing and other departments, provides advice and support for general donor campaigns.
Donor Development Systems. Ensures the integrity of GLN’s fundraising systems and data, including the donor database (Raiser’s Edge) and online giving (iDonate). Oversees gift administration and donation reporting processes. Produces reports and analysis to support fundraising strategy and plans.
Team and Organizational Leadership
Team Leadership. Recruits, interviews, hires, and manages team members. Oversees the activities of the team and ensures alignment to team and organizational goals. Develops and supports team members and manages performance.
Organizational Leadership. Provides cross-functional leadership that drives effective implementation of GLN’s strategic plan. Builds collaborative working relationships with other GLN leaders and team members. Demonstrates and supports the desired organizational values and is a champion of GLN’s culture.
Actively participates in one-on-one meetings with team members, team meetings, all-staff meetings, and cross-functional meetings, as needed.
Complete other related duties as assigned.
SKILLS & QUALIFICATIONS
Core Competencies:
Servant leadership
Relationship building
Communication
Planning and organizing
Problem solving.
Excellent organizational, written, and verbal communication and interpersonal skills
Excellent project management skills with demonstrated ability to coordinate communications, objectives, and tasks between internal and external resources
Strong proficiency in Excel and other data analysis/reporting tools.
EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE & OTHER REQUIREMENTS
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent
Minimum 7 years of donor development experience
Minimum 5 years of management experience
Experience managing Raiser’s Edge or similar donor database systems
Prior experience attending the Global Leadership Summit is ideal
A vital relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and an active participant of a local church that holds to a historic, orthodox understanding of biblical Christianity
ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES
Others—We set aside our personal preferences and put others before ourselves. We exist to serve others.
Excellence—Excellence matters to God, so we do the best with what we have available to us right now.
Authenticity—We commit to being real with each other, so we speak with one another openly and honestly.
Relationships—We practice care and respect and enjoy working with each other.
COMPENSATION & BENEFITS
Salary: $125–150,000 annually.
Benefits: GLN’s comprehensive benefits package includes health, dental and vision insurance, life insurance, retirement savings with company match, mental health counseling reimbursement, and more.
Vacation: Twenty (20) vacation days plus the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day off.
Hybrid Work Schedule: This position currently has a hybrid schedule which includes working at home on Monday and Friday and being in the office Tuesday through Thursday one week per month. This is subject to change.
To learn more about the Global Leadership Network, please visit their website at www.globalleadership.org.
After prayerfully reviewing this information, if you sense this position opportunity could be a good fit for you, please click on the APPLY NOW button below. Or if you know someone who may be interested and a fit, please share this opportunity using the social media and email buttons at the top of this page.
The statements contained herein reflect general details as necessary to describe the principal functions of this job, the level of knowledge and skill typically required and the scope of responsibility but should not be considered an all-inclusive listing of work requirements.