The 95-year-old Florida Veterinary Medical Association is entering a new era in delivering expanded program solutions through its Foundation. These programs, including the recently launched Inspire by FVMA wellbeing program (fvma.org/inspire), require substantial annual funding and creative, hands-on implementation assistance working with the FVMA operations and communications staff. These will be the two focus areas for the Foundation’s first Development Officer. This is a new full-time position reporting to the FVMA Executive Director.
Focus Areas
Fundraising (80%):
· This is primarily a revenue-generating position. Success ultimately depends upon the Development Officer’s ability to personally engage with individual and corporate donors and prospects and an ability to align FVMA Foundation programs to their programmatic interests and funding priorities.
· The projected first-year fundraising goal is $250,000 in new program funding commitments from among first-time donors and renewals from current donors. (Note that “new program funding” consists of philanthropic funding for the purpose of creating or expanding Foundation programs. It does not include FVMA event sponsorships or member dues, which are served by the FVMA Membership staff).
· The Development Officer creates a target list of individual and corporate prospects and personally conducts outreach to build mutually beneficial relationships and a pipeline of opportunity to support year-over-year growth.
· The Development Officer personally creates and presents materials and custom proposals to help guide donors in decisions to commit funding to the organization.
· The Development Officer stewards donors on an ongoing basis to ensure that they feel appreciated for their commitments and are motivated to grow in their relationships with the FVMA Foundation.
Operations (20%):
· The Development Officer facilitates internal discussions to document programming goals and success measures to share with the donor community.
· The Development Officer works closely and coordinates efforts with the Communications team to promote Foundation programs and capitalize on visibility opportunities.
· The Development Officer ensures that the programs as conceived can be implemented successfully and that appropriate success metrics are available to share with donors.
· The Development officer ensures that Operations staff understands their roles in program implementation and supports these efforts with briefings and guidance as necessary.
Location
FVMA’s strong preference is to locate the Development Officer in FVMA’s Orlando headquarters facility, with frequent virtual outreach and occasional travel to cover donors and prospects throughout the state of Florida. Outstanding candidates in other locations may be considered on a primarily virtual basis.
Requirements
· Experience in fundraising or another significant consultative role
· Bachelor’s or advanced degree
· Excellent written and verbal communication skills
· Excellent organizational skills and ability to manage conflicting priorities and multiple deadlines simultaneously
· Strong relationship-building skills
· High degree of proficiency in Zoom, Word, Excel, PowerPoint
· Experience in the veterinary medical sector is preferred but not mandatory
Our devotion to animals started even before our founding—when a few of the same veterinarians who instituted the Florida Board of Veterinary Medicine would go on to create our association a few years later in 1928.
Since then, we’ve been growing. In the 1940s, we had 200 members. After World War II ended, there was an increase in veterinary schools across the U.S., which started a rise in FVMA membership. We steadily grew to 600 in 1986, and as of 2023, we currently stand as the second-largest veterinary medical association in the U.S.
As our membership grew, we hired our first executive director in 1969. And in 1977, we moved into our first headquarters building. Over three decades later, in 2013, we moved into our current building, 7207 Monetary Drive in Orlando. We expanded our lobbying efforts with our first full-time lobbyist hire in 1989, ensuring that our association could fervently safeguard the proper care of animals in Florida through legal efforts.
We believe that knowledge and education are core to the growth of our field. That’s why we did everything we could to establish the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine (UFCVM) in 1965. We continue to ...actively invest in our relationship with the school by providing support to the college through scholarships, student activities, coating ceremonies, and donating to the college’s building fund.
The FVMA Foundation was founded in the year 2000 to complement the work of the Florida Veterinary Medical Association (FVMA). The FVMA Executive Board is the governing body of the Foundation with the FVMA past president serving as the Foundation president.
The foundation maintains a scholarship fund to support the studies of Florida veterinary medical and veterinary technician students—awarding nearly $20,000 in student scholarships annually.
