HQ Update: Doyenne is hiring a development director

By Heather Wentler

One of the action items in our strategic plan for 2020 was to hire a development director. However, at the end of 2019, our runway was only four months long. That didn’t feel like enough of a cushion to bring on a new employee. 

I’m pleased to announce that despite the economic impact of the pandemic, Doyenne has been able to improve our financial position through some strategic internal changes. We now have about an 11-month runway, and we are moving forward with the plan to hire a new director of development. 

For the past five years, Doyenne has gotten by with a makeshift fundraising strategy that changed from year to year as we fine-tuned our programming to meet the needs of entrepreneurs in Madison and around the country. 

It’s now time for us to level-up our fundraising efforts and create a sustainable strategy that allows us to access new sources of funding. 

Two early priorities for the role will be to create a strategy for sustained individual contributions and to secure funding from government grants. Our fundraising strategy will also continue to involve corporate sponsorships and membership revenue. 

For the last six months, we’ve worked with an independent contractor to lay the groundwork for this position by preparing the documentation we need to access a variety of kinds of grants.

We hope to have someone begin this full-time position by September 1. Please review the position description if you are interested. 

Bringing on a development director this summer aligns well with another opportunity Doyenne has been given. I have been accepted into Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses program, which helps entrepreneurs build a sustainable strategy for growing revenue and creating more jobs. That program runs from August to November. Several Doyenne members have graduated from the program and speak highly of it. I am thankful to Amber Swenor for nominating me to participate on behalf of Doyenne. 

Please share this opportunity with your network if you know anyone who you think would be a good fit, and feel free to send me any questions!