Director of Development - Meritus College

The Organization: Meritus College

Meritus College is a new kind of not-for-profit online college, built from the ground up to meet the needs of working adults and career-changers who’ve been overlooked by traditional higher education.

The problem is clear: only 33% of Pell grant recipients complete their degrees at two-year colleges within 6 years. College has become too rigid, too expensive, and too disconnected from both student realities and career outcomes. Merit College is different. Our online, asynchronous programs and "workplace as laboratory" approach allow students to learn and apply new skills directly to their jobs, while receiving personalized support from dedicated coaches every step of the way. We focus on real-world skills and stackable credentials in high-demand fields, ensuring graduates are prepared for today's jobs and tomorrow's opportunities. Founded in 2025 with an inaugural Associate of Applied Science in Technology and Innovation degree, Merit College is building a mainstream pathway to economic mobility—one designed not for the privileged few, but for the talented many who’ve too often been left behind.

About the Role

Meritus College doesn't have a century of alumni wealth to call on. What it has is a bold, evidence-backed model, a founding team with credibility in both higher ed and philanthropy, and an open field for building a modern fundraising function that looks more like an early-stage nonprofit startup than a traditional university advancement office.

We're looking for a Director of Development to join this founding team and help build that function. This is a hybrid role: part traditional higher-ed philanthropy (institutional funders and individual donors who care about post-secondary access and attainment), part startup-style fundraising (moving fast, building processes as you go, wearing multiple hats, working with founders, and engaging funders in the mission first - not the endowment).

A successful candidate will:

Manage and expand a portfolio of mission-aligned 6- and 7-figure foundation, corporate, and individual funders who care about economic mobility and the future of higher education.

Translate Meritus College's early outcomes data and founding story (which includes Merit America’s success to date) into compelling, fundable narratives.

Move comfortably between the discipline of traditional higher-ed philanthropy (stewardship, reporting, gift agreements) and the speed and resourcefulness of an early-stage startup.

Lead the fundraising strategy to launch Meritus College. Beyond direct portfolio management, this work will include shaping and building new fundraising initiatives and ways of working that meet the needs of a new, innovative higher education model.

This role reports to the Managing Director of Development and works closely with Merit America's broader Development Team and Meritus College's academic and operating leadership.

What You'll Be Doing

The primary responsibilities of the Director of Development will include, but are not limited to, the following:

Build and Advance the Pipeline (50%)

Identify, research, and cultivate new funding relationships across foundations, corporate partners, and individual donors who care about higher-ed innovation and economic mobility, bearing in mind that Meritus College does not have an alumni base to draw from.

Lead proposal development with support from Merit America’s Development team, adapting fundraising narratives as Meritus College's model, outcomes, and proof points evolve.

Bring an entrepreneurial lens to prospecting: apply the kind of hustle, creativity, and resourcefulness common in early-stage startup fundraising to a philanthropic context.

Track and analyze pipeline health, funder trends, and outcomes to continuously sharpen strategy.

Manage Donor and Prospect Relationships (30%)

Lead a small portfolio of existing warm prospects and new 6- and 7-figure funding relationships, managing the full cycle from first outreach through solicitation, close, and stewardship – with a goal of advancing $10M in deals to proposal stage (or later) in your first year, with support from the broader Development Team.

Write clear, engaging correspondence that connects Meritus College's data and mission to what funders care about.

Represent Meritus College in funder meetings and presentations, including opportunities to bring in founders/academic leadership for key relationships.

Ensure funders are stewarded and renewed thoughtfully to build long-term trust in a startup college reimagining higher education from the inside out.

Build the Function (20%)

Partner with Meritus College's academic, data, and operations teams to gather the proof points and impact data funders will want to see.

In collaboration with Meritus College leadership, build the advancement function - bringing your expertise and perspectives on how a startup-minded fundraising function should look different from a traditional university advancement office.

What Makes a Successful Candidate

We recognize that people from underrepresented backgrounds are often less likely to apply unless they meet every qualification. Don't let that be the reason you miss out — we encourage you to apply if you demonstrate many, not all, of the following:

Must Haves

Experience Building New Programs in Higher Education

Experience as the fundraising lead, or the close partner to the fundraising lead, on something a college or university was building for the first time: a new degree program, school, campus, institute, accredited entity, or a nonprofit incubated inside an institution.

Working knowledge of accreditation, credit portability and transfer, academic model design, and the diligence institutional funders run on a new or newly accredited program.

Track record of raising money or building partnerships, or of supporting the person or team who did. Familiar with what it takes to build a case for support while the proof points are still accumulating.

Note: we're open to candidates who came to this from the academic, program, or operations side and partnered closely with development. Deep involvement in building a new academic offering, alongside the fundraisers making the case for it, counts here.

Entrepreneurial & Startup Mindset

Bias for action: willing to prospect cold, draft the first version of a proposal template, and figure it out rather than wait for a fully formed process, while working quickly and collaboratively with the development team, college team, and executive leadership. You are self-directed and make good calls with incomplete information.

Genuine comfort with ambiguity: this is a new college inside a growing organization, so strategy, goals, and the pitch itself will shift as we learn. A target funder list may need rebuilding after a new data point comes in. We need someone who finds that energizing.

Track record of leveraging resources including AI to speed up and make more efficient tasks like research, drafting, and prospecting so a small team can punch above its weight.

Communication & Storytelling

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate data and mission into a persuasive case for support.

Comfort with pitching a new institution with credibility and honesty about what's proven and what's still being built.

Confidence shaping an ambiguous narrative with prospective funders, including thinking with agility and creativity in conversations.

Mission Alignment

Genuine belief in expanding access to higher education for working adults and non-traditional students, and enthusiasm for a model that looks different from a traditional four-year college.

Alignment with Merit America's values: Think Big, Deliver Results, Win & Lose Together, Learn Constantly, Care Deeply, Enjoy the Ride.

Nice to Have

Direct experience at a startup, scaling nonprofit, or other fast-moving, resource-constrained organization — comfortable operating without established playbooks, and energized by building rather than maintaining.

Existing relationships with foundations or funders focused on postsecondary attainment, workforce development, or economic mobility.

Experience with Salesforce or a comparable CRM.

Comfort using AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT) to speed up research, drafting, and prospecting.

Other Logistics

This position is full-time: 4-day work week (Fridays are an operating day if there is a holiday closure during the week)

Travel: Occasional travel required (up to 25% of time)

Location: Remote

Salary:  $148,000 along with the potential to earn an incentive bonus of up to $20,000

Our goal is to have competitive and equitable compensation.  We have a market-based compensation approach, which means we benchmark each role from reputable data sources. We compare our benchmarks against similarly sized non-profit organizations with comparable annual budgets and geographical areas. We pay the same rate for the same roles and adjust to comply with statutory mandates.