Confidential · Position Prospectus
Chief Revenue Officer
“United Way of Central Indiana brings together the resources of philanthropy, government, corporations, the social sector, and neighborhoods to confront generational poverty and ensure a better future for our neighbors in need.”
A Pivotal Moment for Central Indiana’s Fight Against Poverty
United Way of Central Indiana (UWCI) brings together the resources of philanthropy, government, corporations, the social sector, and neighborhoods to confront generational poverty and ensure a better future for our neighbors in need. This is an ambitious time to join United Way as the organization advances a five year strategic plan focused on reducing the number of households experiencing poverty and financial instability.
UWCI partners to design, support, and grow systems that accelerate financial stability and upward mobility for individuals and families living in or near poverty and striving for a brighter future. Its vision is that Central Indiana will be a community where children, individuals, and families thrive, neighbors care for one another, and all residents can be proud of the quality of life in their community.
This is a confidential search for a proven revenue-generating leader ready to join UWCI’s executive team at a moment of real momentum: a bold strategic framework, a sharpened focus on the root causes of poverty, and an organization-wide mandate to build an integrated, all-source revenue model that grows philanthropic giving alongside new corporate, government, and mission-aligned revenue streams.
More Than a Century of Bringing People Together
United Way of Central Indiana’s roots trace back to 1918, when the community gathered at Monument Circle to drop coins and dollars into a massive War Chest, a show of unity that helped fund relief agencies during the flu pandemic and support the war effort. Over the decades, that spirit of collective giving grew into the modern United Way, mobilizing generosity through citywide campaigns and workplace giving across Central Indiana.
Today, UWCI carries that legacy forward with a sharpened focus on fighting poverty at its roots, investing in long-term solutions while responding to the immediate needs of neighbors across Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Marion, Morgan, and Putnam counties. The organization partners with more than 100 community organizations and uses a two-generation (“2Gen”) model that supports both children and the adults in their lives.
UWCI measures hardship using the ALICE framework, an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. Many Central Indiana households earn above the federal poverty line but still cannot afford the basics of housing, childcare, food, transportation, and health care. In 2024, the minimum cost for a family of four to live and work in Indiana was $74,028, more than double the federal poverty level of $31,200.
UWCI’s Focus Areas
UWCI concentrates its investments on the top predictors of poverty:
Organizational Leadership
The Chief Revenue Officer reports to the Chief Executive Officer and serves as a member of UWCI’s executive team. The CRO works across United Way to align an integrated revenue strategy with the organization’s strategic direction and community impact priorities. The role partners closely with leaders throughout Impact and Enterprise Empowerment—including Brand, Finance, and Technology and Business Intelligence—to develop opportunities, communicate United Way’s impact, strengthen data and forecasting, and execute a coordinated organization-wide revenue plan.
Fred Payne joined United Way of Central Indiana as President and CEO in July 2022. He previously led the Indiana Department of Workforce Development for more than four years and is a graduate of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law and Grambling State University. Under his leadership, UWCI has continued to sharpen its focus on the root causes of poverty and financial instability across the region.
The Chief Revenue Officer will lead and align a team of senior leaders, including the Vice President of Philanthropy, the Senior Director of Foundation and Government Partnerships, and the Senior Director of Revenue Innovation. The CRO will work closely with leaders across United Way on the strategies, expertise, and capabilities that contribute to revenue generation. As the model matures, the CRO’s portfolio is expected to expand to include New Market Exploration and other emerging-revenue responsibilities.
Chief Revenue Officer
The Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) serves as the senior executive leader of United Way of Central Indiana’s revenue enterprise and as a member of the executive team. Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, the CRO provides strategic direction for UWCI’s comprehensive, all-source revenue strategy, uniting philanthropic giving with new corporate, government, and mission-aligned revenue streams, and leads the development and execution of strategies that support the organization’s long-term strategic direction and short-term revenue and impact goals.
The CRO leads and aligns senior revenue leaders responsible for core philanthropic revenue (workplace giving, individual giving, and major & transformational gifts), foundation and government partnerships, and revenue innovation (corporate partnerships, sponsorships, and new or emerging revenue streams). The CRO establishes a shared enterprise revenue vision, sets priorities and expectations, develops organizational capacity, and ensures accountability for results across three revenue lanes: Core Revenue, Growth Revenue, and Emerging Revenue.
The CRO will own all organization revenue, philanthropic and other, building one integrated organization-wide revenue plan, forecasting and reporting revenue performance, developing new pipeline, and generating measurable new revenue beyond traditional philanthropy. The role also leads the effort to build a donor- and partner-centric culture across the organization, ensuring that revenue generation is integrated effectively with UWCI’s broader mission, community impact, and organizational priorities.
This is both an enterprise leadership and relationship-centered role. The CRO will serve as a strategic partner to the CEO and executive team, advise and engage the board and key volunteers, and represent UWCI with donors, corporate and community leaders, foundations, government partners, and the broader United Way network. The CRO will also personally cultivate and steward the organization’s most important revenue relationships while empowering senior leaders to achieve ambitious results within their areas of responsibility. This is a highly external role, with at least 60% of the CRO’s time in community-facing and external engagement activities.
What the Chief Revenue Officer Will Lead
Enterprise Revenue Leadership
- Develop and lead a comprehensive, all-source enterprise revenue strategy aligned with UWCI’s strategic plan, community impact priorities, and organizational goals — spanning Core, Growth, and Emerging revenue lanes — establishing clear revenue, engagement, and performance objectives.
- Build and own one integrated organization-wide revenue plan; forecast and report on revenue performance across all lines of business, driving accountability and informed decision-making with the CEO and executive team.
- Partner closely with the CEO and executive team to advance UWCI’s revenue and community impact goals, support high-level donor and partner strategies, manage the revenue division budget, and allocate resources for maximum organizational impact.
Core Revenue: Philanthropic Giving & Major Gifts
- Lead the development and execution of a comprehensive fundraising strategy that increases philanthropic revenue across workplace giving, individual giving, and grants — driving donor acquisition, retention, and lifetime value while building a strong pipeline of major and transformational gifts, including opportunities of $250,000+.
- Personally cultivate and steward UWCI’s most significant donor and prospect relationships, partnering closely with the Vice President of Philanthropy to strengthen major giving, the Tocqueville Society, and the next generation of philanthropists.
- Develop compelling philanthropic opportunities and a differentiated case for support by aligning donor interests with UWCI’s community impact priorities and long-term strategic vision, in partnership with Community Impact and other organizational leaders.
Growth Revenue: Corporate Partnerships & Sponsorships
- Build a strategic corporate partnerships and sponsorship function — a distinct, quid pro quo growth revenue lane — that creates measurable value for both UWCI and its corporate partners.
- Lead the strategic evolution of UWCI’s corporate partnership strategy in response to changing employer, employee, and market trends, extending partnerships beyond traditional workplace giving into sponsorships and shared-value collaborations.
- Support strategies to engage employees and corporate partners through volunteerism, affinity groups, cause-related efforts, and other meaningful opportunities.
Emerging Revenue & New Business Innovation
- Build UWCI’s emerging revenue capability from the ground up: fee-for-service offerings, subscriptions, administrative fees, and new revenue pilots that diversify the organization’s funding base beyond traditional philanthropy.
- Identify, test, and scale new revenue models in partnership with Community Impact and organizational leaders, applying a disciplined, entrepreneurial approach to piloting and measuring new lines of business.
Foundation, Government & Strategic Partnerships
- Provide leadership and direction for foundation and government partnerships, working with community impact leaders to retain and grow overall revenue from grants.
- Identify compelling philanthropic and partnership opportunities that connect institutional funders with UWCI’s community impact priorities. Build and sustain relationships with foundation leaders, government stakeholders, corporate partners, and other institutional funders.
Engagement & Events
- Lead a comprehensive engagement strategy that strengthens relationships with donors, corporate partners, volunteers, affinity groups, and community partners while advancing UWCI’s revenue and community impact goals.
- Provide strategic oversight of volunteer engagement, immersive learning experiences, and high-impact events connected to corporate campaigns and donor and corporate relationships, ensuring they create meaningful connections to UWCI’s mission and deliver measurable revenue and engagement results.
- Leverage data and analytics to evaluate, refine, and scale engagement strategies that increase participation, retention, revenue, and overall organizational impact.
Leadership & Organizational Development
- Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing revenue team — including the Vice President of Philanthropy, Senior Director of Foundation & Government Partnerships, and Revenue Innovation lead — establishing clear expectations, accountability, and a culture of excellence while recruiting, retaining, and developing top talent.
- Empower senior leaders and key volunteers with the resources, training, guidance, and support needed to advance revenue and engagement goals.
- Foster collaboration across UWCI, ensuring revenue strategies, operations, and partnerships are fully integrated across departments and throughout the seven-county service area.
- Lead the team, and the organization, through the transition from a philanthropy-only to an all-source revenue model — respectfully evolving legacy fundraising practices while bringing the team, board, and donors along.
Data, Technology & Revenue Operations
- Champion the strategic use of technology, data, and analytics to strengthen revenue performance across all three lanes, enhance the donor and partner experience, and support informed organizational decision-making.
- Partner with Technology and Business Intelligence and revenue operations staff to use UWCI’s CRM and other technology systems to support integrated relationship management, pipeline management, forecasting, engagement, and revenue reporting. Establish clear performance measures for pipeline, revenue, retention, and engagement that support accountability and continuous improvement.
Executive, Board & Community Leadership
- Serve as a strategic partner to the CEO, executive team, and Board on revenue strategy, growth, donor and partner engagement, and external partnerships, ensuring effective strategies for the organization’s highest-priority relationships. Prepare and support the CEO, Board members, and senior leaders for high-level donor, partner, volunteer, and community engagements by providing strategic counsel, briefing, and follow-through to maximize revenue outcomes.
- Serve as the executive leader of UWCI’s annual fundraising campaign, working closely with volunteer campaign co-chairs to set strategy, mobilize resources, and drive results.
- Represent UWCI as a visible and influential community leader, building strong relationships across the corporate, philanthropic, nonprofit, government, and civic sectors while positioning the organization as a trusted partner and advancing its mission through broad stakeholder collaboration.
United Way Worldwide & External Network Leadership
- Represent UWCI within the United Way Worldwide network and participate, as appropriate, in network level task forces, committees, and other initiatives. Contribute UWCI’s experience and best practices to broader United Way conversations while bringing relevant ideas and opportunities back to the organization.
Candidate Profile
United Way of Central Indiana seeks a revenue leader who pairs strategic vision with hands-on execution — someone who can build an all-source revenue model and a donor- and partner-centric culture across a large, complex organization, while personally cultivating transformational relationships.
Education & Experience
- Bachelor’s required, Master’s degree preferred.
- 10+ years of progressively responsible experience leading revenue, fundraising, and/or business development functions — ideally spanning both philanthropic and earned or commercial revenue.
Knowledge & Technical Skills
- Significant expertise across philanthropy (major and transformational gifts, workplace giving, grants, planned giving, volunteer engagement, events) and non-philanthropic revenue generation (corporate partnerships, sponsorships, fee-for-service, or other earned revenue models).
- Strong strategic, analytical, and entrepreneurial leadership capabilities, with the ability to translate organizational priorities into actionable plans and build trusted relationships with board members, donors, corporate partners, and other stakeholders.
- Experience leveraging CRM and revenue technologies to drive forecasting, pipeline management, and performance reporting (Salesforce-based platforms preferred), combined with exceptional integrity, sound judgment, confidentiality, and executive presence.
Leadership Competencies
The successful candidate will demonstrate:
- Strategic planning
- Revenue generation and relationship management
- Executive presence and gravitas
- Change management and change leadership — able to respectfully challenge legacy fundraising practices and introduce new approaches
- Team builder — approachable, accessible, and comfortable moving between community spaces and more exclusive settings, with strong follow-up and communication skills
- High self-awareness and accountability, with the ability to motivate themselves and their team
- Sound judgment and prioritization
- Collaboration
- Mission alignment
- Community engagement
- Board engagement
Position Facts
- Position Title
- Chief Revenue Officer
- Division
- Revenue Division
- Position Leader
- Chief Executive Officer
- Executive Leadership
- Member of the Executive Team
- Position Leads
- Vice President, Philanthropy; Senior Director, Foundation & Government Partnerships; Senior Director, Revenue Innovation
- FLSA Status
- Exempt, Full Time
- Salary Grade
- Market
- Benefits
- Complete Benefits Package Available
- Reviewed
- August 2026
Location & Compensation
The Chief Revenue Officer is based at UWCI’s Indianapolis headquarters and works across the organization’s seven county service area:
Compensation
Salary is set at market, commensurate with the candidate’s experience, along with UWCI’s complete benefits package.
To Explore This Opportunity
United Way of Central Indiana welcomes inquiries from accomplished revenue, fundraising, and business development leaders who are ready to build an all-source revenue model and drive transformational growth for Central Indiana.
For consideration, please submit a résumé and cover letter responsive to UWCI’s mission and the priorities described in this prospectus.
Submit to laurie@woodhousesearch.comReview of applications begins immediately and continues until the position is filled.
United Way of Central Indiana is an Equal Opportunity Employer. UWCI is committed to creating an inclusive workplace and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment. This prospectus is intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed and is not an exhaustive list of responsibilities, duties, or qualifications. UWCI reserves the right to modify, interpret, or apply the position description as needed.
About Woodhouse Search
Woodhouse Search is an executive search firm specializing in senior leadership placements for nonprofit organizations, higher education institutions, and mission driven enterprises. We partner closely with clients to identify and recruit leaders whose experience and values align with the organization’s mission and moment.
We are proud to partner with United Way of Central Indiana on this search.