Fractional Fundraising Lead

Written By Dan Harbridge

Invitation to Express Interest

This process is being supported by Stefanie Crispino, strategic planning consultant to The Children’s Book Bank, who is helping guide the development of the organization’s fundraising function and recruitment process for this opportunity.

About The Children’s Book Bank

The Children’s Book Bank (CBB) provides free books and literacy programming to children, teens, and families across the Greater Toronto Area, helping create the conditions for literacy, imagination, belonging, and connection to take root in everyday life.

Since our launch in 2008, we have given away over 2 million books. In 2025, we welcomed over 19,000 participants in free literacy programs across our Book Bank locations in Regent Park, St. James Town, Morningside, and Jane & Finch. Through our locations, and our Books Across the City program, we distributed over 180,000 books. 

Through welcoming community spaces with caring staff and volunteers, literacy-focused programming, and strong community partnerships, CBB has become an important part of the broader literacy ecosystem in the city.

In recent years, the organization has grown significantly in visibility, partnerships, community reach, and public engagement. Strong community trust, increasing demand, and growing interest from supporters and partners are creating new opportunities for long-term growth and impact. 

As part of this next phase of evolution, we are undertaking a broader strategic planning process focused on clarifying and strengthening our long-term direction, positioning, and impact. This work is also helping shape the next stage of the CBB’s fundraising function so it can better support our evolving ambitions and opportunities.

Current Fundraising Context

CBB currently raises close to $2 million annually through a mix of foundation support, individual giving, partnerships, in-kind contributions, and other fundraising activity. 

Existing fundraising efforts are currently supported across a combination of contractors, marketing/communications, partnerships, and Executive Director leadership, but without centralized strategic oversight. We see significant opportunities to strengthen coordination, clarify priorities, and grow revenue in ways that build long-term organizational capacity.

The Opportunity

We are seeking an experienced Fractional Fundraising Lead to help design, build, and guide the next stage of the organization’s fundraising function.

This is not simply a fundraising execution role. It’s a strategic, hands-on opportunity to help shape CBB’s fundraising strategy, structure, systems, and long-term direction. CBB anticipates investing in additional fundraising staffing capacity as part of this work, and the successful candidate will play a central role in helping design and build that structure and assist with hiring decisions. 

They will work alongside our ongoing strategic planning process, with the strategic planning consultant remaining involved during onboarding as a collaborative thought partner. 

Working closely with the ED and broader team, the successful candidate will help:

  • Develop a fundraising strategy aligned with our broader strategic direction;

  • Strengthen coordination and leadership of existing fundraising activity;

  • Support building the staffing structure and hiring needed to support long-term fundraising growth;

  • Directly lead and advance priority fundraising streams and relationships;

  • Help translate organizational momentum into a stronger fundraising function.

The successful candidate will work as part of CBB’s leadership team.

What We’re Looking For

We’re seeking a senior-level fractional fundraising leader with demonstrated experience building and leading fundraising strategy and function within nonprofit organizations, who is:

  • Strategically-minded and able to translate strategy into action;

  • Comfortable building structure, systems, and clarity within growing organizations;

  • Collaborative and relationship-oriented in working style;

  • Understands fundraising as a long-term organizational function, not simply revenue generation;

  • Excited by the opportunity to help shape and build a fundraising function;

  • Independently driven yet deeply collaborative.

Preference will be given to those who bring a community-centric fundraising lens and experience working within equity-informed and community-based environments.

Engagement Details

While we’re open to flexibility, we currently envision the engagement roughly as follows:

  • Fractional leadership engagement;

  • Primarily remote, with occasional in-person collaboration in Toronto;

  • Anticipated budget range of approximately $65,000–$75,000 annually;

  • 12- or 18-month starting engagement;

  • Desired start time of summer 2026, pending the successful candidate’s availability.

Process & Expression of Interest

We’re aiming to keep the process conversational and not overly formalized. At this stage, we’re primarily hoping to get a sense of relevant experience, strategic thinking, working style, and interest. 

Step 1: Expression of Interest

Interested candidates are invited to submit the following Expression of Interest materials directly to Stefanie Crispino at stefanie@stefaniecrispino.com: 

  1. Anything that helps us understand your experience and background; examples might include a CV, LinkedIn profile, website, portfolio, or similar materials;

  2. Confirmation of anticipated availability and alignment with the proposed budget;

  3. Brief written responses to these questions:

  • What about this role interests you, and what stands out about CBB’s current stage, momentum, and fundraising opportunity?

  • What experience do you have building or evolving fundraising functions within growing nonprofit organizations?

  • How do you typically balance strategic leadership with hands-on implementation in fractional roles?

  • What would you want to better understand or explore about this opportunity before determining fit?

Step 2: Conversations & Fit 

A shortlisted group of candidates will be invited into conversations with the ED and strategic planning consultant supporting this work. From there, follow-up conversations may be scheduled to further explore alignment.

Timing

Interested candidates are asked to submit their Expression of Interest by June 15th to stefanie@stefaniecrispino.com.

If timing is a challenge but the opportunity is of interest, we encourage you to let us know by June 15th. We’ll try to be flexible where possible, recognizing that strong candidates may be balancing existing commitments. 

Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with conversations with shortlisted candidates beginning shortly thereafter. We are open to working with a start date that works for the chosen candidate but are hoping for summer 2026, if possible.

Questions about the role or process can be sent to stefanie@stefaniecrispino.com.

Dan Harbridge