Manager or Senior Manager, Major Gifts

Our client is looking for **Manager or Senior Manager, Major Gifts (Fundraising) **to join their esteemed organization. This is an exciting and progressive career in philanthropic fundraising for the University, with responsibilities to cultivate a portfolio of prospective donors to the University.

The Development Office is seeking a Major Gift Managers who will be a strategic collaborator in identifying, cultivating, soliciting and stewarding lead donors, which include high net worth individuals, corporations and foundations.

The Major Gift Manager reports to the Team Lead, Major Gifts and will manage a portfolio of potential and current Major Gift level donors to the university. He/she will be responsible for facilitating all phases of the gift cycle, including initiating contact, cultivating and moving potential donors to solicitation and closure, creating solicitations, writing proposals, and stewarding donors.

Duties & Responsibilities:
- Identify and cultivate major gift prospects, including developing ways to find new prospects and following up on inquiries regarding significant gifts to the university.
- Personally solicit assigned donor portfolio completely in its entirety through face-to-face visits, including preparation of personalized materials.
- Proactively identify, develop and deliver engagement opportunities to donors to ensure the maximization of their financial and non-financial support.
- Research, develop, and write funding proposals, appeal letters, and reports as required.
- Be accountable for meeting or exceeding established monthly fundraising goals and metrics.
- Work with prospects to educate them on university priorities and soliciting and closing immediate and planned gifts.
- Serve as a primary contact point for prospective donors in the assigned portfolio and effectively manage them through personal visits, correspondence, electronic and telephone communication.
- Be accountable for cultivating relationships of individual and organizational giving with focus on retention, recapture, and growth.
- Establish specific individual fundraising plans, develop activity and visit goals and supporting documentation, and maintain a portfolio of prospects as part of a coordinated major gift program.
- Collaborate with Advancement colleagues in major gifts, annual giving, planned giving, corporate and foundation giving, donor relations, advancement communications, prospect research, and alumni engagement to develop and maintain a coordinated approach in support of overall departmental and university-wide goals.
- Develop a cultivation and solicitation strategy for each prospect under management and enter call reports for each completed action in a timely manner.
- Timely completion of gift agreements, letters-of-intent and in-kind gift forms to document donor commitments.
- Assist in hosting various development and alumni events, such as homecoming, alumni weekend and donor cultivation and recognition events.
- A Bachelor’s degree in a related field.
- Demonstrated successful complex individual selling-related experience or any equivalent combination of education and/or experience from which comparable knowledge, skill and abilities have been achieved.
- Ability to manage a mixed portfolio of individual, corporate, and prospective donors involving considerable face-to-face meetings.
- Strong interpersonal, verbal and written skills and the ability to collaborate, build alliances, and achieve results within a population that may possess competing interests, opinions, and /or expectations.
- Collaborative, energetic, self-motivated, and engaging professional with strong multi-tasking skills and sound judgment who can effectively and diplomatically work with diverse groups of alumni and donors, colleagues, members of the faculty, high-level administrators, volunteer leaders, and other constituents.
- Superior verbal and written communications skills; effective organizational skills and strong detail orientation; the ability to speak and present credibly and effectively about higher education and the goals and mission of the University.
- A high degree of customer service orientation, personal motivation and commitment to values that support the University’s philanthropic mission and vision.
- Demonstrate strong active listening skills and ability to negotiate positive outcomes.
- An ability to maintain a high level of confidentiality with respect to prospects and donors.