Senior Major Gifts Officer, California

DonorsChoose makes it easy for anyone to help a teacher in need, moving us closer to a nation where students in every community have the tools and experiences they need for a great education.

Since 2000, more than 5 million people and partners have contributed $1 billion to support 2 million teacher requests for classroom resources and experiences. Projects range from art supplies to build the set for a school musical, to books and puzzles that affirm students’ identities, to bird seed for an at-home science project. We proudly serve all US public schools, public charter schools, and Head Start centers, and we combat systemic inequity by driving a majority of donations to schools that have been historically underfunded due to economic and racial inequity.

DonorsChoose has been recognized as a best place to work by GOOD Magazine and the Nonprofit Times, while Fast Company named DonorsChoose one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World—the first time a charity has made this list. Our dedicated team works from across the United States bring classroom dreams to life.

About the Community Growth & Impact Team

The Community Growth and Impact (CGI) team is responsible for the revenue of DonorsChoose through its marketplace, corporate, and foundation giving, raising $150M in FY23. The Major Gifts team was recently launched within CGI with the goal of prioritizing and leading on private individual support for the organization through annual gifts and multi-year commitments from high-net-worth individual donors.

About the Position

DonorsChoose is hiring a California-based Senior Major Gifts Officer to help drive revenue growth through the strategic management of a portfolio of major giving donors and prospects at the five- and six-figure giving level. As an experienced and entrepreneurial front-line fundraiser, the Senior Officer will serve as the primary relationship manager throughout the donor life cycle to qualify, cultivate, solicit, and steward donors to renew and ambitiously increase gifts using donor-centric fundraising practices. This person will work closely with the VP, Major Gifts to build results-oriented strategies in support of their portfolio and the team.

In this role you'll:

• Cultivate and Grow Major Donors 
  • Actively engage your portfolio of 60-90 high-net-worth individual donors and prospects through cultivation, solicitation and stewardship;
  • Contribute to the major gifts revenue goal by securing ambitious five- and six-figure commitments from your portfolio;
  • Incorporate a focus on West Coast based donors and identify opportunities to expand regional pipeline;
  • Independently devise creative tactics and long-term engagement strategies to strengthen donor commitment and increase giving;
  • Prioritize in-person meetings to build engagement and deepen donor relationships; travel within Bay Area region and beyond as needed;
  • Send personalized correspondence, including cultivation emails, reports and updates relevant to donor interest.
• Maintain Fundraising Best Practices
  • Collaborate with the team’s operations senior associate to actively track and measure progress towards your financial and non-financial goals and movement of prospects and donors across the donor lifecycle;
  • Choreograph, prepare strategy, briefing, and debriefing materials for face-to-face meetings and solicitations with donors conducted personally and with leadership staff. 
  • Maintain Salesforce records, continuously updating key details and logging emails, calls, and meeting notes;
  • Align fundraising efforts to key priorities and imperatives of DonorsChoose, with a focus on equity in education and diversifying its major donor community.
• Contribute to Team
  • Share donor strategies and successes, support teammates when needed, and identify other opportunities to contribute to the team and organizational culture;
  • Partner with VP, Major Gifts to develop West Coast growth strategies;
  • Undertake special projects through proactive initiative and/or as requested.

Qualifications

Required Work Experience:

• Minimum 7 years of professiona