OVERVIEW

The climate emergency is here and it is the greatest societal threat that we face. The world as we know it is running out of time and the window for small, incremental action has closed. Instead, we need an emergency-level response to accelerate decarbonization around the world.

ACE works at the nexus of youth, media and civic engagement to accelerate our pathway toward a decarbonized world. We reach tens of millions of people with our programs each year and are driving a new climate narrative to engage audiences that our movement has yet to reach. We utilize leading-edge media strategies to combat dangerous disinformation, drive action-taking, and increase diverse participation in the democratic process.

Our staff and board members are dynamic, diverse and talented, and our team is currently growing to meet this critical moment of opportunity.

JOB SUMMARY

ACE’s Senior Director, Major Gifts is a frontline fundraising role responsible for securing transformative 6- and 7-figure gifts from high net worth individual philanthropists to support ACE’s work at the nexus of youth, climate, education, and democracy. The Senior Director is responsible for the growth of the individual giving portfolio and supervises the Individual Giving Director. This role will engage her/his own individual donor contacts as well as research the big names of climate and civic engagement philanthropy (i.e MacKenzie Scott, Tom Steyer, Nat Simons, Wendy Abrams, Reid Hoffman, mega donor circles and giving channels etc.), conduct relationship mapping, develop creative strategies to engage these HNW donors, and implement direct engagement with the goal of securing 5-7 transformative gifts in the first year and 10-15 in the second year toward ACE’s 501(c)3 work and/or the work of our 501(c)4 affiliate Climate Emergency Advocates. The Senior Director works in close collaboration with the Senior Head of Philanthropy and Communications, the Deputy Director of Philanthropy and the Executive Director to design, develop and implement ACE’s individual philanthropy strategies.

ACE has experienced transformative growth, expanding our budget sixfold in the last five years (from $2M to $12M annually), with a goal to become a $30 million organization within the next two years. We are continuing that growth trajectory with a  proposed annual fundraising budget for fiscal year 2024 (July-June) of $17M. The Senior Director will play a central role in helping us continue on this growth trajectory by attracting high net worth philanthropists to our work and impact. The current giving portfolio is well managed and has reached near its full potential—so this role will take drive and an entrepreneurial spirit to create new strategies and revenue streams to catalyze key giving moments to bring individual giving to a new transformative level. With this growth, comes the exciting opportunity to attract and build a robust community of climate and democracy philanthropists, expanding our reach by attracting new potential donors at the $100,000+ level. 

The Senior Director will join a growing, skilled Development team with strong leadership, support and active fundraising led by the Senior Head of Philanthropy and Communications in partnership with the Executive Director. The Senior Director will also work collaboratively across all ACE Teams, including ACE’s Board of Directors, Digital Engagement and Campaigns Team, Operations and HR Team, the Executive Team, and other emergent program teams. This is a fully remote position that will require consistent, frequent communication and collaboration with a fully remote team. This position requires travel approximately 40-50% of the time. 

Successful performance of job responsibilities will result in: 1) meeting annual fundraising goals; 2) building the prospect pool by adding 20-50 new prospects to the existing base of 30 HNW prospects; 3) increasing the number and quality of moves via calls and meetings with prospective donors at the $100,000+ giving level; 3) successfully securi