Associate Director, Major Giving West

Job Overview / Summary

The External Relations (ER) department is comprised of three main but complementary functional areas:
Private fundraising, Communications, and Advocacy. The main objective of the department is to enable this organization of more than 15,000 staff to have the resources needed to continue serving 18 million people worldwide in places affected by war and disaster. The Philanthropy unit, part of the ER department, leads on the organization’s work with High-Net-Worth Individuals.

Positioned within the USA Philanthropy department, the Major Giving West team has a goal of improving private individual support for the IRC by engaging, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding significant, multi-year commitments from high-net-worth individual supporters based in the western United States (west of the Mississippi River).

The Associate Director of Major Giving will be a dynamic seasoned fundraiser and relationship cultivator who will work closely with the Senior Director of USA Philanthropy West and the Director of Major Giving West to build strategy to support a growing portfolio of high-net-worth individuals. With a geographic focus on the Western region of the United States, the Associate Director will serve as a relationship manager throughout the donor life cycle, working across fundraising teams and with senior leadership to qualify, cultivate, solicit, and steward five and six-figure gifts, using donor-centric fundraising practices and deploying program and IRC leaders.

They will also build a strong donor pipeline of major gift donor prospects and increase regional revenue.

The ideal candidate is an entrepreneurial professional who has demonstrated experience understanding the motivations of philanthropists and can assess the inclination of a donor or prospect’s willingness to make a major (five to six-figure) gift to the IRC over a number of years. The Associate Director will also be responsible for the management and coaching of 2 front-line fundraisers and/or support staff.

• Manage a dynamic portfolio of 75-100 high-net-worth individuals by moving the IRC's relationship with each through cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.
• Participate in active prospect discovery through relationship and network mapping. Qualify prospects using research and discovery to unearth new donor relationships.
• Create strategic correspondence, including solicitations, cultivation pieces, reports, and other stewardship materials, to engage donors and prospects.
• Design tactics and creative, long-term engagement strategy to deepen donor dedication and increase giving.
• Choreograph, prepare strategy, and briefing and debriefing materials for face-to-face meetings and solicitations with Major donors conducted personally and/or by senior staff and Board leadership.
• Supervise, manage, and coach frontline fundraisers on the Major Giving West team, mentoring these individuals and guiding their professional growth at IRC and within the fundraising profession.
• Collaborate with colleagues across the IRC, institutional fundraising colleagues, and field staff, to align donor and organizational priorities in a way that increases income for the IRC and builds multi-layered, deep engagement with the organization.
• Work collaboratively with Account Managers to strategize, actively track, and measure progress toward financial goals and movement of prospects and donors across the donor lifecycle.
• Undertake special projects as requested.

• 6-8 years of progressive fundraising experience and demonstrated expertise in private sector, major gifts, or major gifts fundraising; or sales, including direct solicitation of donors or clients.
• Demonstrated history of being an empowering, supportive, and inclusive manager to front-line fundraisers.

• Proven track record of closing 5 and 6-figure gifts from a dynamic portfolio of donors and prospects, including qualifying prospects and upgrading donors;
• Consistent record of developing blended and multi-year funding opportunities;
• Outstanding communication skills, including writing, listening, verbal presentation, and…