Planned and Principal Gifts

Overview

Are you a person of compassion? An advocate for justice? Someone who stands up for the rights of the vulnerable and speaks out for the marginalized, the exploited and the forgotten? Do you believe in our calling as Christians to welcome the least of these and love our neighbor?

If you answered yes, World Relief invites you to consider joining our team as we expand to meet increasing needs around the world.

If you’re seeking a purpose-driven career in which you can grow your talents while standing up for the rights of the vulnerable, we want you to join us today.

World Relief is a global Christian humanitarian organization whose mission is to boldly engage the world’s greatest crises in partnership with the church. The organization was founded in the aftermath of World War II to respond to urgent humanitarian needs. For 80 years, across 100 countries, World Relief has partnered with local churches and communities to build a world where families thrive and communities flourish.

Today, programmatic focus includes humanitarian and disaster response, community strengthening and resilience, and refugee & immigrant services and advocacy.

This position is reliant upon funding and may be subject to modification or termination based on resource availability.

The Director of Principal and Planned Gifts is a seasoned, strategic, and collaborative fundraising professional who advances the organization’s philanthropic goals. Reporting to the Vice President of Strategic Engagement, this role develops and executes strategies to build long-term relationships with donors capable of making transformational contributions—through immediate principal gifts and future-oriented planned gifts.

In principal gifts, the Director will manage a portfolio of approximately 35–50 high-net-worth prospects and serve as a front-line major gifts officer. The role leads the full donor engagement cycle—from identifying and cultivating to soliciting and stewarding investments in support of the mission. In planned giving, the Director identifies and cultivates donors for legacy and other planned gifts (bequests, charitable gift annuities, trusts, and other complex vehicles) and collaborates across teams to integrate planned giving into broader fundraising efforts.

The role requires understanding donor motivations, gift vehicles, and tax-advantaged planning, and will partner with legal, finance, and external advisors to craft customized giving plans. The Director may offer coaching to colleagues to close both current-use and planned gifts at the highest levels.

• Actively maintains a portfolio of 35–50 principal gift-level prospects with an associated annual revenue goal, including current and planned giving potential.
• Supports the Strategic Partnership Directors with planned giving resources and guidance to close planned gifts.
• Stewards relationships using established performance standards and metrics, including planned giving engagement benchmarks where appropriate.
• Develops and grows relationships within the portfolio through customized fundraising plans that align donor passions with organizational priorities, including outright and deferred gift strategies.
• Leads prospects through qualifying, pitching, and closing stages to secure million- and multi-million-dollar gifts, including blended gifts.
• Promotes and integrates planned and asset-based giving into conversations, identifying opportunities for bequests, beneficiary designations, trusts, gift annuities, and other vehicles.
• Demonstrates understanding of financial planning, tax and charitable gift laws, and the role of planned giving in transformational gifts.
• Oversees preparation of funding proposals, pitch decks, talking points, briefings, gift agreements, endowments, and stewardship reports, including documented planned giving options when appropriate.
• Collaborates with legal, finance, and external advisors to structure complex or deferred gifts in alignment with donor intent and policies.
• Ensures stakeholders are involved in multi-faceted or long-term planned giving strategies.
• Identifies opportunities for Principal Gift…