Major Gifts Specialist
Location: TBD
Status: Exempt
Position Overview
The Major Gifts Specialist is responsible for identifying, qualifying, and managing a major gift portfolio with an emphasis on ensuring that as many donors as possible are retained. The Major Gift Specialist will focus on all aspects of relationship management including growing the donor’s knowledge of the organization, involvement, and financial support. Duties include, but are not limited to, personal meetings, tours, donor engagement events, and other methods of cultivation. This position will be responsible for meeting an annual revenue target by working with an assigned portfolio of donors and prospects, including unrestricted, restricted, and capital projects. The Major Gift specialist will also promote planned giving opportunities with their portfolio.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
- Manages a portfolio of 125 individual donors.
- Qualifies identified prospective and current donors.
- Creates individual goals for each person in their portfolio based on the donor’s history of giving and the gift officer’s knowledge of the donor’s giving potential.
- Creates a plan with timeline for each donor in their portfolio that is based on principles of donor-driven relationship building.
- Executes individual donor plans such that individuals in the portfolio are retained and/or upgraded in the annual giving.
- Creates offers, proposals, and asks that will provide opportunities for donor retention and upgrade based on personal interests and passion for specific aspects of the mission.
- Works with Director of Development and Agency Relations to create reports as required to accurately reflect portfolio activity and performance.
- Meets established fundraising goals to support organizational needs.
- Performs ongoing statistical analysis and revenue benchmarking to evaluate the overall growth and performance in focus area.
- Engages portfolio and non-portfolio donors in conversations regarding planned giving when appropriate.
- Actively manages the day-to-day relationships with donors and prospects through various activities including meetings, phone calls, letters, reports, emails, timely responses to donor inquiries and acknowledgements of gifts.
- Log contact reports to the donor database(s).
- Passionately represents Harvest Hope Food Bank’s mission, programs and message with stakeholders and actively networks within the community to activate support behind our mission.
- Performs other major donor/development activities as may be required (i.e. tours, public speaking or spokesperson activities).
- Serves as a community ambassador/spokesperson as needed.
HHFB Team Member Accountabilities
• Demonstrates a commitment to the HHFB mission and to fighting to end hunger in South Carolina.
• Displays a desire to work with culturally diverse populations using a compassionate, collaborative, and respectful approach.
• Supports a culture of continuous improvement by identifying and communicating process and safety improvements.
• Follows all safety policies and procedures, including reporting all unsafe acts and behaviors, safety hazards, incidents, or accidents immediately.
• Acknowledges that HHFB team members are considered emergency responders and may be called in to perform regular or emergent duties in instances of a federal, state or locally declared emergency.
Position Requirements
- Bachelor’s Degree in Communications, Business Administration, or related study.
- Three or more years of experience working in nonprofit development or other related field.
- Demonstrated experience in cultivating and soliciting prospects capable of five and six-figure gifts.
- Self-starter, strong organizational skills, and attention to detail.
- Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite.
- Excellent communications, interpersonal and customer service skills; comfortable with public speaking.
- Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
- Must be able to clearly articulate HHFB’s mission.
- Ability to relate effectively and professionally with other staff, volunteers, agency representatives and the public.
Physical Requirements and Working Conditions
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the tasks outlined in this job description.
This position operates primarily in an office setting within the branch. The position requires sitting at a desk and in meetings for long periods of time and involves extensive computer work with frequent interruptions. Vision abilities required include close vision and the ability to adjust focus. This position will regularly be in a warehouse environment with varying temperatures, including freezers and outdoor weather conditions. With forklift traffic in the facility and product stacked and stored throughout, this position requires someone who is mobile and who can hear and watch for traffic and normal hazards of a warehouse environment. This position may require traveling during the day and responding to organizational needs outside of normal working hours.
Harvest Hope Food Bank is an equal opportunity employer and embraces a philosophy that recognizes and values diversity. Our goal is to attract, develop, retain and promote a talented diverse workforce in a culture where all employees will contribute to their fullest potential. This description provides information regarding the essential functions of the designated job and the general nature and level of work associated with the position. It should not be interpreted to describe all the duties whose performance may be required of such employees or be used to limit the nature and extent of assignments the individual may be given. This position description does not constitute an employment agreement or contract.