Director of Development

The Director of Development is an updated position reporting to the President, Chief Professional Officer. In addition to managing traditional corporate relationships and workplace campaigns, the Director will manage the development and implementation of comprehensive new strategic initiatives to maximize revenue and create a strong pipeline of new and recurring donors through a major gifts initiative. Key to the success in this role will be the engagement, cultivation, solicitation, and stewarding of individual donors who can give $10,000 or more in support of the mission of UWCJ.

Major Gifts Responsibilities

• Develop strategies to successfully identify, explore, cultivate, solicit, and steward new individual major gift donors.
• Seek and secure new donors of annual gifts of $10,000 or more through a moves-management system
• In addition to requesting annual major gifts, explore ways in which donors can support building a more sustainable future for UWCJ through transformational planned gifts
• Maintain an active portfolio of 100-125 identified priority prospects
• Conduct highly personalized cultivation and individualized gift requests
• Utilize prospect research to identify and qualify new major gift prospects and to develop effective briefing documents including giving history and estimated capacity
• Develop, plan, and participate in strategic small cultivation events and larger donor stewardship events
• Create meaningful opportunities for stewarding major gift donors
• Ensure a high-quality, donor experience through regular correspondence, personalized proposals, and timely acknowledgments.

Corporate Giving and General Responsibilities

• Set stretch annual fundraising targets across all giving levels.
• Manage and develop new corporate partnerships and workplace campaigns, including community-level individual workplace giving.
• Plan and organize events for fundraising and Women United members.
• Collaborate with senior staff and volunteers to provide strategic guidance in communications to donors.
• Ensure a high-quality donor experience through regular correspondence, professional proposals, and timely acknowledgments.
• Track prospect activity by maintaining accurate reports on relationship-building progress and donor support.
• Represent UWCJ at external community functions and events
• Perform other duties as assigned

Qualifications

• Three to five years’ experience managing donor relationships with proven track record of successfully closing five- and six-figure gifts
• Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills and a proven ability to create and foster excellent relationships between donors and the organization
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral; ability to influence and engage donors and volunteers
• Demonstrated ability to craft highly customized pitches and proposals
• Exceptional organizational and time management skills, paying close attention to detail.
• Proficiency in leveraging technology for fundraising and using data to inform performance metrics.
• High energy and a professional, resourceful style.
• Comfort in asking individuals to commit their resources to support the organization’s mission.
• Effective and respectful communication in person, on the phone, and via email/text with donors, board members, volunteers, and colleagues.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced environment, meet concurrent deadlines and collaboratively manage multiple tasks.
• High integrity, initiative, and resourcefulness
• Passion for the mission of UWCJ and a strong commitment to its core values
• Proficiency with office technology and donor information systems
• Ability to travel in the region as needed
• Bachelor’s degree required