Senior Major Gifts Officer, California

DonorsChoose makes it easy for anyone to help a teacher in need, moving us closer to a nation where students in every community have the tools and experiences they need for a great education.

Since 2000, more than 5 million people and partners have contributed $1 billion to support 2 million teacher requests for classroom resources and experiences. Projects range from art supplies to build the set for a school musical, to books and puzzles that affirm students’ identities, to bird seed for an at-home science project. We proudly serve all US public schools, public charter schools, and Head Start centers, and we combat systemic inequity by driving a majority of donations to schools that have been historically underfunded due to economic and racial inequity.

DonorsChoose has been recognized as a best place to work by GOOD Magazine and the Nonprofit Times, while Fast Company named DonorsChoose one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World—the first time a charity has made this list. Our dedicated team works from across the United States bring classroom dreams to life.

About the Community Growth & Impact Team

The Community Growth and Impact (CGI) team is responsible for the revenue of DonorsChoose through its marketplace, corporate, and foundation giving, raising $150M in FY23. The Major Gifts team was recently launched within CGI with the goal of prioritizing and leading on private individual support for the organization through annual gifts and multi-year commitments from high-net-worth individual donors.

About the Position

DonorsChoose is hiring a California-based Senior Major Gifts Officer to help drive revenue growth through the strategic management of a portfolio of major giving donors and prospects at the five- and six-figure giving level. As an experienced and entrepreneurial front-line fundraiser, the Senior Officer will serve as the primary relationship manager throughout the donor life cycle to qualify, cultivate, solicit, and steward donors to renew and ambitiously increase gifts using donor-centric fundraising practices. This person will work closely with the VP, Major Gifts to build results-oriented strategies in support of their portfolio and the team.

In this role you'll:

• Cultivate and Grow Major Donors 
  • Actively engage your portfolio of 60-90 high-net-worth individual donors and prospects through cultivation, solicitation and stewardship;
  • Contribute to the major gifts revenue goal by securing ambitious five- and six-figure commitments from your portfolio;
  • Incorporate a focus on West Coast based donors and identify opportunities to expand regional pipeline;
  • Independently devise creative tactics and long-term engagement strategies to strengthen donor commitment and increase giving;
  • Prioritize in-person meetings to build engagement and deepen donor relationships; travel within Bay Area region and beyond as needed;
  • Send personalized correspondence, including cultivation emails, reports and updates relevant to donor interest.
• Maintain Fundraising Best Practices
  • Collaborate with the team’s operations senior associate to actively track and measure progress towards your financial and non-financial goals and movement of prospects and donors across the donor lifecycle;
  • Choreograph, prepare strategy, briefing, and debriefing materials for face-to-face meetings and solicitations with donors conducted personally and with leadership staff. 
  • Maintain Salesforce records, continuously updating key details and logging emails, calls, and meeting notes;
  • Align fundraising efforts to key priorities and imperatives of DonorsChoose, with a focus on equity in education and diversifying its major donor community.
• Contribute to Team
  • Share donor strategies and successes, support teammates when needed, and identify other opportunities to contribute to the team and organizational culture;
  • Partner with VP, Major Gifts to develop West Coast growth strategies;
  • Undertake special projects through proactive initiative and/or as requested.

Qualifications

Required Work Experience:

• Minimum 7 years of professional experience, at least 4 of which are in major gifts fundraising or corporate business development, including direct solicitation of donors or clients.
• Consistent track record of closing five- and six-figure gifts or contracts from a dynamic portfolio, including acquisitions and upgrades.

Demonstrated Skills & Competencies:

• Experienced relationship manager with strong listening skills and an ability to engage with internal and external stakeholders in a thoughtful, inclusive manner; 
• Entrepreneurial self-starter who will prioritize strengthening the West Coast donor pipeline;
• Success closing a variety of funding opportunities, including multi-year and blended commitments;
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills as well as an overall ability to be clear and concise in all communications;
• Ability to identify and implement processes vital to support effective donor relationships;
• A strong command of fundraising best practices; experience with CRM databases, like Salesforce.

Hybrid Workplace and Other Details

This role will be remote from California.

Candidates should expect to travel to our NYC office on an as-needed basis, about 4-6 times per year. The Senior Major Gifts Officer can expect regular travel on the West Coast (especially to the San Francisco Bay Area, if not already based there) as part of the essential function of this role. All work-related travel expenses will be covered by DonorsChoose.

DonorsChoose participates in E-Verify. We will provide the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with information from each new employee’s Form I-9 to confirm work authorization.

Compensation and Benefits

Our compensation philosophy ensures that we are both externally competitive with tech-forward nonprofits of a similar size and internally fair in our pay practices. The following ranges represent the target offer range given the scope and experience expectations for this role.

• The hiring salary range for this role is $84,000-$95,000.
• We have a hiring salary range of $93,000-$105,000 for specific higher cost of labor locations, which in California include San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Once employees are hired, everyone at DonorsChoose is eligible to receive annual performance-based raises as they grow in their role. We are open to a variety of experiences, and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced or more senior than this job description as posted. If you don’t check every box listed here, or you know you’d bring additional experience to the table, we hope you’ll submit your application.

In addition, we offer full-time staff 25 paid vacation days per year and 11 paid holidays, a rich employer-paid individual and family health plan, a matching 401(k) plan (up to 5% of base salary), annual professional development stipend, and casual and flexible work environment. To learn more about what it is like to work for DonorsChoose, visit our careers page.

To Apply

Please submit your resume and answer the application questions online. Since we’re trying to get to know you through our hiring process, we ask that you please refrain from using AI writing tools to craft your response to our application questions. A cover letter is optional and may be addressed to Cillonia McKenley, VP of Major Gifts.

A Final Note

The DonorsChoose team works toward a nation where students in every community have the resources needed for an excellent education. To do this we hire and support a diverse team of the best and the brightest talent available.

We are an organization increasingly representative of the varied races and ethnicities, genders and sexual orientations, religious and political beliefs, and abilities that comprise our nation. DonorsChoose focuses on attracting, retaining, and advancing diverse talent because it makes us more effective, high-performing, creative, and resilient.  

If you are passionate about our mission, highly skilled in your field, and looking for a place where you can bring all of yourself to work, we want you.