2021-eoy-donate

Individual Giving Director

Location: Remote

OVERVIEW

The climate emergency is here. The world as we know it is running out of time and the window for small, incremental action has closed. Instead, we need an emergency-level response to avert climate catastrophe—and leaders with the courage and mandate to take bold action. Our critical window of opportunity to sound the alarm is ever-narrowing and the time to act is now. 

ACE’s mission is to educate, inspire and support young people to lead the fight for their future. We achieve our mission by reaching tens of millions of young people with our programs each year, training a new generation of leaders, amplifying youth voices to shift the narrative, and increasing diverse youth participation in our democracy.  

Our staff and board members are dynamic, diverse and talented, and our team is currently growing to meet this critical moment of opportunity.

JOB SUMMARY

ACE’s Individual Giving Director (IGD) is a frontline fundraising role responsible for a $1 million individual giving portfolio. The IGD prospects, cultivates, solicits, and stewards individual donors at the leadership level ($10,000+) for the annual fund as well as spearheads major gift campaign(s). The IGD directly supervises the Individual Philanthropy Officer (IPO), collaborating and supporting the IPO’s activities as needed with the mid-level donor portfolio ($250-$9,999) to ensure overall individual giving portfolio success. The IGD supports the Executive Director in the design, development and implementation of ACE’s individual fundraising program; working collaboratively to guide and execute ACE’s individual philanthropy strategies across various projects related to individual donor prospecting, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. The IGD reports to the Deputy Director of Philanthropy.

ACE’s proposed annual fundraising budget for fiscal year 2023 is $15M. The Director plays a critically important role: ensuring the success of the full development team by building relationships and securing contributed resources from individual donors at the leadership giving level. ACE is a period of aggressive growth, expanding our budget by 5x over the last three years and with a goal to become a $30 million organization within the next three years. With this growth, comes the exciting opportunity to attract and build a robust, engaged individual giving community, starting from our base of strong supporters and expanding our reach by attracting new potential donors. The IGD works in strong partnership with the Executive Director, Head of Philanthropy, Deputy Director of Philanthropy, Individual Philanthropy Officer, and the Board of Directors to raise funds and build critical relationships. This position requires travel approximately 30-35% of the time (when safe). 

The IGD will join a growing, skilled Development team with strong leadership, support and active fundraising led in partnership with the Executive Director. The IGD will also work collaboratively across all ACE Teams, including ACE’s Board of Directors, Digital Engagement and Campaigns Team, Operations and HR Team, the Executive Team, and other emergent program teams. This is a fully remote position that will require consistent, frequent communication and collaboration with a fully remote team.

Successful performance of job responsibilities will result in: 1) meeting the individual giving annual fundraising goals; 2) measurable increases in leadership-level individual donor prospecting and cultivation activities, such as improving the quality and quantity of ACE’s leadership-level individual prospect pool, increase in successfully securing introductory meetings with potential donors, increase in prospective donor outreach activities, etc; 3) successfully securing gifts from existing mid-level and leadership-level individual donors towards major gift campaign(s); 4) meaningful collaboration with the Head of Philanthropy, Deputy Director of Philanthropy and Executive Director towards the creation and execution of a clearly defined individual donor engagement strategy; and 5) a measurable increase in the size and scope of ACE’s mid-level and leadership-level individual giving portfolio to meet or exceed annual budget goals, while laying the groundwork for long-term success aligned with ACE’s 3-year strategic plan.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
  • Donor Solicitation (40%). Soliciting leadership-level individual donors regularly in person, over the phone, and virtually to significantly expand the active donor portfolio; as determined by ACE’s individual donor solicitation strategy. Creating and executing effective and efficient individualized solicitation plans for all leadership-level donors at ACE. Organizing and representing ACE at donor events.
  • Prospecting & Cultivation (30%). Leading prospect research and qualification on new potential ACE individual leadership-level donors. Creating and executing customized donor cultivation plans for each qualified leadership-level individual giving prospect. Managing successful moves management strategies to move all individual giving prospects across cultivation timelines towards solicitation and becoming active donors. 
  • Donor Stewardship (20%). Collaborates with the Deputy Director of Philanthropy to coordinate stewardship activities across ACE’s communication channels and creates individualized donor stewardship plans for ACE’s leadership-level individual donors.
  • Managing & Coaching (10%)  Supervises, manages, and coaches the IPO towards successful management and growth of the mid-level individual donor portfolio, with a special focus on collaborating with the IPO to execute a clearly defined mid-level donor strategy.
QUALIFICATIONS

Required Qualifications

  • 5+ years experience in senior-level frontline fundraising roles; managing and growing a large portfolio and regularly soliciting five, six, and seven-figure gifts from individual donors.
  • Demonstrated ability to successfully build, manage, and grow a portfolio of leadership-level donors, raising over $1 million in gifts annually; with a proven track record of substantially increasing giving among the organization’s most generous donors.
  • Deep understanding of moves management and donor solicitation strategies; including prospecting, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship best practices.
  • An energetic, driven, insatiable appetite for fundraising, prospecting new individual donors, and growing the organization to its next level of excellence. 
  • Passion for ACE’s mission and our work to engage young people in the climate justice movement and empower them to participate fully in our democracy, and a commitment to equity and justice in philanthropy.
  • Specific expertise in individual fundraising, especially prospecting.
  • Exceptional skills and a track record of raising funds for an organization with at least a $5 million annual budget.
  • Working knowledge of wealth screening tools, such as DonorSearch, iWave, etc.
  • Deep understanding of donor prospecting practices, such as conducting initial donor outreach to qualified prospects.
  • Exceptional ability to manage complex systems and projects, while keeping meticulous attention to detail. 
  • An uncanny ability to engage others in fundraising and thrive off of relationships.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills and ability to communicate effectively to different audiences, especially with high net worth donors and their peers.
  • Self-motivated to manage multiple projects with thoroughness, accuracy, timeliness, and professionalism.
  • Ability to troubleshoot challenges with patience and creativity.
  • Strong organizational and time management skills.

Desired Qualifications

  • Experience fundraising for environmental, climate, or youth nonprofit organizations and/or other political, advocacy or civic engagement-focused organizations.
  • Experience working with a multiracial team with diverse identities and backgrounds.
  • Experience working remotely.
  • Experience managing a portfolio through a period of rapid growth and expansion.
  • Excellent technological skills, and fluency OR ability to learn: Salesforce, Slack, Monday.com, Google Apps, and other relevant programs as necessary.

Deeply integrated throughout this work is an underlying commitment to Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Specifically, as it relates to this role includes engaging in discussion with the Development team around decolonizing wealth, engaging individuals equitably across donors of all levels, and discussing ACE’s values and work toward justice and equity in all that we do.

This description reflects ACE’s assignment of essential functions, it does not restrict the tasks that may be assigned. ACE retains the right to change or assign other duties to this position at any time. Employees must be able to perform the essential functions of the position satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable employees with disabilities to perform the essential functions of their job, absent undue hardship.

POSITION DETAILS

  • Schedule: Full-time 
  • Annual salary range: $105,000-$115,000 commensurate with experience
  • Generous benefits including: Medical, Dental, Vision, 403b retirement savings plan, Vacation, Sabbatical, Paid Parental Leave, 2 Floating Holidays, 2 Community Service Floating Holidays, Sick time and 13 observed holidays. ACE closes its offices on the week of 4th July and the week of Christmas.
  • ACE is an equal opportunity employer that highly values staff diversity
  • Location: Remote

APPLICATION GUIDELINES

Apply Here

ACE is an equal opportunity employer that highly values diversity, equity and inclusion and views the climate crisis as a social justice crisis. People who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), people who experience gender oppression, people with disabilities, and people who identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community are particularly encouraged to apply.