Director of Strategic Initiatives and Major Gifts

Major roles and responsibilities include:

Major Gifts Strategy & Donor Cultivation

• Develop and execute a comprehensive major gifts roadmap aligned with Nest’s strategic priorities.
• Manage a portfolio of 100–125 major donor prospects and current donors, creating tailored cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship plans.
• Identify, cultivate, and secure new major donors and trustees, in partnership with the CPO and Executive Director.
• Craft compelling donor communications—including proposals, reports, and stewardship materials—that articulate the case for giving to Nest.
• Set and achieve monthly donor engagement and giving goals; track progress and outcomes in Salesforce with rigorous attention to data accuracy.
• Support strategic initiatives with key partners where there is strong intersection with Nest’s major supporters

Events & Strategic Initiatives

• With support of the CPO, co-develop the overarching event strategy for Nest’s annual donor and partner events, including major cultivation events and more intimate friendraisers and gatherings.
• Oversee all event planning and execution, leveraging the manager for logistical support
• Collaborate with the CPO to design and implement strategic initiatives that engage donors and partners across Nest’s ecosystem
• Draft and review proposals, communications, and reports for strategic partnerships, ensuring alignment across teams.

Board Engagement

• Support the CPO and Executive Director in stewarding Nest’s Board of Trustees, Board of Advisors and our young members program
• Oversee Board meeting coordination—including scheduling, agenda planning, materials preparation, and follow-up.
• Organize and oversee Nest’s Partnerships and Nominations Committees, subcommittees of the Nest Board of Trustees
• Help strengthen Board engagement through clear strategies for advocacy, giving, and network activation.
• Collaborate with the Manager of Strategic Initiatives and Major Gifts to expand the Tapestry Circle (Nest’s young members program) into a more robust young philanthropy program.

Team & Systems Leadership

• Directly manage and mentor direct report(s) providing coaching, professional development, and performance feedback.
• Partner with the CPO to design best practices and systems for Salesforce and Asana to improve donor management, reporting, and team efficiency.
• Create streamlined processes to ensure cross-departmental alignment and accountability around donor cultivation and event planning.
• Maintain confidentiality and discretion around sensitive donor and organizational matters.

Nest embraces a philosophy of transparency and equity in its compensation-setting practices. Based on a comprehensive review of NGO payment trends, the organization has determined that this level role will have a salary band of $93,600-$109,200 for a US-based employee. If the candidate is not a US citizen and working remotely in the US, the candidate must have an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) with accompanying Visa to be eligible for the role.

To ensure fairness and equity in the hiring and salary setting process, salaries are not dependent on employee location but rather a myriad of factors based on published salary ranges and the employee’s training, experience, performance, and proficiency, among other factors. Nest maintains a zero-negotiation policy to ensure equity-based salaries are consistently applied. Through the organization’s performance management processes, there will be opportunities for compensation increases/bonuses based on both Cost of Labor adjustments and merit-based increases.

Additionally, Nest provides an annual additional contribution of 10% of your salary directly into a SEP IRA retirement account on your behalf, with no match required. For full time employees, Nest provides full medical insurance coverage (medical, dental, vision) and covers 50% of dependents. One vacation day is accrued each month (annual total of 12 days) plus additional PTO days, including holidays and a one-week winter break at the end of December through New Year’s Day. All travel costs, when required and approved by the organization, will be covered by Nest.

Proficient in English