Director of Major Gifts

The expected salary for this role is $120,000-$150,000, with flexibility based on experience and qualifications. Competitive compensation with annual incentive potential up to 10% of salary, contingent upon the achievement of individual and team-based KPIs, metrics, and goals, aligning with Make-A-Wish’s commitment to rewarding performance and impact.

Job Title: Director, Major Gifts

Department: Advancement

Reports To: Vice President of Advancement

FLSA Status: Exempt

Organization Overview: Make-A-Wish creates life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses – many of whom go on to beat their illnesses and credit the wish with giving them the physical and emotional strength they need to persevere. Working at the #1 national charity operating locally, you will have the opportunity to help children with critical illnesses to reclaim their childhood, families to experience life beyond illness, and entire communities to rally together in moments of transformational joy. Make-A-Wish is the only organization with such a unique ability to restore hope for children and families who have experienced the emotional and mental trauma of fighting pediatric critical illness.

Position Summary: The Director of Major Gifts role is responsible for generating philanthropic revenue from individual donors through proactive portfolio development and management. This position focuses exclusively on frontline fundraising activities including donor qualification, cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, and plays a key role in advancing planned giving conversations with identified prospects. This frontline fundraising role will directly supervise the Manager of Annual Giving Programs to help guide donor pipeline development. The Director of Major Gifts is expected to deliver measurable fundraising outcomes through consistent outreach, relationship-building, and data-informed strategy and execution.

Essential Responsibilities:

Major Gift Fundraising and Portfolio Management

• Personally manage a portfolio of 100-150 individual major donors with giving capacity of $25,000+.
• Execute proactive plans and outreach to qualify, cultivate, solicit, and steward donors with an expectation of 8-10 meaningful touchpoints per week and solicitation plans and strategies mapped for every donor in the portfolio.
• Build customized donor stewardship strategies and solicitation proposals, in collaboration with the Vice President of Advancement.
• Support and build the development of long-term fundraising strategies, including the identification and cultivation of donors for endowed gifts, in partnership with the Vice President of Advancement.
• Maintain timely, accurate, and complete records of meaningful touchpoints and solicitation plans in CRM system (Salesforce).
• Meet or exceed annually major gift revenue, upgrade, and retention goals, to be set in collaboration with the Vice President of Advancement.

Planned Giving Support

• Identify planned giving prospects within the major gift portfolio and initiate values-based conversations where appropriate.
• Assist in building the chapter’s legacy society and increasing membership.
• Collaborate with national planned giving staff to advance conversations and steward legacy donors.
• Maintain awareness and knowledge of planned giving practices, vehicles, and include legacy messaging in relevant donor communications.

Team Leadership and Pipeline Development

• Supervise, coach, and mentor the Manager of Annual Giving Programs to strengthen the mid-level donor pipeline and guide donor retention and upgrades into the major gifts program.
• Support the development and integration of donor journeys across giving levels and programs, including first-time donors, recurring donors, loyal donors, and Constellation Society.
• Provide regular coaching check-ins and assist in annual performance evaluation for direct report.

Internal Collaboration

• Collaborate with Marketing and Communications and Programs to incorporate mission moments, wish stories, and impact messaging into donor communications, stewardship pieces, and other donor engagement work.
• Coordinate behind-the-scenes and other creative donor cultivation experiences unique to Make-A-Wish, including wish reveals, events, tours, visits, etc. to support donor cultivation and stewardship efforts.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree from a four-year college or university (advance degree preferred)
• 8+ years of professional, frontline fundraising experience.
• Demonstrated ability to personally secure 5, 6, and 7+ figure gifts.
• 3+ years of experience managing frontline fundraisers and/or leading a revenue generating team, with a demonstrated ability to coach toward goals and metrics-driven accountability.
• Proven success in building and managing donor portfolios and pipelines, including segmentations strategies across giving levels.
• Experience with planned giving concepts, and ability to hold initial values-based conversations with donors and secure planned gifts (IRA, CGAs, etc.)
• Experience securing endowment gifts and developing long-term philanthropic commitments.
• Proficiency in Salesforce and CRM systems, including the ability to generate reports, track donor engagement, and analyze portfolio performance/analysis.
• Strong understanding of moves management, cultivation and solicitation strategy development, and donor lifecycle development.
• Strong organizational and time management skills with attention to detail and follow-through.
• Highly motivated, self-directed, and driven by accountability and metrics focused environment.
• Passion for the mission of Make-A-Wish.
• CFRE credential preferred

Benefits include: health, vision, dental, short and long-term disability insurance; paid time off, and paid holidays.

Physical Demands: 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 essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit and use hands to finger, handle, or feel. The employee is frequently required to talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to stand and walk. The employee must be able to occasionally lift and/or move up to 10 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision.