Individual Giving Officer

Job Title: Individual Giving Officer

Location: The position is based in NYRP’s midtown office. Office staff are expected to work at least 2 days per week from the office, and the remaining 3 days are remote.

Industry: Not‐for‐Profit – Environmental

Department: Development/Advancement

Reports to: Chief Advancement Officer

Position: Full-Time, EXEMPT

Salary: $110,000

About NYRP

New York Restoration Project (NYRP) believes that access to nature is a fundamental human right. We work to ensure that all New Yorkers have equitable access to green space. For over 25 years, NYRP has invested in and stewarded parks and gardens throughout the city’s five boroughs to strengthen communities, promote food sovereignty, and counter environmental and social injustice.

Position Summary

The Individual Giving Officer (IGO) will play a leading role in shaping and executing strategies for growing the principal and major gifts portfolio and ensuring best practice moves management with NYRP’s major donors and prospects. This includes supporting the Executive Director, Chief Advancement Officer and Trustees with principal and major donor engagement efforts. The IGO will also play a strong role in ensuring the success of our annual gala by coordinating sponsor solicitations, benefits and relations. The IGO is expected to work externally with Trustees, major individual donors and family foundations, and internally in close partnership with the Executive Director and Chief Advancement Officer, as well as with a cross-section of staff in Advancement, Marketing and Communications and Engagement and Programming as is needed to support the development of donor relationships. This position reports directly to the Chief Advancement Officer.

Duties and Responsibilities

Manage Donor Portfolio

• Oversee and expand NYRP’s portfolio of major and principal gift donors to achieve annual fundraising targets ranging from $2-4 million through major gifts, grants, and gala sponsorships. This involves identifying and nurturing a robust pipeline of potential donors, while also retaining and upgrading current supporters.
• Independently build strong relationships with major donors and prospects to understand their interests, develop strategic engagement points, and create opportunities for recognition, while accurately tracking all interactions in the donor database (NXT Raiser’s Edge).
• Identify, qualify, cultivate, and solicit both existing and prospective major and principal donors, as well as family foundations, specifically focusing on those capable of contributing between $100,000 to $5 million over a three-year period. Collaborate with colleagues to craft compelling requests that align with organizational priorities.

Support Leadership and Board

• Collaborate with the Chief Advancement Officer and Executive Director to ensure effective management and tracking of the leadership portfolio and support natural partner board members in identification, cultivation, and solicitation.
• This involves highlighting priority prospects, providing research and talking points, scheduling and attending donor meetings, and drafting donor correspondence and other materials necessary to advance relationships.

Practice Moves Management

• Play a key role in the success of NYRP’s annual gala by managing solicitations, sponsor relations, seating arrangements, and other benefits, while also supporting gala marketing, communications, and production efforts as required.
• Become well-versed in NYRP’s mission and impact to craft inspirational and polished letters of inquiry, program overviews, proposals, reports, and impact updates.
• Organize donor and prospect meetings and activations.
• Assist in setting annual goals and budgets, while fostering a positive, supportive, and kind work environment.
• Contribute to the overall functioning of the Advancement team to support frontline fundraising and ensure the timely processing, documentation, and acknowledgment of gifts and sponsorships.

Measures of Success

• Achieving annual revenue goals for major and principal gifts and gala sponsorships in collaboration with the Chief Advancement Officer and Executive Director.
• Retaining, upgrading, and adding major and principal gift donors year over year.
• Effectively articulating NYRP’s mission and impact to donors, both verbally and in writing, in a compelling and professional manner, while independently using insights about donors and prospects to develop thoughtful engagement strategies.
• Executing a number of donor touchpoints (impact updates, meetings, invitations, etc.) independently and providing support to the Executive Director and Chief Advancement Officer.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience Required

• Minimum of 6 years of progressively responsible fundraising experience, with at least 4 years of experience in a proactive, frontline fundraising role.
• Demonstrated ability to independently engage and develop relationships with high-net-worth donors and close 5-7 figure gifts.
• Outstanding verbal and written communications skills, demonstrating a level of professionalism and polish in engaging internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience in event fundraising and execution.
• Strong experience prepping organizational leaders and program staff for donor meetings and working with colleagues to produce compelling funding proposals and reports.
• Knowledge of basic moves management principles and best-practices in prospect identification, donor cultivation and stewardship.
• Highly sociable, emotionally intelligent and motivated to meet new people, build relationships and spark engaging cause-focused conversations.
• Ability to effectively manage multiple projects with deadlines, in a fast-paced environment with diverse co-workers and executive leadership.
• Experience using donor databases to track moves management and key metrics.
• Willingness to work on a flexible schedule and travel throughout NYC, including occasional weekend or evening events.
• Sense of humor and adaptability.
• Bachelor's degree required.

Desirable

• Prior knowledge and professional experience in environmental protection and/or urban green spaces/environmental justice strongly preferred.
• Working knowledge of Raiser’s Edge/NXT, Microsoft Office Suite.

Competencies Required

• Exceptional judgment and attention to detail, with a “customer service” mindset.
• Strong executive functioning, project management and organizational skills, and the ability to independently prioritize and plan.
• Entrepreneurial, results-oriented mindset.