Senior Director, Major Gifts

City Year Philadelphia welcomes applications for the position of Senior Director, Major Gifts (“Senior Major Gifts Director”) and seeks a results- and team-oriented leader to assume this critical role. The Senior Major Gifts Director partners with the Managing Director, Development, the Senior Corporate Partnerships Director, the Senior Communications and External Relations Director, and the Events Director to form a Development Leadership Team, with an annual budget goal of $10.3 million, including $3.5 million from private sources. The Senior Major Gifts Director collaborates with Site Leadership and the rest of the growing 9-person Development department to identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward individuals and family foundations.

Key elements of the role include creating and implementing a community-centric development plan to build sustainable and engaged individual giving partnerships, including our signature Red Jacket Society major gifts program, with a specific focus on growing our individual donor base to raise increased resources and ultimately, serve more students in Philadelphia. The Senior Major Gifts Director will lead efforts to secure financial support from Philadelphia-area individuals and family foundations, managing two Manager level staff to form the Individual Giving Team. Workstreams managed by this role will also have the support of a regional grant writer, who also supports other City Year sites. The Senior Major Gifts Director is also a member of the City Year Philadelphia Site Leadership Team, providing insight and input into the direction and cross-departmental collaboration of the site.

This is an exciting opportunity for an accomplished fundraiser and team builder to join a dynamic organization that is primed to grow its philanthropic footprint across Philadelphia, in service of delivering transformational opportunities for City Year AmeriCorps members and the Philadelphia Public School students they serve in classrooms across the city.

City Year aspires to be an anti-racist organization and actively promotes diversity, belonging, inclusivity, and equity (DBIE), ensuring that every member of the City Year community experiences a deep sense of belonging. The Senior Major Gifts Director for City Year Philadelphia must demonstrate a deep and personal commitment to this critical DBIE work and should bring a proven record of leadership in building equity-focused teams and organizational culture. Additionally, the successful Senior Major Gifts Director candidate must possess excellent judgment, communication skills, and emotional intelligence, and will be able to passionately and persuasively articulate the mission and transformative educational, social, and community impacts of City Year’s work. The Senior Major Gifts Director will also be a skilled connector and an enthusiastic cheerleader for all things City Year Philadelphia, comfortable building genuine relationships with individuals and communities of all backgrounds, and should be just as effective building teams and team culture within an organization.

What You’ll Do

Individual Giving Leadership– 25%

• Develop and implement an individual giving strategy to increase the funding for City Year Philadelphia and position the organization as a premier education equity leader in the community.
• Lead individual giving team to raise $1.1 million in revenue towards the overall private revenue goal of $3.5 million.
• Build revenue plan to scale individual giving and family foundation funding by a minimum of 15% in each of the next 3 fiscal years.
• Partner with the Managing Director, Development and Senior Corporate Partnerships Director (“Development Leadership Team”) to set and monitor annual budget and fundraising goals, with intentional strategies built to increase dollars raised year over year.
• Strategize, oversee, and manage the Individual Giving Team’s cultivation and stewardship efforts for current and potential partners.
• Support all individual giving efforts, including our Red Jacket Society major gifts program, our Associate Board of young professionals, event and civic engagement sponsorships, family foundation giving, campaigns, and general individual giving support.
• Collaborate with the Executive Director and Development Leadership Team to identify and secure new individual supporters, fully leverage existing relationships, and increase multi-year commitments.
• Partner with and serve as an active staff member of the City Year Philadelphia Advisory Board (“Board”) Development Committee.

Donor Management– 25%

• Manage a portfolio of individual and family foundation donors and be directly responsible for cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding to increase donor giving and engagement.
• Promote membership in City Year Philadelphia’s Red Jacket Society major gifts program, encouraging donors to invest $10,000-100,000+ in City Year Philadelphia.
• Develop strategies to identify, cultivate, and solicit leadership-level support and multi-year commitments from new individuals and family foundations.
• Engage a minimum of 5 donors per week, on average, through emails, calls, and visits to homes, offices, and events in the Philadelphia area.
• Document and maintain clear and timely records and call reports to track contacts, donor giving, notes, and assist in the maintenance of an accurate donor database.

Management of the Individual Giving Team– 20%

• Manage and coach two high-functioning staff members, the Individual Giving Manager and one additional Manager level position that will be hired by the Senior Major Gifts Director.
• Partner and collaborate with Senior Corporate Partnerships Director and the regional grants writer to deliver a minimum of 15 grant proposals and reports for family foundations per year.

Red Jacket Society and Prospect Generation– 20%

• Lead overall efforts to build a robust Red Jacket Society, inviting donors to personally invest $10,000+ in City Year Philadelphia.
• Work closely with the Board, Development team, and Site Leadership to identify, engage, and cultivate a pipeline of individual prospects that can make annual and multiyear investments at the $10,000+ level.
• Move 10 prospects into active stage, beginning cultivation and engagement with the intent to raise $100,000 in new individual and family foundation dollars to support FY23 private revenue goal.
• Build and maintain a healthy pipeline that is at least 2.5x the individual giving and family foundation fundraising goals.
• Leverage existing City Year programs, service days, and events to attract new partners and donors.
• Engage individual executives, within our corporate partnerships, in support of strategic goals to cultivate new and existing individual donors and expand our brand presence in the Philadelphia market.

Organizational Initiatives & Site Support – 10%

• Serve as a member of the City Year Site Leadership Team, providing strategic insight into site priorities.
• Work collaboratively with other site departments, other City Year sites, and City Year headquarters.
• Represent City Year Philadelphia at meetings, conferences, trainings, and workgroups both within and outside of the City Year network.
• Engage in structured discussion and training on diversity, belonging, inclusion, and equity (DBIE) aimed at developing stronger cultural competency, both individually and collectively as a site.
• Partner with City Year Philadelphia’s departments and staff to ensure that site-wide goals are met, including, but not limited to, the AmeriCorps member applicant interview process, stakeholder engagement, event and service day participation, and cross-departmental committees.
• Participate in all site-wide activities including staff meetings, training, recruitment interviews, MLK Day, service days, Women’s Leadership event, Annual Gala, and more.

What You’ll Bring 

• 6 to 8+ years’ experience in sales, fundraising, or other relationship management, with a proven track record of meeting and exceeding goals.
• Bachelor’s Degree or 2 additional years of experience
• Proven track record of closing $100,000+ gifts.
• Proven record of success in a senior development role, including experience in a leadership position, within an organization that has delivered strong, measurable results. Track record of personally identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and closing individual and family foundation donors. 
• Experience building and implementing sales and cultivation strategies with individual and family foundation donors.
• Ability to translate complex model elements and program ideas into compelling and accessible proposals and pitches.
• Proven ability to lead and motivate a diverse team to meet fundraising goals.
• Excellent written, oral, and organizational skills; high level of attention to detail.
• Awareness and experience in engaging in conversation about race and all aspects of identity, as well as experience developing practices grounded in diversity, belonging, inclusion, and equity.
• Ability to work the flexible hours demanded of a deadline-driven position.
• Ability to adapt and excel in diverse, high energy, entrepreneurial, and rapidly changing environments.
• Attitude essentials: growth mindset, passion for City Year’s mission of education equity, resilience, committed to teamwork.