Associate Director of Philanthropy I

About the role

The Associate Director of Philanthropy will focus on building and managing a portfolio of 75-125 qualified donors, including those with the capacity to give over $100,000 annually. The role involves conducting 75-125 donor visits and 225-375 donor moves each year, as well as making phone calls to qualify and disqualify prospects. The position requires understanding and applying complex principles of developing donor strategies, sharing information about the Conservancy’s mission, vision, and priorities, and using the Conservancy’s donor database and developing funding proposals.

Responsibilities

• Build and manage a portfolio of 75-125 qualified donors, including donors with the capacity to give over $100,000 annually
• Conduct 75-125 donor visits and 225-375 donor moves each year
• Make phone calls to qualify and disqualify prospects
• Understand and apply complex principles of developing donor strategies
• Share information about the Conservancy’s mission, vision, and priorities in broad terms and encourage donors to make flexible gifts
• Listen for gifts of assets or other non-cash gift opportunities, such as planned gifts and trade lands
• Use the Conservancy’s donor database and develop funding proposals in partnership with the donor communication specialist
• Work in a hybrid environment (2 days in Minneapolis and 3 days remote)
• Travel across Minnesota as needed for donor visits, and may need to work overtime as needed

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree and 5 years related experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience
• Experience building and maintaining long-term relationships with fundraising constituents
• Experience in asking for and closing gifts of $25,000 or more
• Experience in managing and tracking multiple prospects and donors
• Experience working with cross-functional teams
• Experience, coursework, or other training in fundraising principles and practices

Qualifications

• Experience in fundraising strategy development, focusing on identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of major donors
• Experience in cultivating a pipeline of new donors
• Knowledge of corporate and foundation major giving, along with individual major giving
• Experience with Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) software (i.e. Blackbaud, Raiser’s Edge, etc.)
• Understanding of project budgets and building that information into donor proposals
• Ability to educate and inform prospective and existing donors about appropriate giving vehicles
• Knowledge of the basics of charitable gift planning
• Knowledge of current trends in the charitable giving in the areas of capital campaigns, major gifts or planned giving
• Multi-lingual skills and multi-cultural or cross-cultural experience appreciated
• Ability to determine an individual’s interests, capacity and potential for helping an organization meet its goals, and act appropriately to tie those interests with the organization's work
• Experience negotiating high profile or sensitive agreements

Skills

• Self-starter
• Proficient and comfortable utilizing multiple channels of communication to listen, respond with diplomacy and tact to build strong relationships with donors, volunteers, and staff
• Expertly bring strategy and action together

Benefits

The starting pay range for a candidate selected for this position is generally within the range of $82,700 - 95,000. This range only applies to candidates whose country of employment is the USA. Where a successful candidate’s actual pay will fall within this range will be based on a variety of factors, including, for example, the candidate's location, qualifications, specific skills, and experience.