Director of Major Gifts

Convent of the Sacred Heart is New York City's oldest independent school for girls. As an independent, Catholic school, educating students in Pre-K through 12, we are part of an international network of 160 schools. We are committed to a set of principles shared by all Sacred Heart Schools, known as the "Goals and Criteria," which articulate the core components of a Sacred Heart education and charge our community with a unified educational mission. At the heart of our philosophy is the belief that each child possesses unique gifts. Our job is to unearth those gifts, nurture them, and empower each child of the Sacred Heart to share those gifts with the global community. Convent of the Sacred Heart is committed to building a community that is anti-racist, anti-bias, fair, inclusive, and welcoming to everyone and seeks candidates who connect to our Mission and Goals.

About the role

Convent of the Sacred Heart seeks an experienced, dynamic, and results-driven fundraising professional to serve as the Director of Major Gifts. This role comes at a pivotal moment in the school’s history, reporting directly to the Chief Advancement Officer. The Director will play a central role in helping to launch and execute Sacred Heart’s upcoming Capital Campaign, driving fundraising momentum for transformative institutional priorities. The Director will manage a robust portfolio of major gift donors and prospects—including Sacred Heart parents, alumnae, parents of alumnae, grandparents, and friends—to secure leadership-level campaign commitments, multi-year pledges, and planned gifts.

FLSA: Exempt, full-time. Start date: Mid-September, 2026.

Responsibilities

• Proactively manage a portfolio of 75-100 major gift prospects, moving them through the qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship phases specifically tailored to Capital Campaign priorities.
• Demonstrate success in cultivating, soliciting, and closing multi-year campaign gifts.
• In collaboration with the Chief Advancement Officer, manage the regional and national travel required to engage remote leadership prospects.
• Partner closely with the Chief Advancement Officer and the Capital Campaign Committee, providing fundraising volunteers with the briefings, materials, and strategic support needed to successfully solicit peer-to-peer campaign gifts.
• In conjunction with the Chief Advancement Officer and Annual Fund Director, strategically navigate the intersection of campaign asks and Annual Fund renewals, ensuring donors are upgraded to support both immediate operational needs and long-term capital goals.
• Collaborate with frontline fundraisers and school leadership to design and execute high-touch stewardship programs that uniquely honor and recognize campaign donors.
• In collaboration with the Chief Advancement Officer, help create a Planned Giving Program to be launched during the Campaign.
• Develop strategies to secure blended gifts (combining current capital gifts with deferred estate gifts) to maximize a donor's total campaign impact.
• Contribute to a highly disciplined, data-driven culture by meticulously tracking campaign proposal statuses, multi-year pledge schedules, and donor interactions in the database (Raiser's Edge).
• Maintain the highest standards of data accuracy and confidentiality, providing regular progress reports on portfolio movement and pipeline metrics to the Chief Advancement Officer.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree required.
• Minimum of 7+ years of successful fundraising experience, with a proven track record of closing six- and seven-figure gifts specifically within the context of a comprehensive capital campaign.
• Expertise in planned giving vehicles and conducting values-aligned donor discussions.
• Experience with campaign strategy, donor pipelines, and moves management methodologies.
• Deep commitment to, and ability to eloquently articulate, the mission, history, and future vision of a Sacred Heart education.
• Exceptional communication and listening skills; highly comfortable collaborating with high-net-worth individuals, Board of Trustees, and Campaign Committee chairs.
• Strong experience leveraging donor databases (e.g., Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge/NXT) to manage a strict campaign pipeline.

Pay

Salary range: $160,000 - $180,000 annually.