Principal Gifts Officer

About the role

At CSUN, we aspire to continually grow as an inclusive, cooperative community. We strive to be a destination workplace where everyone understands they belong to a vital community advancing student success and providing exemplary service to all stakeholders. We foster an environment of success, both for our students and our employees. We celebrate diversity, equity, and inclusion and are an employer of choice.

Responsibilities

• Identifies, cultivates, solicits, and stewards principal gift prospects to support campaign priorities.
• Collaborates with internal and external stakeholders to contribute to strategic fundraising initiatives.
• Grows and develops a robust pipeline of principal gifts, ensuring alignment with annual DNCBE campaign goals.
• Buys and maintains a robust portfolio of high-level donors and prospects capable of $1M+ gift commitments.
• Develops and presents tailored principal gift cultivation and solicitation strategies to donors' financial, tax, and estate advisors and senior leadership in CSUN Advancement.
• Builds upon existing commitments and expands the current donor base of support.
• Demonstrates a commitment to student success that is mission-aligned with the university’s vision, values, and priorities.
• Establishes an ethical and collegial work environment, promoting a collaborative, accountable, and inclusive team.
• Encourages a courageous and resilient solution-oriented environment by participating in new opportunities to further the university's mission.
• Participates in developing initiatives that further support the campus mission with a service-oriented and catalytic mindset.
• Strengthens employees by being communicative and a talent builder that develops team attributes, furthering departmental goals.

Qualifications

• A Bachelor's degree in a related field.
• Experience with university-level campaign principal gifts is preferred.
• Seven years of development/fundraising experience working with major gift and principal gift donors.
• Experience in an academic setting is strongly preferred, as is working in a campaign environment.
• Strong preference for experience with Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge.

Skills, Abilities & Leadership

• Strong written and interpersonal communication skills to establish and maintain good working relationships throughout the organization and with outside constituencies.
• Expert skills in making persuasive and compelling presentations in order to secure principal gifts.
• Proven experience in the full spectrum of development, including cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.
• Demonstrated organizational, analytical, and critical thinking skills.
• Expert project/program management skills, including setting and meeting program/project goals and objectives within budget and time constraints.
• Experience and success with the design of strategies for cultivation and solicitation of prospective donors.
• Strong sense of ethical conduct that will inspire confidence and motivation with a proven ability to persuade prospective donors and colleagues while maintaining confidentiality in all matters as they relate to sensitive donor relations.
• Expert ability to serve both the needs of the university while meeting the philanthropic goals of donors.
• Lead diverse teams to support the operational mission and vision of employers by fostering an ethical, inclusive, and collegial work environment.
• Demonstrated ability to support ongoing improvement through courageous, resilient, and catalytic leadership.
• Lead varying initiatives through a collaborative, service-oriented, and communicative approach.
• Demonstrated commitment to employee development, recognition, and accountability to further operational goals.