Description
Description: Reporting to the Deputy Director, the Major Gifts Officer will play a critical role in strengthening the Biggs Museum of American Art’s major gifts program and advancing the institution’s comprehensive campaign. This position will focus on identifying, qualifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding individual donors and prospects with significant philanthropic capacity.
The Major Gifts Officer will help manage the Museum’s major gift and campaign pipeline, coordinate donor strategy, support leadership and volunteer engagement, and move prospects thoughtfully from identification to qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and commitment.
This is a frontline fundraising position with a significant moves management role. The Major Gifts Officer will personally build donor relationships while also helping deploy the right institutional leaders, Board members, volunteers, and staff at the right moments to advance key donor relationships.
Major Gift Fundraising and Campaign Pipeline
Manage an active portfolio of approximately 100-150 major gift donors and prospects, with portfolio size adjusted based on campaign phase, prospect capacity, and cultivation requirements.
Identify, qualify, cultivate, solicit, and steward major gift donors and prospects in support of The Biggs’ campaign and long-term fundraising goals.
Conduct regular donor and prospect meetings, including discovery visits, cultivation conversations, solicitation meetings, and stewardship touchpoints.
Personally cultivate, solicit, and close major gifts, with an emphasis on five-, six-, and seven-figure potential where appropriate.
Qualify newly identified prospects, including individuals with limited current connection to The Biggs but meaningful philanthropic, regional, civic, or arts-related capacity.
Engage donors around Biggs’ mission, collection, exhibitions, education programs, community impact, and future vision.
Moves Management and Donor Strategy
Manage and coordinate Biggs’ major gift and campaign prospect pipeline, including qualification, prioritization, assignment, strategy, next steps, and follow-up.
Develop individualized cultivation and solicitation strategies for priority prospects based on capacity, affinity, giving history, relationship pathways, and institutional knowledge.
Translate prospect research, wealth screening, Board/volunteer insight, and institutional knowledge into practical donor strategy.
Help determine when a prospect is ready for solicitation, who should lead/participate, and what ask amount or gift opportunity is appropriate.
Create or coordinate tailored gift opportunities, proposals, briefing materials, and solicitation strategies.
Maintain regular review of prospect movement, assignments, follow-up, and next steps.
Leadership, Board, and Volunteer Coordination
Partner with the Deputy Director, development team, Board members, campaign volunteers, and senior museum leaders to identify relationship pathways and secure donor introductions.
Prepare leadership and volunteers for donor conversations through briefing notes, research summaries, talking points, suggested next steps, and supporting materials.
Manage donor assignment lists and help deploy the right staff leaders, Board members, volunteers, and relationship-holders at the right time in cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.
Participate in regular prospect strategy meetings with the Deputy Director to review progress, assignments, follow-up, and next steps.
Support Development Committee and/or campaign committee work as appropriate, particularly around prospect strategy, donor assignments, and major gift pipeline movement.
Stewardship, CRM, and Reporting
Develop thoughtful stewardship plans that keep donors meaningfully connected to the impact of their giving.
Use Salesforce/Veevart consistently to document donor activity, relationship notes, assignments, next steps, proposals, asks, commitments, and stewardship actions.
Track and report progress against major gift and campaign-readiness goals, including visits, meetings, proposals submitted, asks made, gifts closed, and prospects moved through the pipeline.
Help ensure major gift records, donor assignments, campaign strategies, and follow-up steps are accurately documented and actively managed.
Collaborate with advancement colleagues to ensure major gift strategy is aligned with annual giving, membership, events, grants, stewardship, and institutional priorities.
Requirements
This is not an entry-level role. The successful candidate should bring direct donor-facing fundraising experience, strong relationship management instincts, and the judgment to work effectively with major donors, senior leaders, Board members, and campaign volunteers.
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience preferred.
5+ years of progressively responsible fundraising experience is preferred; exceptional candidates with slightly less experience may be considered if they bring strong donor-facing major gifts experience.
Demonstrated success cultivating, soliciting, and closing major gifts, preferably at the five- and six-figure level or above.
Experience with major gifts and/or campaign fundraising, and a strong understanding of moves management, donor qualification, portfolio management, and relationship-based fundraising.
High comfort level working with executive leadership, Board members, campaign volunteers, and other relationship-holders in donor cultivation and solicitation.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to prepare donor briefings, proposals, talking points, and follow-up communications.
Experience using donor databases/CRMs and prospect research tools; Salesforce/Veevart and iWave a plus.
Strong interpersonal skills, maturity, discretion, and commitment to ethical, donor-centered fundraising.
Interest in museums, arts and culture, education, and community impact preferred.
