Senior Director Major Gifts

About the Opportunity

JOB SUMMARY

The Senior Director, Major Gifts will qualify, cultivate, and solicit major gift prospects ($250K-$1M) in a designated geographic region. Operating within the One Northeastern model, the Senior Director maintains a university-wide perspective, raising support for a broad range of institutional priorities spanning individual colleges, multidisciplinary programs, and strategic initiatives. While possessing a solid understanding of Northeastern University’s overall academic enterprise, the Senior Director may also build deeper expertise/knowledge about a college, program or campus in order to serve as a content resource to other development colleagues and to strengthen collaborative fundraising efforts. 

This position is Boston-based and is not available for remote work. Overnight travel and some evening and weekend work required.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Demonstrated experience cultivating and soliciting, alumni, parents, and friends at the $100K+ level, and maintaining positive relationships with donors

• Superior communication skills—highly collaborative and entrepreneurial in approach and possessing interpersonal skills necessary for building relationships with various university constituents, both internal and external

• Ability to work independently and collaboratively as a member of the Northeastern University Advancement team

• Data- and metric-driven mindset

• An appreciation and understanding of the mission of Northeastern University

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES & ACCOUNTABILITIES

Lead major gifts fund-raising effort and serve as the content expert for Advancement for assigned College

• Cultivate, solicit, and build alumni, parent, and friend relationships. Strategize with faculty and other colleagues on next steps with prospects within College and across disciplines.

• Travel as needed to build relationships with existing volunteers, prospects, and donors. Solicit gifts in the $250K – $5M+ range. Work with the Senior Associate Vice President, Advancement and other advancement teams (corporate & foundation relations, leadership giving, international and regional giving, gift planning, and family philanthropy) to ensure the development goals of College are met.

• Advise faculty, fund-raising colleagues, and administrators on alumni and parent areas of interest.

• Partner with fund-raising colleagues (corporate & foundation relations, leadership giving, international and regional giving, gift planning, and family philanthropy) to develop interdisciplinary strategies for donors providing support across the university.

Build Prospect Portfolio and Pipeline

• Discover new prospects and build pipeline to feed gifts at the major gift level. Work closely with the Senior Associate Vice President to create a strategic development plan for College and develop and manage a portfolio of prospects (approximately 80+).

• Establish region-based plans for cultivating and soliciting alumni and current parents in targeted areas nationally.

• Engage faculty strategically with prospects; maintain correspondence; and keep the Senior Associate Vice President, faculty, and appropriate University administrators apprised of funding opportunities and trends. Travel as needed to strategically identified regions to support prospect identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.

• Achieve annual fund-raising goals and activity (visits, video meetings, calls, proposals, etc.) metrics set by the Senior Associate Vice President.

Staff Management

• Mentor and develop a high functioning team.

• Empower their efforts to manage their own prospect pools while also fostering collaborative, multi-unit strategies.

• Provide strategic guidance and motivation that enables staff to achieve activity and dollar metrics.

• Promote best professional practices via exemplary behavior, staff training, and professional development opportunities.

Maintain Prospect Portfolio

• Maintain high-quality development process for active alumni, parent, and friend prospects, and donors.

• Create call reports and maintain database system. Maintain the data integrity of prospect portfolio using the Development Office data management systems (Ascend).

• Prepare monthly progress prospect reports for the Senior Associate Vice President. Work with Advancement’s Stewardship team to ensure that past, present, and future donors are appropriately recognized, including their administration and accounting.

Position Type

Additional Information

Northeastern University considers factors such as candidate work experience, education and skills when extending an offer.  

All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Compensation Grade/Pay Type:

Expected Hiring Range:

With the pay range(s) shown above, the starting salary will depend on several factors, which may include your education, experience, location, knowledge and expertise, and skills as well as a pay comparison to similarly-situated employees already in the role. Salary ranges are reviewed regularly and are subject to change.