Senior Major Gifts Officer

At Holy Cross, we are focused on creating a world-class workforce by attracting and retaining employees dedicated to fostering a culture of professionalism, pride, mutual trust, and respect—one that values appreciation and recognition, empowering each of us to flourish both individually and collectively. We seek candidates who are inspired by our mission and values, and who are eager to make a meaningful difference on our campus. Learn more about Life at Holy Cross here.

The Senior Major Gifts Officer will have an elevated level of responsibility for fundraising efforts which support and advance the mission of Holy Cross. Working with alumni, parents, and friends in specific geographic regions, the Senior Major Gifts Officer will serve as a leader among Major Gifts colleagues and working partnership with the Gift Planning team, Holy Cross Fund team, and other internal partners to encourage annual and multi-year leadership-level support at the $100,000 to $3,000,000+ range. The Senior Major Gifts Officer will work closely with Advancement colleagues to develop and execute prospect strategies that strategically integrate gift planning, reunions, annual giving, and other college financial priorities into the development and execution of high-level fundraising strategies that enable the realization of established goals and objectives. The Senior Major Gifts Officer will report to the Director of Major Gifts.

Job Description

Major Areas of Responsibility

• Qualify, cultivate, solicit, and steward a portfolio of approximately 125+ prospects, on an annual basis, holding at least 110 annual visits with prospects;

through the development of thoughtful strategies and intentional prioritization of prospects, ensure a new gifts and commitments goal of at least $3 million by focusing on delivering at least 20 major gift proposals each year and actively soliciting high annual fund gifts for the rest of their portfolio.

• Drive a minimum of $500,000 cash received from their portfolio each year through a combination of pledge fulfillments, current use gifts, and annual fund gifts.

• Inspire donors to articulate their charitable goals to maximize their support of Holy Cross in alignment with the institution’s ambitions by engaging in thoughtful and strategic conversations that uncover philanthropic aspirations;

• Be active in the discovery process as part of and in addition to managing their portfolio with a minimum of 15 discovery visits each year.

• Adhere to all prospect management processes and policies around contact reports, proposals, briefing materials, documenting intentions, and writing statements of understanding to ensure cross-departmental transparency and effectiveness;

• Serve as a partner to the Holy Cross Fund team, Gift Planning team, and Major Gifts colleagues by identifying new prospects and volunteers, and supporting the goals of elevating unrestricted and flexibly restricted support at Holy Cross;

• Continually improve professional skills, knowledge, and understanding of Holy Cross by developing relationships with colleagues across campus, attending campus events and activities, and participating in training activities;

• In partnership with the Director of Major Gifts and the AVP for Individual Giving, develop and execute robust, multi-step donor-centric prospect strategies;

• Communicate meeting strategies through written briefings and pre-visit briefing meetings or calls;

• Strategically leverage academic leadership, faculty, and other members of the Holy Cross community leading to successful solicitation and closure of six- and seven-figure gifts;

• Foster relationships between prospective donors and academic leadership, faculty, and other members of the Holy Cross community to deepen prospect engagement;

• Secure anchor visits for leadership and construct meetings that effectively leverage each leader’s time to advance prospect strategies; and

• Serve as a liaison between Advancement and at least one other department or group on campus with fundraising needs;

• Assume additional and elevated responsibilities associated with strategic initiatives and campaign priorities fundraising;

• Maintain excellent and timely detail with donor data activity and statistics for accurate reporting needs.

Minimum Qualifications

• A Bachelor's degree or an equivalent combination of education and experience is preferred for this position as is at least seven years of experience in major gifts fundraising, preferably at an educational institution, soliciting comprehensive major, principal and planned gifts;

• Commitment to the mission of College of the Holy Cross—to pursue excellence in teaching, learning, and research and to foster an intellectual and social community that is marked by freedom, mutual respect, and civility;

• Demonstrated successful track record as a major gifts fundraiser;

• Appreciation of Jesuit Catholic educational traditions and methodology;

• Understanding of and an ability to succeed at a complex academic institution;

• Experience staffing academic leaders in their development work;

• Ability to uncover interests, motivations, and objectives from prospective donors, clients, and others;

• Excellent communication skills, including an ability to write persuasively and with efficiency;

• Experience qualifying prospects during initial visits to determine inclination and capacity to make significant gifts to aid in the identification of new donors at the major gift level;

• Ability to make solicitations with comfort;

• Ability to persuasively communicate the case for unrestricted and current use support;

• Excellent active listening and interpersonal skills and an ability to relate to donors, volunteers, and colleagues;

• Tact, diplomacy, discretion, patience, sound judgment, and a commitment to maintaining confidentiality inside and outside of the college;

• Highly developed organizational skills, detail-orientation, and an ability to prioritize and balance multiple tasks in a fast-paced complex environment;

• Natural affinity for collaboration and serving as an influential leader, mentor, and team player, with a high level of emotional intelligence;

• Personal commitment to excellence as well as an ability to admit mistakes and forgive faults in others; and

• Experience with Microsoft Office, Advance, or similar fundraising software.

Disclaimer

  

The description above represents the most significant duties of this position but does not exclude other occasional work assignments not mentioned, the inclusion of which would be in conformity with the factor degrees assigned.

Salary Range: The Senior Major Gifts Officer offers a salary range of $115,000-$120,000, commensurate with education and experience

Weekly Hours:

40

Annual Work Schedule:

Application Instructions

An updated resume and cover letter are required as a part of your internal application. In your cover letter, please reflect on how your professional and personal values align with the Mission of the College of the Holy Cross to form individuals of integrity and purpose who are committed to the flourishing of all.

Additional Information
To review our generous benefits options, please review our detailed information here or check out our Benefits at a Glance. 

The College also provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities during the hiring process in compliance with law. Please contact Human Resources for questions or to request an accommodation via email at [email protected], or by calling 508-793-3391. 

The College is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer and complies with all Federal and Massachusetts laws concerning Equal Opportunity in the workplace.