Senior Major Gift Officer

Senior Major Gift Officer

The Senior Major Gift Officer is a critical part of the Wikimedia Foundation's fundraising team, focused on raising major gifts and planned gifts for the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Endowment.

The Senior Major Gift Officer will report to and work closely with the Senior Manager of Major Gifts & Planned Giving to develop and execute major giving fundraising strategies. They manage a dynamic portfolio of major gift prospects, serving as one of our front-line major gifts fundraisers. Succeeding in this environment requires comfort with both highly personalized cultivation strategies for individual donors in their portfolio as well as email outreach to a broad array of donors at scale.

The Senior Major Gift Officer will work remotely. The ideal candidate will be located with convenient travel into US East Coast or West Coast major metros and travel frequently.

• Serving as a front-line fundraiser on a team charged with securing annually increasing revenue targets through major gifts
• Cultivating and stewarding a portfolio of 75-100 prospects who have the capacity to give between $1k-$25k annually, along with qualifying and disqualifying major donors from a large giving pool, with frequent reevaluation of the portfolio based on qualification meetings
• Soliciting and securing major and planned gifts in support of the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Endowment, and building a pipeline for further giving and cultivation across our major gifts team
• Fostering strong, life‑long donor relationships, including those assigned based on geographic location or other factors
• Developing intimate, high‑end donor cultivation events, including building invitation lists, assisting with program content, and executing post-event cultivation strategies, in conjunction with the Events Manager
• Creating written materials to support fundraising, including meeting / event briefings, activity reports, solicitation letters, proposals, and stewardship reports
• Managing a variety of major donor communications, including project management, writing, and editing of these pieces, in collaboration with other staff across the Foundation
• Participating in donor identification, research, and qualification efforts
• Assisting with gift processing, acknowledgements, donor recognition, and other gift administration tasks as needed
• Tracking your contact with donors in our donor database

• 4 years of successful fundraising experience, including at least 3 years of direct major gifts experience
• A record of personal success in raising money from individual major donors through current and planned gifts in the 4 to 5-figure range
• Broad‑based knowledge of various development activities, including direct solicitations, event planning and management, and planned giving
• Excellent relationship management skills and the ability to work with a diverse group of donors and team members across geographies
• Excellent verbal communication skills
• Demonstrably strong writing skills
• Ability to work with a high degree of autonomy and accountability
• Ability to maintain confidentiality of donor information and a finely‑tuned sense of discretion
• Ability to travel to meet with donors in person and attend Foundation gatherings
• Comfort and experience in a technology‑driven environment

• A strong values and vision fit with the Wikimedia movement and Foundation
• We are an international organization serving an internationally distributed audience. A strong international perspective with personal experience in cross‑cultural communication is highly valued
• Articulate and persuasive communicator, both in speaking and writing
• Active listening and strategizing; comfortable receiving input from many sources, and able to act on information to develop increased support
• Detail‑oriented, able to maintain systems, track progress, and follow‑up in a timely fashion
• Sharing a culture of constructive criticism and respect
• Self‑motivated professional who takes initiative and has the ability to work independently
• Gravitas and professionalism appropriate for interacting with high level donors, board…