Director, Gift Planning

Founded in 1876, the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) is the oldest conservation and recreation organization in the United States. AMC’s mission is simple yet powerful: foster the protection, enjoyment, and understanding of the outdoors.

Supported by over 90,000 members and with 11 chapters from Virginia to Maine, AMC works to conserve the mountains, forests, waters, and trails of America’s Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. AMC oversees and stewards well over 100,000 acres of land and 1,800 miles of trails and offers over 5,000 outdoor activities each year to help participants experience, appreciate, and learn more about the outdoors.

For more information about Appalachian Mountain Club, please visit https://(Use the "Apply for this Job" box below)./

The Director, Gift Planning is responsible for overall strategic leadership and management of AMC’s planned giving program. Reporting to the Senior Director, Principal Gifts, this position will work closely with all frontline fundraising staff, including the Chief Development Officer (CDO) and AMC management team at a time of transformation and growth, as the organization launches its largest fundraising campaign in its 150-year history.

Informed by a new strategic plan and guided by the leadership of CEO & President Nicole Zussman and a freshly invigorated senior management team, this is an exceptionally special moment to help set the future course for AMC by co-creating transformational funding opportunities in partnership with AMC’s program leadership, and to collaboratively advance relationships with major and principal gift donors and prospects.

AMC's comprehensive fundraising campaign goal incorporates a significant planned giving portion (from gifts including realized bequest revenue, irrevocable and revocable gifts). This position will be pivotal in driving strategic initiatives to maximize planned giving efforts during this campaign. The Director, Gift Planning is responsible for securing planned and complex gift assets and/or blended gifts (i.e., a combination of annual, outright, revocable, and irrevocable deferred gifts) with a particular focus on gifts of $100,000 and above.

The Director, Gift Planning will collaborate with frontline funders, AMC’s management team and Board members to identify and qualify prospects. This position will partner with the Development Operations team to utilize top industry tools to cultivate, solicit, administer, and steward planned gifts.

Immediate cash revenue from realized planned gifts averages $1.3 million annually; AMC is approaching $100 million in charitable assets under management. These revenue streams are expected to grow proportionately as AMC advances its comprehensive campaign. AMC has nearly 400 members in the Summit Trust, its legacy society, and very few of these gifts have been documented. Growing this pool of donors while simultaneously cultivating and soliciting them for current and deferred gifts is a key priority of this position.

This position aligns both staff and volunteers to advance AMC’s mission and its four strategic priorities:

• Protect critical landscapes for the well-being of people and the outdoors.
• Cultivate and sustain a robust and welcoming community.
• Foster access to the outdoors.

• Provide strategic program leadership and direction to AMC’s planned giving program.
• Work in tandem with the Senior Director of Principal Gifts to encourage, motivate, and incentive frontline fundraisers to cultivate and secure a variety of planned or complex gifts from donors, including combinations of outright and deferred gifts.
• Actively contribute to principal and major gift-level strategy discussions. Bring forward blended gift solutions that help donors maximize giving.
• Establish budget and activity goals for planned gifts in consultation with the CDO and Senior Director, Principal Gifts, and develop both annual and multi-year strategies to reach them.
• Work with the Development Operations team, Finance department, and other colleagues to ensure proper forecasting, handling, and crediting of revenue from planned gifts.
• In cooperation with Marketing and…