Major Gifts Officer

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About United Way of Coastal and Western Connecticut

United Way of Coastal and Western Connecticut works with the community to address critical needs and build pathways to well-being and financial security for everyone. Our work centers on ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed): working households that earn more than the poverty line but still can't afford the basics where they live. We work through five distinct strategies:
Advocacy, Collective Impact, Direct Service, Grantmaking, and Partnerships. We look for innovative ways to solve hard problems, and we are looking for a fundraiser who can bring donors into that work.

Position Summary

The Major Gifts Officer is a frontline fundraiser who builds relationships with the donors who can make the biggest difference for our mission. You will manage your own portfolio of major donors and prospects, from discovery through solicitation and stewardship, and close major, multi-year, and planned gifts.

You will also manage a portfolio of mid-level donors. Your job there is to keep them giving, help them give more, and spot the ones ready for a major gift conversation. You will work closely with marketing, community impact, corporate partnerships, and volunteer engagement to make every donor's experience personal and meaningful.

This is a chance to build something. Beyond your own portfolio, you will help shape how our major gifts program grows: the systems, standards, and donor experience it will rely on for years to come.

Key Responsibilities

• Qualify and manage a portfolio of major donors and prospects
• Build an individual cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship plan for each donor, with an annual revenue goal based on giving history, interests, and capacity
• Hold discovery visits, cultivation meetings, and stewardship conversations, and personally ask for gifts
• Write and present tailored proposals, working with program and community impact staff to match donor interests with funding needs
• Close major gifts, multi-year pledges, endowment gifts, and planned gifts where appropriate
• Report back to donors on the impact of their giving

• Manage a portfolio of leadership-level and mid-level donors
• Keep these donors engaged and help them increase their giving through personal phone calls, emails, notes, events, and occasional visits
• Design donor journeys that build relationships over time and lead to larger gifts
• Identify and qualify mid-level donors with major gift potential, and move them into your major gift portfolio
• Track how donors move through the pipeline, from annual giving, affinity groups, and workplace giving up to major gifts

• Partner on the fundraising strategy for the annual gala and leadership giving events, including sponsor ships and table sales
• Use events to find, cultivate, ask, and thank donors

• Help design the systems and processes a growing major gifts program needs, including portfolio assignment, moves management standards, gift agreements, and reporting
• Recommend where to invest as the program grows, such as staffing, tools, donor events, and planned giving
• Create a donor experience that shows donors the full range of our work, from direct service to collective impact to advocacy
• Help build a culture of philanthropy across the organization, preparing staff, board members, and volunteers to support donor relationships

• Marketing, on donor communications and storytelling
• Community impact, on funding opportunities and impact reports
• Corporate partnerships, on shared prospects and sponsor ships
• Foundation relations, on family foundations and impact narratives

• Keep donor records and moves management activity accurate and up to date in the CRM
• Track progress against revenue and activity goals, and prepare monthly reports and dashboards for leadership
• Study donor retention, upgrades, and campaign results, and use that data to sharpen your strategy

How Success Is Measured

• Revenue raised from your portfolio
• Steady activity of substantive donor meetings each month and annual…