Leadership Giving Officer; CLO

Based in the Division of Alumni Affairs and Development’s New York City office, reporting to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and with a dotted line to the Northeast Corridor Executive Director of Development, the Leadership Giving Officer (LGO) is a front-line fundraising professional responsible for developing relationships with about 250 households who have potential interest in the Lab’s programs and priorities.

Foster philanthropic connections — engaging, cultivating, soliciting and stewarding leadership- and major-gifts level prospects and donors. The primary focus of this role is the discovery and engagement of potential leadership- and major-gift-level donors cultivated mainly from the Lab’s broad, nationwide membership base of nearly 100,000 people.

Research, develop, and implement appropriate solicitation strategies for prospects while proactively advancing the mission of the Lab, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Cornell. This includes cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding current use, annual fund gifts between $10,000 to $100,000, and multi-year commitments up to $250,000. Collaborate with Lab Program Directors and Lab staff, AA&D, and regional staff and colleagues in areas across the division, including membership/annual giving, gift planning, donor relations and major/principal gifts, as well as board members and other Lab volunteers.

The Leadership Gift Officer must be a professional and persuasive representative of the Cornell Lab and the University. As such, they must maintain an in-depth knowledge of the Lab’s annual and strategic priorities within the context of the university’s priorities, and inspire the respect and confidence of the executive, academic, administrative, trustee, and volunteer leadership of Cornell. This position will require extensive travel to accomplish 125+ annual prospect visits.

This is a full time, 12 month position located in the New York City Office.

Prospect Portfolio Management (50% of time)

• Create and manage a portfolio of about 250 households with potential interest in the Lab’s program and priorities, developing and implementing an annual work plan to build and foster a prospect pool primarily fostered from the Lab’s broad membership base. The annual work plan will include strategies and actions to involve, solicit, and steward identified prospects. Portfolio will serve all donor levels.
• Measures of success will include goals for number of in-person and other substantive contact (through use of phone, email and social media) and new engagement with the Lab. Individual performance metrics will be set annually and will include such measures as: number of in-person visits (125+), number of increased gifts, number of first-time Golden-wing Society, Chairman’s Council or major-gift donors personally cultivated, number of new major-gift prospects identified, number of prospects disqualified, and total dollars raised.
• Working as a member of the development team, collaborate with colleagues throughout the Lab, Alumni Affairs & Development (AA&D), trustees, administrative staff, faculty, deans, administrative board members, and volunteers to plan, coordinate, and execute initiatives to engage prospects in the life of the Lab leading to their financial support for institutional priorities.
• Continually assess the quality of the prospect pool, seeking referrals and identifying new prospects and recommending prospect moves to other portfolios as appropriate.

Solicitation Activity (25% of time)

• Manage the scheduling, implementation, and completion of at least 1-3 major gift solicitations each year for the first two years in the position (with closure of one gift discussion); complete at least 3-7 major gift solicitations each year by the third-year (with closure of at least 3 gift discussions), with the ultimate goal of building a major-gifts portfolio supporting 12-15 major gift solicitations a year.
• Working with Lab donor relations staff, complete at least two distinct stewardship actions for each prospect whose lifetime philanthropy to Cornell is $100,000 or more.
• Work creatively to match donor interests with institutional…