Major Gifts Officer

Type Media Center is launching a new major gifts program, and we’re looking for a full-time Major Gifts Officer to help build and grow it. This is not a role with an existing portfolio, you’ll be responsible for establishing the strategy, systems, and donor pipeline that will become the foundation of our individual giving program going forward.

Reporting to the Development Director while working in close collaboration with the Executive Director, you’ll bring structure to a currently informal set of individual donor relationships, build out prospect research processes, and develop the cultivation and solicitation practices that will let this program scale over time. A significant portion of this role will also focus on the development of our Board of Trustees and the creation of public events aimed at expanding Type’s role in public discourse.

This role is best suited to someone who is energized by early-stage, builder-type work, and is motivated by long sales cycles and able to create infrastructure.

• Build Type Media Center’s major gifts program from scratch: develop prospect identification criteria, build a prospective donor management process, and a CRM structure to support the work
• Conduct prospect research to identify new major gift candidates through wealth screening, donor-advised fund networks, board connections, and existing relationships across the organization
• Build and maintain an initial portfolio of 50–75 prospects and donors at the $10,000+ level, maintaining and tracking qualification, cultivation, and steward all touchpoints for each
• Develop an annual fundraising goal and report progress against it monthly and quarterly.
• Design and execute cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies for each relationship, in coordination with the Development Director; lead solicitation meetings independently for portfolio-level gifts.
• Prepare briefings and prepare the Executive Director for donor meetings and high-priority asks; coordinate follow-up and next steps
• Draft donor communications including proposals, impact reports, gift acknowledgments, and personal correspondence
• Establish reporting structures and benchmarks to track program growth and present progress to leadership and the board
• Build prospect profiles with capacity and readiness metrics using wealth screening data, DAF sponsor reports, and board/staff referrals
• Represent Type Media Center at donor events, journalism conferences, and cultivation gatherings, including 90% in-person NYC-based/remote events and 10% travel
• Work with Nomination’s Committee of the Board to help grow the number of trustees and expand its fundraising capacity
• Help create a public events program that will help expand Type’s audience and potential funders

• 3–5+ years of fundraising experience, with meaningful exposure to major gifts or frontline fundraising
• Passionate and effective storyteller who can build and develop relationships and experiences that inspire donors to take action
• Demonstrated track record of personally soliciting and closing major gifts, and experience building or significantly growing a major gifts program is strongly preferred. This is a startup role within an established organization
• Track record of cultivating and closing gifts at the five-figure level or higher; working knowledge of portfolio/ pipeline management
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to translate complex editorial work into compelling donor-facing narratives
• Strong relationship instincts. Must be comfortable engaging high-net-worth individuals
• Experience with partnering with Executive Director, board or senior leadership on high level solicitation
• Self-directed, entrepreneurial, and highly organized; enjoy building processes and systems
• Familiarity with wealth screening tools, CRM platforms, and database systems
• Understanding of intricacies of working with DAFs
• Familiarity with independent journalism, press freedom, and/or the nonprofit media sector
• Comfort working in a collaborative work environment; adaptability is essential
• Familiarity but not required:
  Donor Box, Donor Perfect, Mailchimp, Air Table, Slack, Microsoft…