Associate Director of Principal Gift Development

What We Can Achieve Together

The Associate Director of Principal Gift Development develops, implements, and manages effective multi‑year strategies and plans for the qualification, cultivation, and solicitation of principal gift level prospects, including individual donors, foundations, and institutional prospects. With an emphasis on building a principal gift portfolio, the incumbent works across the Midwest division (IL, IN, WI, OH and MI) toward building TNC’s donor base and raising impactful gifts for TNC’s mission and campaign, focusing on wealth markets such as Chicago.

The incumbent will join a team that is dedicated to modeling and fostering a highly collaborative approach to principal gift fundraising from ultra‑high‑net‑worth (UHNW) prospects and to creating, testing, innovating, and sharing strategies and tactics for Discovery.

• Develops donor strategies, builds strong relationships, and cultivates current donors toward increased giving.
• Discovers, cultivates, and stewards donors for outright, pledged, and complex gifts.
• Conducts direct asks to both global and local priorities to meet funding needs.
• Discusses assets proficiently and listens for opportunities for gifts of assets or other non‑cash gifts, such as planned gifts and other complex vehicles.
• Incorporates blended gifts and gifts of assets into proposals to donors.
• Uses knowledge of charitable giving, particularly private foundations, operating foundations, and Donor Advised Funds.
• Demonstrates entrepreneurial spirit and pipeline development ability.
• Engages in principal gifts discovery work and creative prospect outreach and engagement.
• Collaborates within a complex matrix organization and aligns closely with the global principal gifts team.
• Manages assigned trustee relationships and/or volunteer engagement as appropriate.
• Adheres to TNC’s stated values and policies.

• Qualify at least ten (10) principal gift‑level prospects in the first year.
• Build a warm PG portfolio of UHNWI in the first three years, with solicitations underway by year three.
• Manage a portfolio of 30–50 prospects who have the capacity to give over $5,000,000 each.
• Meet defined annual fundraising goal and moves/activity metrics for the portfolio and PG Department standards.
• In years one and two, meet discovery‑based metrics such as annual qualifications, quarterly outreach goals, and other performance metrics as assigned.
• Direct or participate in negotiations for complex, high‑profile or sensitive agreements.
• Ensure compliance with TNC policies, external donor/legal/IRS requirements, and ethical compliance issues.
• Set and meet fundraising objectives, evaluate results, and develop corrective strategies.
• Lead collaborative projects, directing staff work, managing budget, setting deadlines, and ensuring accountability.
• Maintain confidentiality of sensitive information.
• Possibly supervise support or administrative staff.
• Persuasively convey TNC’s mission to diverse groups.
• Travel frequently and on short notice; work long hours and weekends as needed.
• Manage a portfolio of 25–40 donors with capacity to give over $750,000 once developed, including 40–75 visits and 120–225 moves annually.
• Build toward an annual fundraising goal of $2,000,000 or more, with a goal for bequest notifications.

• Bachelor’s degree and 7 years related experience.
• Experience building a portfolio and maintaining long‑term relationships with UHNW donors.
• Experience asking for and closing seven‑figure gifts, including planned gifts.
• Experience managing and tracking multiple prospects and donors.
• Experience with fundraising principles and practices.
• Experience, coursework, or training in current trends in charitable giving, particularly capital campaigns, major gifts and planned giving.

• Multi‑lingual skills and multi‑cultural or cross‑cultural experience appreciated.
• Ability to design and implement fundraising strategies, including cultivation, solicitation and recognition strategies.
• Ability to assess a donor’s interests, capacity, and potential and to match them to TNC’s work.
• Ability to educate prospective and existing donors about…