Major Gifts Officer

Make lives meaningful through making.

Penland School of Craft is an international center for craft education offering residential workshops, residencies, community education programs, and exhibitions. Located on 420 acres in the NC Mountains, Penland has 16 teaching studios and 60 historic and contemporary buildings. We are an equal‑opportunity employer with a staff of 50+. Penland operates with a $54 million endowment and an annual operating budget of $8.4 million.

We are located about an hour northeast of Asheville, NC.

At Penland School of Craft, we believe that fostering a climate of equity, inclusion, diversity, and antiracism are essential to our work. We are committed to creating a campus community free of discrimination, and we welcome everyone who supports this commitment.

Black, Indigenous, Latine, Asian, and other people who identify as people of color or BIPOC individuals are encouraged to apply, as are people holding other marginalized identities related to gender, sexual orientation, ability, and class background.

The Major Gifts Officer is responsible for cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding individual donors and planned giving prospects to grow philanthropic revenue and strengthen long‑term donor relationships. This role is a storyteller, strategist, and relationship builder—someone who aligns donor passions with the organization’s mission. This position manages a dynamic portfolio of leadership annual, major gift, and planned giving donors and prospects, plays a key role in advancing donors through the organization’s giving pipeline, and contributes to campaign planning, donor strategy, and campaign fundraising initiatives in support of Penland’s long‑term strategic priorities.

The Major Gifts Officer develops and implements individualized cultivation and solicitation strategies; conducts meaningful donor engagement activities; and partners closely with the Chief Advancement Officer (CAO) and Executive Director (ED) to identify and prepare donors for leadership‑level gifts.

This is a revenue‑generating position with clear performance metrics and portfolio accountability. Following portfolio development and onboarding, this position is expected to manage and influence approximately $1M–$3M in annual philanthropic revenue. This position reports to the CAO and serves on a development team of 7 staff members. This is a full‑time, year‑round, exempt, benefits‑eligible position.

This is a hybrid position with a regular on‑campus schedule throughout the month. This position is externally focused and expected to maintain an active schedule of donor cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship activity, including approximately 10–15 in‑person donor visits monthly and 120–150 meaningful donor engagements annually. Regional and national travel will be expected with strategic overnight trips.

• Manage a portfolio of approximately 75–125 donors and prospects in the $25,000‑$100,000 giving range.
• Develop and implement written cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies for each assigned donor.
• Conduct and document 120–150 meaningful donor contacts annually (meetings, substantive calls, personalized engagements).
• Solicit and close gifts aligned with individual and organizational priorities.
• Prepare briefing materials and coordinate leadership involvement for major gift solicitations when appropriate.
• Maintain accurate and timely documentation of donor interactions and strategy in the CRM.

• Support the planning and execution of future comprehensive and capital campaign initiatives.
• Identify, qualify, and cultivate campaign prospects in collaboration with the CAO and ED.
• Assist in developing campaign donor strategies, prospect tracking, and moves management systems.
• Participate in campaign planning activities, donor briefings, leadership volunteer engagement, and campaign stewardship efforts.
• Support campaign pipeline development through proactive donor discovery, qualification, and relationship management.
• C…