Senior Major Gifts Officer

Senior Major Gifts Officer

At Holy Cross, we are focused on creating a world-class workforce by attracting and retaining employees dedicated to fostering a culture of professionalism, pride, mutual trust, and respect—one that values appreciation and recognition, empowering each of us to flourish both individually and collectively. We seek candidates who are inspired by our mission and values, and who are eager to make a meaningful difference on our campus.

The Senior Major Gifts Officer will have an elevated level of responsibility for fundraising efforts which support and advance the mission of Holy Cross. Working with alumni, parents, and friends in specific geographic regions, the Senior Major Gifts Officer will serve as a leader among Major Gifts colleagues and working partnership with the Gift Planning team, Holy Cross Fund team, and other internal partners to encourage annual and multi-year leadership-level support at the $100,000 to $3,000,000+ range.

The Senior Major Gifts Officer will work closely with Advancement colleagues to develop and execute prospect strategies that strategically integrate gift planning, reunions, annual giving, and other college financial priorities into the development and execution of high-level fundraising strategies that enable the realization of established goals and objectives. The Senior Major Gifts Officer will report to the Director of Major Gifts.

Major Areas of Responsibility

• Qualify, cultivate, solicit, and steward a portfolio of approximately 125+ prospects, on an annual basis, holding at least 110 annual visits with prospects;
• Through the development of thoughtful strategies and intentional prioritization of prospects, ensure a new gifts and commitments goal of at least $3 million by focusing on delivering at least 20 major gift proposals each year and actively soliciting high annual fund gifts for the rest of their portfolio.
• Drive a minimum of $500,000 cash received from their portfolio each year through a combination of pledge fulfillments, current use gifts, and annual fund gifts.
• Inspire donors to articulate their charitable goals to maximize their support of Holy Cross in alignment with the institution's ambitions by engaging in thoughtful and strategic conversations that uncover philanthropic aspirations;
• Be active in the discovery process as part of and in addition to managing their portfolio with a minimum of 15 discovery visits each year.
• Adhere to all prospect management processes and policies around contact reports, proposals, briefing materials, documenting intentions, and writing statements of understanding to ensure cross-departmental transparency and effectiveness;
• Serve as a partner to the Holy Cross Fund team, Gift Planning team, and Major Gifts colleagues by identifying new prospects and volunteers, and supporting the goals of elevating unrestricted and flexibly restricted support at Holy Cross;
• Continually improve professional skills, knowledge, and understanding of Holy Cross by developing relationships with colleagues across campus, attending campus events and activities, and participating in training activities;
• In partnership with the Director of Major Gifts and the AVP for Individual Giving, develop and execute robust, multi-step donor-centric prospect strategies;
• Communicate meeting strategies through written briefings and pre-visit briefing meetings or calls;
• Strategically leverage academic leadership, faculty, and other members of the Holy Cross community leading to successful solicitation and closure of six- and seven-figure gifts;
• Foster relationships between prospective donors and academic leadership, faculty, and other members of the Holy Cross community to deepen prospect engagement;
• Secure anchor visits for…