Director of Major Gifts

Porter-Gaud School is an Episcopal, independent, coeducational day school serving 1,650 students in preschool through grade 12. Porter-Gaud School is seeking a Director of Major Gifts to join our Advancement team to start at the beginning of January, with flexibility for an earlier start later this fall.

Position Description Reporting to the Director of Advancement, the Director of Major Gifts is responsible for identifying, qualifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding a portfolio of constituents capable of making major gifts and/or planned gift intentions to support Porter-Gaud School's operational, capital, and endowment priorities. While playing a critical frontline role in advancing the School's current multi-year capital campaign priorities, the Director of Major Gifts focuses on building long-term, sustainable philanthropic relationships that advance the overall mission of the School.

Position Responsibilities

• Manages a personal portfolio of 70 major donors and donor prospects capable of making cash, capital, and/or planned gifts of $100,000 and above:
  • Conducts no fewer than 100 individual qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship meetings per year.
  • Submits no fewer than 18 major gift proposals per year aligned with institutional, campaign, and endowment priorities.
  • Conducts active prospect qualification initiatives to identify and evaluate unmanaged constituents, systematically building and replenishing the long-term major gift pipeline.
  • Supports strategy for annual giving solicitations of managed prospects and personally solicits managed prospects for leadership-level annual gifts.
  • Identifies opportunities for and solicits planned gifts from managed prospects.
  • Prepares and staffs the Head of School, fundraising volunteers, and Advancement staff colleagues on cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship visits with managed prospects.
• Actively supports the Advancement team in achieving current campaign milestones, focusing on multi-year pledge conversions, proposal generation, and active pledge fulfillment tracking.
• In partnership with the Director of Advancement Services:
  • Utilizes moves management protocols to track prospect progress through the development cycle.
  • Prepares and analyzes regular reports on personal portfolio activity and major gift pipeline health to adapt strategies and tactics.
  • Documents all work with prospects accurately and quickly in the advancement database, in accordance with Advancement office protocols.
• In partnership with the Director of Alumni and Constituent Engagement:
  • Identifies constituents for potential addition to the major and/or planned gifts pipeline through regional and demographic engagement initiatives.
  • Devises targeted events, regional visits, or small gatherings to cultivate and steward major gift prospects.
• In partnership with the Donor Relations Manager:
  • Devises custom stewardship, impact updates, and multi-year pledge fulfillment milestones for major donors to secure long-term donor retention.
• Collaborates with Advancement staff colleagues to ensure the effective development of strong relationships between constituents and the School, education of constituents about why philanthropic support is necessary and warranted, and communication of the School's appreciation for and impact of contributions made by donors.
• Partners effectively as needed with the School's Finance, Admissions, Communications, and Facilities teams to achieve Advancement and institutional success.
• Participates in Advancement Committee and other volunteer committee meetings as requested and appropriate.

Position Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required.
• Minimum of 2 years of successful frontline fundraising experience, including demonstrable experience in major gift solicitation.
• Experience with constituent management database systems required; experience with Raiser's Edge NXT preferred.
• Has, or is willing and able to develop, proficiency in necessary software and technology, including Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive), Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint), and database systems.
• Understands and promotes best practices in independent school fundraising, including CASE's Statement of Ethics and Principles of Practice for Fundraising Professionals at Educational Institutions and AFP's Code of Ethics and Donor Bill of Rights.
• Endorses the School's mission and values and understands its history and culture.
• Exhibits personal and professional integrity as well as respect for the confidentiality of colleagues and constituents.
• Demonstrates self-motivation, flexibility, problem-solving, and commitment to innovation.
• Models cooperation, collegiality, and teamwork.
• Uses excellent interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills and has a comfort with and proficiency in presentation-making.
• Exhibits excellent planning, prioritization, organization, multitasking, efficiency, and follow-through in execution of responsibilities.
• Shows dependability, punctuality, and high quantity, quality, accuracy, and timeliness of work produced.
• Maintains a professional appearance and demeanor.
• Demonstrates commitment to professional development and self-improvement.
• Requires the ability and willingness to work non-standard hours, including occasional early mornings, evenings, and weekends, to support donor meetings, campus events, and Advancement initiatives.
• Requires periodic local, regional, and national travel for direct donor cultivation and solicitation visits, as well as attendance at regional and national conferences.

Salary: Commensurate with experience.

To apply:

All Porter-Gaud School employees must display a continuous commitment to developing the attitudes, knowledge, and skills (intercultural competence) to engage in appropriate and effective communication with school constituents from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. We desire candidates who will contribute to the school's efforts to continue creating a more inclusive and equitable community where all individuals can develop a sense of belonging.

Porter-Gaud is a Christian community that seeks to love and serve faculty, staff, students, and families of all faith backgrounds. Therefore, all Porter-Gaud employees will honor the God-given dignity of each member of our community. They will display a continuous commitment to developing the attitudes, knowledge, and skills to engage in appropriate and effective communication with students, colleagues, and families from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. We desire candidates who will contribute to the School's efforts to continue creating a more inclusive and equitable community where all individuals can develop a sense of belonging.

Porter-Gaud School is committed to welcoming and supporting a diverse faculty and staff. The School welcomes applicants from all backgrounds, as the School believes that best serves our students. In accordance with law, Porter-Gaud School is an equal opportunity employer and hires without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, national origin, or disability.

Porter-Gaud School is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of our students. We hold our employees to the highest possible standards. All employees are subject to extensive background check screenings and must sign our code of conduct. We strive to monitor employees while interacting with students. We take any inappropriate interactions between students and employees seriously and are committed to mandatory reporting standards as required by law. We will fully cooperate with authorities in any allegation or case of abuse.