Principal Gifts Officer

The Principal Gifts Officer (PGO) is a key member of the United Way of Greater Atlanta’s Office of Development. The PGO will adhere to internal policies and best practices related to Major Gift and Multi-Year giving portfolio management and fundraising. This role involves collaboration with multiple Development Teams and other UWGA staff.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategy and Implementation: Provide direction, planning, and implementation of strategies to drive proposal and gift growth for high-net-worth individuals, family foundations, and new markets and donors.
• Portfolio Management: Build and manage a portfolio of 50-80 high net worth donors, family foundations, and other organizational prospects. Responsibilities include identifying, qualifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding donor prospects in a dynamic, fast-paced fundraising environment.
• Collaboration: Work closely with colleagues across departments, volunteers, boards, community leaders, and others. Must be collaborative, professional, innovative, responsible, and maintain a strong work ethic and attention to detail.
• Expertise: Be well-versed in individual and family foundation stewardship, fundraising strategy, and the art and science of individual fundraising. Write and produce high level donor solicitation proposals. Significant experience in collaborating with others to close gifts and managing individual portfolios is essential.
• Engagement and Reporting: Implement and guide strategies for the retention, growth, and engagement of individual and family foundation donors, as well as new constituents. Report on at least 8 substantive visits per month.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

The PGO will be responsible for the following goals, duties, and responsibilities:

• Develop and execute the Individual donor identification, cultivation, and proposal development, at a net growth rate in revenue raised and membership consistent with both annual and multi-year strategic planning.
• Develop and execute the family foundation identification, cultivation and proposal development, at a net growth rate in revenue raised and membership consistent with both annual and multi-year strategic planning.
• Develop a strategy, plan, and stewardship of all donors, new donors and additional organization outreach.
• Responsible for ensuring the successful execution of the strategic plan by working with the President, SVP of Revenue, VP of Major Gifts, and appropriate team members and volunteers.
• Direct and execute all events and activities that support constituency recruitment, stewardship and engagement.
• Establish and manage a quality control system for family foundation marketing materials and communications, stewardship events etc.
• Work with the Major Gift Team to develop individual strategic cultivation plans for individual donors and key family foundation donors and prospects.
• Ensure all Donor constituency data is currently entered in the system and appropriate to goals and outcomes.
• Secure 96 approved face-to-face visits per year, no fewer than 8 per month.
• Qualifying 15 new individual donors or family foundation portfolio level prospects.
• Submitting a minimum of 25 major gift solicitations per year at the level required by this position.
• Securing annual dollar goal as set by Development leadership.
• Making all contacts necessary via phone, email, other, to achieve the above-mentioned results.
• Documenting all data necessary to track said goals through the timely submission of activity within the UWGA CRM, as required by internal policies.
• Develop, implement, and manage a productive, fluid portfolio of 50-80 prospects through best practices.
• Exceed all yearly revenue and metric-driven goals.
• Promote collaboration, recognizing our shared goals, and regularly collaborate with colleagues within the Office of Development and other departments as needed.
• Ensure the proper stewardship of individuals.
• Increase awareness and knowledge among prospects, donors and other key stakeholders about the Child Well-Being Movement.
• Develop a solid and detailed working knowledge of United Way’s funding priorities and products
• Other duties as assigned by the Vice President of Development

Qualifications & Competencies

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree required.
• Extensive Experience with high-net-worth individual donors, family foundations, foundation program development
• Ten plus years of progressive individual fundraising experience, including the demonstrated ability to identify, cultivate, and close major gifts.
• Advanced interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills.
• Organization skills for a fast-paced work environment.
• Microsoft Office knowledge including Excel, PowerPoint, Word, etc.
• Experience with CRM/database management.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced Degree
• AFP CFRE certification
• Experience implementing and managing capital campaigns.
• Demonstrated fundraising innovation, especially as it relates to portfolio management.
• Successful solicitation of major gifts from individuals.

Competencies

A successful individual in this role will have:

• Ability to manage multiple projects, meet external needs while preserving internal relationships and meeting strict deadlines and requirements.
• Entrepreneurial and highly energetic. Must be a self-starter and able to work effectively independent of direct supervision.
• Highly Advanced fundraising skills, proposal development and writing ability and knowledge.
• Exceptional skills managing individual donor portfolios and developing prospects from identification through solicitation while moving them towards increased giving.
• Ability to think strategically and implement strategic policies and practices.
• Ability to work collaboratively to achieve common goals, fostering cooperation, transparency, and communication.
• Ability to motivate others through communication, modeling appropriate behavior, optimism and high achievement.
• Openness to new ideas and their implementation. Ability to react and adapt to changing situations appropriately.
• Ability to maintain a high level of confidentiality and organization.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Dynamic CRM, Raiser’s Edge, or a similar CRM software
• Highly attentive to detail and exceptional grammar required.
• Dedicated to shared and measurable goals and metrics.