Senior Major Gift Officer

Summary

The Senior Major Gift Officer is a critical part of the Wikimedia Foundation’s fundraising team, focused on raising major gifts and planned gifts for the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Endowment. 

The Senior Major Gift Officer will report to and work closely with the Senior Manager of Major Gifts & Planned Giving to develop and execute major giving fundraising strategies. They manage a dynamic portfolio of major gift prospects, serving as one of our front-line major gifts fundraisers. Succeeding in this environment requires comfort with both highly personalized cultivation strategies for individual donors in their portfolio as well as email outreach to a broad array of donors at scale. 

The Senior Major Gift Officer will work remotely. The ideal candidate will be located with convenient travel into US East Coast or West Coast major metros and travel frequently.  

You are responsible for:

• Serving as a front-line fundraiser on a team charged with securing annually increasing revenue targets through major gifts 
• Cultivating and stewarding a portfolio of 75-100 prospects who have the capacity to give between $1k-$25k annually, along with qualifying and disqualifying major donors from a large giving pool, with frequent reevaluation of the portfolio based on qualification meetings
• Soliciting and securing major and planned gifts in support of the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Endowment, and building a pipeline for further giving and cultivation across our major gifts team 
• Fostering strong, life-long donor relationships, including those assigned based on geographic location or other factors 
• Developing intimate, high-end donor cultivation events, including building invitation lists, assisting with program content, and executing post-event cultivation strategies, in conjunction with the Events Manager.
• Creating written materials to support fundraising, including meeting/event briefings, activity reports, solicitation letters, proposals, and stewardship reports
• Managing a variety of major donor communications, including project management, writing, and editing of these pieces, in collaboration with other staff across the Foundation
• Participating in donor identification, research, and qualification efforts
• Assisting with gift processing, acknowledgements, donor recognition, and other gift administration tasks as needed
• Tracking your contact with donors in our donor database 

Skills and Experience:

• 4 years of successful fundraising experience, including at least 3 years of direct major gifts experience
• A record of personal success in raising money from individual major donors through current and planned gifts in the 4 to 5-figure range
• Broad-based knowledge of various development activities, including direct solicitations, event planning and management, and planned giving
• Excellent relationship management skills and the ability to work with a diverse group of donors and team members across geographies
• Excellent verbal communication skills
• Demonstrably strong writing skills
• Ability to work with a high degree of autonomy and accountability
• Ability to maintain confidentiality of donor information and a finely-tuned sense of discretion
• Ability to travel to meet with donors in person and attend Foundation gatherings
• Comfort and experience in a technology-driven environment

Qualities that are important to us:

• A strong values and vision fit with the Wikimedia movement and Foundation.
• We are an international organization serving an internationally distributed audience. A strong international perspective with personal experience in cross-cultural communication is highly valued
• Articulate and persuasive communicator, both in speaking and writing
• Active listening and strategizing; comfortable receiving input from many sources, and able to act on information to develop increased support
• Detail-oriented, able to maintain systems, track progress, and follow-up in a timely fashion
• Sharing a culture of constructive criticism and respect
• Self-motivated professional who takes initiative and has the ability to work independently
• Gravitas and professionalism appropriate for interacting with high level donors, board members, and C-level staff
• The ideal candidate will be located with convenient travel into US East Coast or West Coast major metros and travel frequently

Additionally, we’d love it if you have:

• Experience working in an organization with a timezone distributed workforce
• Experience working with technical and/or scientific donors
• Experience with endowment campaigns
• Experience in marketing and/or securing planned gifts
• Fluency in languages other than English

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge, and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content, support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible, and advocate for policies that enable Wikimedia and free knowledge to thrive. 

The Wikimedia Foundation is a charitable, not-for-profit organization that relies on donations. We receive donations from millions of individuals around the world, with an average donation of about $15. We also receive donations through institutional grants and gifts. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.

As an equal opportunity employer, the Wikimedia Foundation values having a diverse workforce and continuously strives to maintain an inclusive and equitable workplace. We encourage people with a diverse range of backgrounds to apply. We do not discriminate against any person based upon their race, traits historically associated with race, religion, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy or related medical conditions, parental status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristics.

The Wikimedia Foundation is a remote-first organization with staff members including contractors based 40+ countries*. Salaries at the Wikimedia Foundation are set in a way that is competitive, equitable, and consistent with our values and culture. The anticipated annual pay range of this position for applicants based within the United States is US$116,951 to US$144,181 with multiple individualized factors, including cost of living in the location, being the determinants of the offered pay. For applicants located outside of the US, the pay range will be adjusted to the country of hire. We neither ask for nor take into consideration the salary history of applicants. The compensation for a successful applicant will be based on their skills, experience and location. 

*Please note that we are currently able to hire in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America and Uruguay.  Our non-US employees are hired through a local third party Employer of Record (EOR). 

We periodically review this list to streamline to ensure alignment with our hiring requirements. 

All applicants can reach out to their recruiter to understand more about the specific pay range for their location during the interview process.

If you are a qualified applicant requiring assistance or an accommodation to complete any step of the application process due to a disability, you may contact us at [email protected] or +1 (415) 839-6885.

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