Responsibilities

• Manage a donor and prospect pipeline with discipline.
• Identify prospective donors through networking, referrals, community engagement, and research.
• Cultivate prospective donors and steward existing donor relationships.
• Personally solicit and secure philanthropic commitments, including major and planned gifts.
• Develop and implement strategies to retain and deepen donor relationships and re-engage lapsed donors.
• Work closely with the Executive Director and Laurel Ridge colleagues to understand institutional priorities, identify philanthropic opportunities, and connect these opportunities with donor interests.
• Develop donor proposals, presentations, solicitations, stewardship materials, and other philanthropic communications
• Maintain timely donor and prospect records and document next steps.
• Assess fundraising progress and opportunities and recommend strategies to the Executive Director.
• Work closely with the Marketing and Communications team to promote philanthropy and the role of the educational foundation.

Requirements

• Significant and progressively responsible experience in fundraising, sales, business development, government relations, or another revenue-generating role.
• Significant experience with donor/customer/client acquisition, retention, and stewardship.
• Ability to develop and implement successful strategies to achieve fundraising, sales, business development, or other revenue goals.
• Ability to create persuasive proposals and written materials and deliver effective presentations to external audiences.
• Ability to build successful relationships with external stakeholders through networking, partnerships, and community engagement.

Preferred

• Experience working in advancement for a nonprofit organization or higher education institution preferred.
• Demonstrated success in personally securing financial commitments preferred.
• Demonstrated experience cultivating, soliciting, and securing charitable gifts preferred.
• Experience using a CRM or fundraising database to maintain donor or prospect records, track interactions and next steps, and support relationship management and fundraising activities preferred.