Major Gifts Officer

Position Summary:

The Major Gifts Officer is responsible for managing a portfolio of donors supporting the annual fund, special initiatives, and special events that generate over $1M annually in contributed revenue. The Major Gift Officer is a strategic thinker, has deep experience engaging with donors, and a successful track record securing philanthropic revenue. A strong candidate is donor-centered, goal-oriented, and easily presents the skills of patience, respect, thoughtfulness, and sound judgment. Candidates must have a successful history of partnership with board volunteer fundraisers, and have a collaborative spirit, enabling strong relationships with staff, musicians, and board colleagues to influence positive outcomes.

Minnesota Orchestra Values:

We believe every employee is essential to the success of the organization and critical to accomplishing our mission. Our working relationships are based on Respect for each other as individuals, confidence in one another, and a genuine desire to actively Listen and Collaborate with each other.

Essential Functions and Expectations:

• Serve on a team of Major Gift Officers, charged with identifying, qualifying, cultivating, soliciting, stewarding, and recognizing donors to meet financial and quantitative goals 
• Manage a portfolio of about 150 donors 
• Generate over $1M annually in contributed revenue 
• Leverage data and reporting from the CRM to inform stewardship and solitarians plans 
• Identify opportunities for process improvement, leveraging influencing skills to move ideas forward 
• Create strong communication skills, verbally, in email, and in proposal-writing to produce complete and thorough communications with donors and colleagues 
• Understand and be well-versed in the funding opportunities and priorities of the organization to contribute the voice of the donor in strategic planning 
• Understand the donors' interests and capacity to match them to funding opportunities of the organization 
• Participate in donor engagement events, including concerts, receptions, dinners, lunches, and fundraising events 
• Proactively use the tools and processes to record donor engagement activities and pull pertinent data from the Tessitura database

A Major Gift Officer represents the Orchestra's work to the donor community and, therefore, is well-informed, of high integrity, and can easily builds trust. The following expectations provide key behaviors for staff members in high profile positions.

• Demonstrate integrity in actions and words 
• Demonstrate a commitment to the MN Orchestra Values 
• Set clear goals and priorities, holding yourself accountable to meet strategic priorities 
• Consistently present solutions to problems to achieve goals and measurables 
• Be coachable and allow yourself to be influenced by the suggestions from others across the organization 
• Proactively support an environment that inspires a high level of commitment and performance 
• Be innovative and be a positive influence on the team and across the organization

Minimum Qualifications, Skills, and Abilities:

• Bachelor’s Degree or the equivalent amount of training and hands on experience sufficient to perform the essential functions of the position 
• 10 years of relevant development experience with at least 4 years of successfully engaging donors and managing a portfolio of up to 150 donors with a significant contributed revenue goal 
• Demonstrated history of using sound judgment and having high ethical values 
• Demonstrated success partnering with board members and community leaders to achieve fundraising goals 
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines with excellent attention to detail 
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with board, musicians, and staff, to build rapport, identify opportunities, and influence positive outcomes 
• Ability to collaborate with others to identify and solve issues or make proactive recommendations 
• Ability and willingness to maintain confidentiality with sensitive information 
• Ability to attend performances, donor receptions, or other Orchestra, Board, or community related events when necessary 
• Flexibility to work on most Friday night classical series concerts and attend additional concerts or donor events on evenings and weekends 
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally if necessary

Technology/Equipment:

• Working knowledge of a donor-centered CRM systems, especially managing data analytics and reporting 
• Working knowledge of MS Office Suite, especially Word and Outlook