Major Gifts Officer

Liberty Seeds; United States; Remote; USD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health and dental insurance

Life and long-term disability

403(b) retirement plan

Tuition credits at George Mason Univ.

Parking permit

Job summary

IHS is seeking a Major Gifts Officer to manage a portfolio of major donors and prospects, leading the full gift cycle for five- and six-figure commitments.

Reporting to the Director of Development, you will develop tailored cultivation and solicitation plans, conduct donor visits, and close gifts while keeping Salesforce up to date.

This remote role requires 2–3 weeks yearly travel and 30–40% donor travel, with a salary range of $85,000–$120,000 plus benefits.

Qualifications

• 3+ years front-line fundraising across the donor cycle with a track record of closing five-figure gifts.
• Strong written and verbal communication, building trust with donors and prospects.
• Ability to qualify prospects and initiate donor relationships from first contact, including cold outreach.
• Experience with CRM platforms (Salesforce), including independent creation and maintenance of opportunities and activities.
• Strong organizational skills with capability to manage a complex national portfolio.

Responsibilities

• Manage a portfolio of major gifts, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship across the full gift cycle.
• Develop individualized cultivation and solicitation plans aligned with donor interests and program priorities.
• Build and manage a solicitation calendar, conduct donor visits, present funding opportunities, and close five- or six-figure gifts.
• Participate in moves management and portfolio reviews, and document activity in Salesforce.
• Coordinate with operations, program teams, and communications on donor-facing proposals and cases for support.

Skills

Front-line fundraising

Salesforce CRM

Donor cultivation

Donor stewardship

Pipeline management

Tools

Salesforce CRM

Donor database

Job description

The Major Gifts Officer is a front-line fundraiser responsible for qualifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding a portfolio of major-gift donors and prospects capable of five- and six-figure commitments. Reporting to the Director of Development, this role leads the full gift cycle for a defined portfolio within the Intellectual Builders donor community and the corporate giving segment, balancing sustained management of active relationships with active qualification and development of new prospects. Core areas of ownership include portfolio and moves management, major-gift solicitation and closing, corporate relationship development, and accurate maintenance of the portfolio's pipeline data.

IHS is concurrently recruiting a Director of Development; should that search conclude, this position would report to the Director of Development. This is a second frontline major gifts role, joining a Senior Major Gifts Officer on the development team.

• Manages a portfolio of 100–150 major-gift prospects and donors, with primary accountability for qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship across the full gift cycle for five- and six-figure commitments.
• Develops and implements individualized cultivation and solicitation plans for each relationship, aligned with donor interests and IHS programmatic priorities.
• Builds and manages a personal solicitation calendar, conducting donor visits, presenting funding opportunities, and closing five- and six-figure gifts and multi-year commitments.
• Participates in the moves management program and portfolio review cadence maintained across the development team.

Prospect Development

• Identifies and qualifies new prospects and initiates relationships from first contact, including a substantial volume of direct, cold outreach to prospects not yet active in the portfolio.
• Owns relationship development within the Intellectual Builders donor community and establishes sustained staff ownership of the corporate giving segment as a dedicated internal portfolio.

Cross-Functional Coordination & Executive Engagement

• Coordinates with Development Operations on pipeline data, projections, gift processing, and acknowledgments; with Portfolio Management on moves strategy and executive engagement requests; and with the Foundations team where individual or corporate relationships intersect institutional funders. Partners with Communications & Marketing on donor-facing proposals and cases for support.
• Engages executive leadership, program scholars, and Programs staff for high-level donor relationships, intellectual content, site visits, and key commitments in accordance with established engagement criteria, retaining ownership of relationships and decisions below that threshold.
• Creates and maintains accurate, current records of all portfolio activity in Salesforce, including opportunities, contact reports, cultivation status, and solicitation plans, with independent ownership of the officer's own records.
• Supports pipeline planning and gift forecasting through timely documentation and portfolio review participation.

Required Qualifications

• 3+ years of front-line fundraising experience across the donor gift cycle, including a documented record of closing five-figure commitments. Candidates at the upper end of the posted salary range will bring 5+ years of experience and a record of six-figure closes.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with demonstrated ability to build trust and sustain professional relationships with donors and prospects.
• Demonstrated ability to qualify prospects and initiate donor relationships from first contact, including sustained cold outreach.
• Experience with CRM platforms (Salesforce), including independent creation and maintenance of the officer's own opportunities, activities, and contact reports.
• Strong organizational skills and demonstrated ability to independently manage a complex, multi-stage national portfolio with consistent follow-through.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in corporate or institutional giving, including developing an under-built giving segment.
• Substantive knowledge of and appreciation for the classical liberal intellectual tradition, with the ability to engage donors substantively on policy, economics, and related ideas central to the IHS donor community.
• Experience fundraising within a think tank, university, or policy-oriented nonprofit.

Travel

IHS operates remotely; this role requires approximately 2-3 weeks per year of travel for organization-wide staff gatherings and on-site collaboration.

In addition, this role includes donor-related travel of approximately 30–40% to support donor and prospect visits, cultivation events, and institutional engagement activities.

Schedule / Hours

Full-time, Monday – Friday, 9:00a.m. – 5:00p.m. ET.

The salary range for this position is $85,000–$120,000, commensurate with experience. This position is also eligible for annual performance-based incentive compensation; specific terms are discussed at the offer stage.

We have a flexible, professional, open office environment that encourages innovation and entrepreneurship and provides substantial opportunity for professional growth. Salary is competitive and will be commensurate with experience. IHS provides exceptional benefits to all employees, including health and dental insurance coverage (which includes paying 100% of the health and dental insurance premium for individuals), health savings accounts, long-term disability and life insurance, a 403(b) retirement savings program, a parking permit and 12 free tuition credit hours annually at George Mason University.

Applicants must be authorized to work for ANY employer in the United States. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.

There is no application deadline for this position. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. This job will remain posted on our site until it is filled.