Senior Principal and Major Gifts Officer

Human Rights Campaign; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 104,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Human Rights Campaign is seeking a Senior Principal & Major Gifts Officer in Washington, DC, with responsibility for principal giving, major gifts, and special projects. The role reports to the Senior Director – Major Gifts and collaborates across the development team to steward donors and drive gifts of $1M+ capacity.

The position offers remote eligibility with preferred candidates in NY, DC, LA or SF. The role requires at least five years in fundraising, exceptional communication, and strong

Qualifications

• 5+ years of fundraising experience required, with emphasis on major and principal giving.
• Excellent organizational and communication skills are essential.
• Ability to handle confidential materials with discretion and professionalism.
• Strong planning, time management, and collaboration across teams.
• Experience with donor stewardship and CRM tracking is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Develop and manage principal gift strategies for $1M+ prospects across long cultivation cycles.
• Grow and steward a major gifts portfolio and lead donor engagement.
• Coordinate with senior leadership for donor visits, proposals, and stewardship touchpoints.
• Oversee events and programs that deepen donor relationships and support budgets.
• Collaborate with board, leadership, and development staff to meet fundraising goals.

Skills

Fundraising

Major Gifts

Principal Giving

Relationship Building

Communication

Donor Stewardship

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Microsoft Office

Google Apps

Job description

• Location1640 Rhode Island Ave NW, Washington, DC, 20036, United States
• Base Pay$104,000.00 - $130,000.00 / Year
• Job CategoryFundraising, Development, Major Gifts
• Employee TypeExempt
• Travel35%
• Minimum Experience5 Years

Description

We strongly encourage people of color, transgender and non-binary people to apply. HRC is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes everyone, including non-LGBTQ+ people, to join our team. Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that people from marginalized communities are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At HRC, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Position Summary:

The Senior Principal & Major Gifts Officer is a regular, full-time exempt position. The position is responsible for building and fostering communication and relationships with HRC’s most crucial financial base.

The position reports directly to the Senior Director – Major Gifts and works closely with the Chief Development Officer; Vice President- Leadership Giving and the entire Major Gifts team. The position is responsible for contributing to and maintaining HRC’s Federal Club Council program and HRC’s Principal Giving program. Specific duties can be summarized, but not limited to, 3 main categories of responsibility – principal giving; major gifts; and special projects.

This position has remote eligibility. Candidates residing in New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles or San Francisco are strongly preferred.

Position Description:

PRINCIPAL GIVING (40%)

• In close collaboration with the Chief Development Officer, assist with cultivation and stewardship of a portfolio of 75 principal gift prospects ($1M+ capacity), developing individualized, multi-year cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies for each relationship.
• Assist with the strategy and staff partner for the President's portfolio of top individual donors and prospects, preparing the President for donor visits, solicitations, and stewardship touchpoints, and ensuring disciplined follow-up on all presidential donor activity.
• Draft high-level correspondence, briefing memos, talking points, and proposal materials for the President, Chief Development Officer, and other institutional leaders in advance of principal gift engagements.
• Orchestrate the involvement of the President cultivation and solicitation strategies, often central across multiple institutional touchpoints.
• Maintain momentum on long-horizon relationships (18-36+ month cultivation cycles), exercising judgment about timing, ask amounts, and readiness in consultation with the Chief Development Officer and President.
• Track and manage presidential donor activity in the CRM, ensuring contact reports, next steps, and strategy notes are documented and that leadership's donor commitments are executed with precision.
• Model the highest standards of confidentiality, discretion, and professionalism in handling sensitive donor, family, and financial information.

MAJOR GIFTS FUNDRAISING (40%)

• Implement programs and activities to identify, cultivate, solicit and steward donors at the major gift level ($5,000 level and above), with a specific emphasis on growing the base of donors making gifts of at least $25,000 annually. The candidate will actively participate in the identification and qualification of new major gift and leadership gift ($100,000+) prospects. There shall be an emphasis on identifying and cultivating prospects in the BIPOC community.
• Develop and steward relationships with HRC’s already robust and dynamic donor base in the communities. Work strategically with the Board of Directors, major donor committee, development and political department staff and other major gift officers to ensure donors feel connected to the organization.
• Develop a comprehensive plan to include upgrading current donors and identifying and soliciting new donors to meet budgeted goals for the communities.
• Manage a portfolio of more than 100 current donors and a significant number of prospects.
• Identify opportunities for further engagement with donors and prospects to support HRC, the HRC Foundation, the HRC PAC and the HRC Equality Votes Super PAC. Additionally, identify prospects to become Equality Circle members, a group of supporters of HRC's Planned Giving program.
• Foster opportunities for other HRC staff leadership with donors and other community leaders. Provide background for in-depth briefing documents in advance of such meetings. Execute events and other fundraising activities that advance HRC’s relationship with donors and prospects.
• Work collaboratively with HRCs major gifts team, participating in regular conference calls and meetings, attend and participate in HRC board meetings in Washington, DC and attend other events in Washington, DC as needed.

SPECIAL PROJECTS (20%)

• Manage the invite process for HRC President and Senior Staff for HRC events and other high-touch opportunities.
• In collaboration with the Chief Development Officer, identify opportunities and provide support for HRC President’s representation and participation in high visibility non-HRC events.

Position Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) with a minimum of 5 years of experience in fundraising required. Emphasis in major donor and principal donor arenas.
• Exceptional organizational skills.
• Excellent customer service skills.
• Excellent writing and verbal communication skills.
• Impeccable attention to detail in a fast-paced ever-changing environment.
• Superior interpersonal skills are required, along with the ability to understand complex and nuanced situations.
• Must be able to work quickly and accurately with a high level of professionalism, organization and collaboration.
• Ability to handle confidential materials with discretion.
• Ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, while balancing administrative, programmatic and management functions and work individually, within the division and cross-organizationally to maximize the effectiveness of existing and future fundraising efforts.
• Strong skills with Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) and Google Apps (Gmail, Google Docs and Drive).
• Ability and willingness to travel 35-40% of the time is required.
• Flexibility with work schedule; this position does require occasional evening and weekend work.
• Ability to work independently and in teams.
• Initiative plus the ability to anticipate needs and proactively communicate.
• Strong planning and time management skills.
• Demonstrated knowledge of LGBTQ+ issues.

All positions at the Human Rights Campaign may require travel on a regular basis or periodically. Where the need arises for business travel, appropriate compensation as outlined by the Fair Labor Standards Act will apply.

Employer is the Human Rights Campaign, Inc., an I.R.C. 501(c)(4) non-profit entity.

No phone calls or emails, please. Due to the volume of applications we receive, we are unable to respond to queries about application status.