Director of Major Gifts, Bouve College of Health Sciences

Director of Major Gifts, Bouve College of Health Sciences

About the Opportunity

The Director of Major Gifts, Bouvé College of Health Sciences (Bouvé) is the content specialist responsible for building and executing Bouvé’s fund-raising strategy. Reporting to the Senior Associate Vice President, Advancement, the Director of Major Gifts works with the faculty at Bouvé and Advancement staff across the university to discover, identify, and build relationships with prospective donors—developing strategies for their cultivation and soliciting gifts. The Director of Major Gifts plans, organizes, and carries out Bouvé’s major gifts fund-raising program for alumni, parents, and friends of Bouvé.

They discover, build, and manage a portfolio of 100+ prospective donors who exhibit considerable promise for evolving to major gift capacity over time and whose philanthropic priorities match the education and research programs at Bouvé. They solicit gifts in the $100K-$1M+ range and identify key regions nationally for cultivating and soliciting prospective donors.

This position is Boston-based and is not available for remote work.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• 4-6 years of professional experience with at least 3 years of demonstrated success in soliciting and closing six- and seven-figure gifts in support of a non-profit institution.
• Demonstrated experience cultivating and soliciting, alumni, parents, and friends, and maintaining positive relationships with donors.
• Superior communication skills—highly collaborative and entrepreneurial in approach and possessing interpersonal skills necessary for building relationships with various university constituents, both internal and external.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively as a member of the Northeastern University Advancement team.
• Data- and metric-driven mindset.
• An appreciation and understanding of the mission of Northeastern University.
• Overnight travel and some evening and weekend work required.
• BA/BS degree required (STEM degree a plus but not required).

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES & ACCOUNTABILITIES

Lead major gifts fund-raising effort and serve as the Bouvé content expert for Advancement.

Cultivate, solicit, and build alumni, parent, and friend relationships. Strategize with faculty and other colleagues on next steps with prospects within Bouvé and across disciplines. Travel as needed to build relationships with existing volunteers, prospects, and donors. Solicit gifts in the $100K – $1M+ range. Work with the Senior Associate Vice President, Advancement and other advancement teams (corporate & foundation relations, leadership giving, international and regional giving, gift planning, and family philanthropy) to ensure the development goals of Bouvé are met. Advise faculty, fund-raising colleagues, and administrators on alumni and parent areas of interest. Partner with fund-raising colleagues (corporate & foundation relations, leadership giving, international and regional giving, gift planning, and family philanthropy) to develop interdisciplinary strategies for donors providing support across the university.

Management of Staff

Mentor and develop a high functioning team. Empower their efforts to manage their own prospect pools while fostering collaborative, multi-unit strategies. Provide strategic guidance and motivation that enables staff to achieve activity and dollar metrics. Promote best professional practices via exemplary behavior, staff training, and professional development opportunities.

Building Prospect Portfolio and Pipeline

Discover new prospects and build a pipeline to feed gifts at the major gift level. Work closely with the Senior Associate Vice President to create a strategic development plan for Bouvé and develop and manage a large portfolio of prospects (approximately 120+). Establish region-based plans for cultivating and soliciting alumni and current parents in targeted areas nationally. Engage faculty strategically with prospects; maintain correspondence; and keep the Senior Associate Vice President, faculty, and appropriate University administrators apprised of funding opportunities and trends. Travel as needed to strategically identified regions to support prospect identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. Achieve annual fund-raising goals and activity (visits, video meetings, calls, proposals, etc.) metrics set by the Senior Associate Vice President.

Maintain Prospect Portfolio

Maintain high-quality development process for active alumni, parent, and friend prospects and donors. Create call reports and maintain database system. Maintain the data integrity of prospect portfolio using the Development Office data management systems (Ascend). Prepare monthly progress prospect reports for the Senior Associate Vice President. Work with Advancement’s Stewardship team to ensure that past, present, and future donors are appropriately recognized, including their administration and accounting.

Position Type

Additional Information

Northeastern University considers factors such as candidate work experience, education, and skills when extending an offer. Northeastern has a comprehensive benefits package for benefit eligible employees. This includes medical, vision, dental, paid time off, tuition assistance, wellness & life, retirement- as well as commuting & transportation. Visit https://hr.northeastern.edu/benefits/ for more information.

Northeastern University is an equal opportunity employer, seeking to recruit and support a broadly diverse community of faculty and staff. Northeastern values and celebrates diversity in all its forms and strives to foster an inclusive culture built on respect that affirms inter-group relations and builds cohesion. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

To learn more about Northeastern University’s commitment and support of diversity and inclusion, please see www.northeastern.edu/diversity.