Senior Institutional Giving Officer (remote)

BACKGROUND

Wiki Education is an outcomes-focused 501(c)(3) nonprofit that envisions a world in which students, scholars, scientists, archivists, librarians, and other members of academic and cultural institutions are actively engaged in sharing their knowledge with the general public through Wikipedia, Wikidata, and other open collaboration projects on the web.

We run two programs: The Wikipedia Student Program, in which we support college and university faculty who assign students to edit Wikipedia as part of their coursework, and the Wiki Scholars & Scientists Program, where we run courses for knowledge professionals to learn to contribute to Wikipedia and Wikidata. By empowering students and other subject matter experts to add content to Wikipedia, we ensure the public’s most used reference is more equitable, accurate, and complete.

We are seeking an energetic and results-driven fundraiser with unwavering persistence and a relentless drive to secure funds for our cause, consistently meeting or exceeding fundraising targets.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Reporting to the Director of Donor Relations,theSenior Institutional Giving Officer is responsible for the success of new revenue from corporations, foundations, cultural and academic institutions, and other institutional sources, as appropriate, to reach the annual fundraising goal for Wiki Education. This individual must be willing to roll up their sleeves and build a new institutional portfolio with the long-range goal of increasing the organization’s visibility and generating sustainable income for the organization’s strategy and programmatic priorities. These priorities include our Communicating Science and Knowledge Equity initiatives, combating disinformation to support democracy, and expanding partnerships with cultural institutions through Wikipedia and Wikidata.

Key responsibilities include: management and oversight of grants, contracts, and sponsorships, including prospect research, grant submissions and required reporting; and ensuring appropriate donor recognition and stewardship for institutional supporters.

JOB DUTIES

Institutional Relations – 80%

• Works with Director of Donor Relations on prospect identification, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship, ensuring donor retention and year over year.
• Identifies new opportunities for corporate, foundation, cultural and academic institution funding and serves as point of contact for all related communications.
• Conducts ongoing prospect identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship, including relationship building with program officers, grant managers, and foundation trustees where appropriate.
• Drafts and submits grant requests, reports, and contracts with the approval of Chief Programs Officer and Executive Director.
• Meets with key institutional representatives and prospects virtually and in person.
• Identifies and engages in networking opportunities to raise the profile of Wiki Education among grantmakers, including events, webinars, presentations, and more.

General – 20%

• Follows best practices related to the collection of donor and prospect information in Salesforce.
• Ensures alignment of messaging in donor correspondence from solicitation to stewardship.
• Participates in in-person all-staff meetings twice per year and virtual weekly team meetings and check-ins with the Director of Donor Relations.
• Stays current with organizational activities and the Wikipedia community.
• Other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required qualifications

• At least 6 years of fundraising experience with a strong track record of identifying and securing new support from institutional funders in the five- to six-figure range
• Strong listening, oral, writing skills, including the ability to pitch an organization’s work and draft letters of inquiry, grant proposals, grant reports, thank-you notes, and other donor communications
• A strong believer in the value of providing the general public with accurate and trustworthy information who can powerfully embody the vision of the Wiki Education Foundation
• Ability to meet deadlines with limited supervision
• Ability to present an organization’s programmatic work one-on-one and with large groups of people virtually and in-person
• Experience using a CRM or database to organize and track “moves” with funders
• Willingness to travel to meet with staff, program officers, grants officers, and others as needed

Desired qualifications

• Ability to use analytics to make data-driven decisions
• Comfort with Google Docs, Zoom, Slack, and other virtual workplace tools
• Experience using Salesforce and Pardot

Personal characteristics

• Proactive and persistent in reaching out to funders
• Intellectually curious and flexible: enjoys tackling difficult, ambiguous problems; loves learning from others and expanding intellectual horizons.
• Comfortable working in a highly transparent fashion, open to input and feedback; proactive candid communicator who wants people to know what they are doing and isn’t afraid to bring others in when things are off-track or when they need help; can handle criticism in a mature fashion.
• Emotionally mature and self-reliant; someone who will thrive working in a small but growing team; an ability to tolerate a high degree of ambiguity, and to negotiate with people with differing opinions.