Senior Director of Major Gifts

Overview The Sr. Director of Major Gifts leads the Central Health Foundation’s major-gifts function and develops and executes strategies to generate significant philanthropic support for Central Health’s mission, strategic priorities, and community impact.  Reporting to the Foundation Chief Executive Officer, the Sr. Director manages a portfolio of qualified major-gift prospects and donors through identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.  The Sr. Director personally solicits significant philanthropic gifts and partners closely with the Foundation CEO on transformational and selected major-gift opportunities requiring executive involvement. The position establishes disciplined prospect- and moves-management practices, develops individualized donor strategies, prepares compelling proposals, and maintains reliable pipeline and revenue forecasts.  The Sr. Director leads the execution of the major-gifts strategy and supports campaign implementation in partnership with Foundation Strategy, which retains responsibility for overarching campaign architecture, strategic prioritization, and organizational readiness. The Sr. Director also works closely with Grants, Annual Giving, Donor Stewardship, Communications, Foundation Operations, Central Health leaders, clinicians, Board members, and community partners to coordinate fundraising activity and donor engagement.  The Sr. Director builds and leads the major-gifts team as approved staffing plans develop. The position may initially operate as a senior individual contributor and player-coach but is accountable for establishing the structure, practices, performance expectations, and team capacity needed to support a mature major-gifts program. This is a hybrid position.  Individuals in this position may work both at an approved off-site location and onsite at a primary location or multiple locations based on business needs. Responsibilities Essential Functions Major-Gifts Strategy and Portfolio Management: Develop, implement, and evaluate a multiyear major-gifts strategy aligned with Central Health priorities, the Foundation’s approved fundraising plan, and overarching campaign architecture. Establish annual and multiyear major-gift revenue goals, pipeline expectations, activity measures, performance indicators, and portfolio standards. Personally manage assigned prospects and donors through identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. Develop individualized donor strategies based on philanthropic interests, giving capacity, readiness, relationship history, and alignment with Foundation priorities. Identify and pursue opportunities to increase philanthropic support from individuals, families, corporations, foundations, and other strategic partners. Monitor portfolio activity, proposal status, expected revenue, donor movement, relationship ownership, and fundraising risks. Prepare regular forecasts, performance updates, portfolio analyses, and recommendations for the Foundation CEO and other appropriate leadership audiences. Evaluate portfolio distribution and recommend reassignment of prospects as gift officers are hired and the majorgifts function develops. Principal, Transformational, and Executive-Led Gifts: Partner with the Foundation CEO to develop and execute strategies for transformational, principal, and selected major-gift prospects. Personally solicit assigned major-gift prospects and participate in transformational and principal-gift solicitations with the Foundation CEO and other designated leaders. Conduct or coordinate research, donor strategy, relationship mapping, and next-step planning for CEO-led and executive-led relationships. Prepare the Foundation CEO, Board members, Central Health executives, clinicians, and community leaders for donor meetings and solicitations. Develop briefing materials, talking points, proposals, presentations, solicitation strategies, and follow-up plans for significant gift opportunities. Coordinate the participation of executives, Board members, clinicians, volunteers, and other relationship partners in donor engagement. Clarify relationship ownership, solicitation roles, decision points, timelines, and follow-up responsibilities. Track commitments and next steps associated with transformational, principal, and major-gift strategies. Campaign Execution and Case Development: Lead major-gifts execution within the Foundation’s broader campaign and fundraising strategy. Partner with Foundation Strategy, which leads overarching campaign architecture, funding themes, initiative sequencing, readiness requirements, and strategic prioritization. Provide donor-market, portfolio, and pipeline insight to inform campaign priorities, feasibility, leadership engagement, solicitation planning, and fundraising goals. Participate substantially in prospect strategy and solicitation planning. Assess campaign readiness from a fundraising perspective, including prospect strength, donor interest, volunteer leadership, case development, and stewardship capacity. Develop or coordinate cases for support, donor proposals, initiative summaries, presentations, and solicitation materials. Partner with Foundation Strategy, Communications, Strategic Alignment and Impact, Foundation Operations, and Central Health leaders to ensure donor materials accurately reflect approved organizational priorities, budgets, outcomes, readiness, and community impact. Recommend adjustments when donor response, portfolio information, or fundraising readiness indicates a need to revise solicitation plans, campaign assumptions, or sequencing. Ensure major-gift activity is coordinated with Annual Giving, Grants, Donor Stewardship, and other fundraising channels. Donor Cultivation, Solicitation, and Stewardship: Build and maintain trusted relationships with major-gift prospects, donors, families, corporations, philanthropic le