Major Gifts Officer

Description

Boys & Girls Clubs of Mid Central Coast
California Central Coast | Full-Time, Exempt
Salary: $80,000–$93,000 annually

Boys & Girls Clubs of Mid Central Coast is looking for a relationship-driven fundraiser who loves connecting with people, discovering what inspires them, and inviting them to make a meaningful difference.

As our Major Gifts Officer, you will build and manage relationships with individual donors and prospective supporters throughout San Luis Obispo and Northern Santa Barbara Counties. This is a frontline fundraising role with significant time spent in the community—meeting donors, opening new relationships, making thoughtful asks, and helping people connect their philanthropy to opportunities for local youth.

You will join a Resource Development team that is strengthening its focus on relationship-based fundraising and individual philanthropy. Reporting to the Chief Advancement Officer, you will have meaningful ownership of an assigned donor portfolio and the opportunity to help grow a strong pipeline of annual, mid-level, major, and multi-year donors.

If you would rather be meeting with a donor than sitting behind a desk—and you are comfortable moving a great conversation toward a meaningful financial commitment—we would love to hear from you.

Requirements

You will actively manage a portfolio of approximately 125 current donors and qualified prospects, developing personalized strategies to cultivate, solicit, steward, retain, and grow those relationships.

In this role, you will:

• Build authentic, long-term relationships with donors and prospective supporters.
• Personally cultivate and solicit annual, mid-level, major, and multi-year gifts.
• Identify and qualify new prospects through referrals, community relationships, Board connections, events, research, and existing organizational networks.
• Develop thoughtful strategies for each donor based on their interests, capacity, readiness, giving history, and connection to our mission.
• Move donors intentionally through identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.
• Create opportunities for donors to experience the mission through Club visits, tours, small gatherings, donor salons, and other meaningful engagement.
• Strengthen donor retention, renewal, upgrades, recurring giving, and re-engagement of lapsed supporters.
• Help grow the organization's individual-giving pipeline and identify donors with potential for major and planned gifts.
• Partner with the Chief Advancement Officer, CEO, and Board members on high-level and strategic donor relationships and solicitations.
• Lead the fundraising strategy and donor approach for year-end and other targeted individual-giving campaigns.
• Use donor and pipeline data to prioritize opportunities, forecast revenue, and make informed fundraising decisions.
• Use events as opportunities to cultivate and steward donors while partnering with others on event production and logistics.

Relationships are at the center of this position.

Once fully established, the Major Gifts Officer is expected to maintain a consistent presence throughout the communities we serve, including approximately:

• 12–15 meaningful donor and prospect meetings each month, with the majority face-to-face.
• 25–30 substantive one-to-one donor and prospect contacts per month through meetings, visits, calls, introductions, Club tours, and personalized follow-up.

We are looking for someone who takes initiative, follows through, knows when a donor relationship is ready to move forward, and is comfortable making a clear ask.

Success will be measured not simply by activity, but by relationships strengthened, gifts solicited and closed, donors retained and upgraded, and a healthy pipeline built for the future.

• Genuinely enjoy getting to know people and building relationships over time.
• Are comfortable talking about money and asking directly for a financial commitment.
• Have personally solicited and successfully closed gifts, sales, investments, or other significant commitments.
• Know how to listen for what matters to someone and connect those interests to a meaningful opportunity.
• Are self-directed and comfortable managing multiple relationships, asks, deadlines, and next steps.
• Have the judgment to know when to move a relationship forward—and when to take more time.
• Are persistent without being transactional.
• Communicate with warmth, confidence, and professionalism.
• Are organized and disciplined about using a CRM and documenting donor activity.
• Enjoy collaborating with organizational leaders, Board members, volunteers, and program staff while taking ownership of your own portfolio and results.

Required

• Bachelor's degree or an equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.
• Demonstrated experience asking individuals for significant financial commitments and successfully closing those asks in fundraising, sales, business development, or a comparable field.
• Strong interpersonal, verbal, written, organizational, and relationship-management skills.
• Ability to work effectively with general supervision and exercise sound independent judgment.
• Ability and willingness to travel frequently throughout Northern Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties.
• Availability for occasional evening and weekend donor and organizational events.

Preferred

• Five or more years of progressively responsible fundraising experience.
• A demonstrated track record of personally soliciting and closing significant individual or major gifts.
• Experience managing a donor or prospect portfolio and moves-management pipeline.
• Experience using a donor CRM or constituent database.
• Knowledge of the philanthropic communities of San Luis Obispo County and/or Northern Santa Barbara County.
• Experience partnering with nonprofit Board members, volunteers, or community leaders in fundraising.

Our mission is to enable all young people—especially those who need us most—to realize their full potential as productive, responsible, and caring citizens.

Across the Central Coast, our Clubs provide young people with safe places, caring mentors, meaningful experiences, and opportunities to learn, grow, and discover what is possible.

For a fundraiser, that means there is no shortage of meaningful stories to tell, programs to experience, or opportunities to connect donors directly with the impact of their investment.

This role also comes at an exciting time for our Resource Development team as we deepen our focus on individual philanthropy, meaningful donor relationships, and sustainable fundraising growth.

This position serves communities throughout San Luis Obispo and Northern Santa Barbara Counties, including the Paso Robles and Santa Maria areas.

California's Central Coast offers an exceptional combination of community and quality of life—from the vineyards and rolling hills surrounding Paso Robles to the beaches, trails, farms, food, and coastal communities surrounding Santa Maria.

Just as importantly for this role, these are communities where relationships matter. The Major Gifts Officer will have the opportunity to become deeply connected to the people, businesses, and community leaders who care about creating a strong future for local children and families.

You won't simply fundraise in the Central Coast—you'll become part of the communities you serve.

Salary: $80,000–$93,000 annually, depending on experience and qualifications.

In addition to competitive compensation, Boys & Girls Clubs of Mid Central Coast offers eligible employees benefits that include:

• 12 paid holidays each year
• Paid vacation time
• Paid sick leave
• Retirement savings plan
• 100% employer sponsored medical, vision, dental, and life insurance benefits for our team

This is a full-time, exempt position requiring frequent travel throughout Boys & Girls Clubs of Mid Central Coast’s service area and occasional evening and weekend engagement.

Ready to use your relationship-building skills to open doors to opportunity for young people across the Central Coast? We encourage you to apply.