Leadership Giving Officer

Description

VPM is seeking a Leadership Giving Officer (LGO) for our Charlottesville and Shenandoah Valley markets. This is a full-time position with generous benefits reporting to the Director of Leadership Giving. The role works from home or from Charlottesville VPM office and requires travel regularly to headquarters in Richmond, VA. The LGO conducts major donor identification, cultivation and stewardship for Charlottesville and Shenandoah Valley ensuring donors are engaged with the stations to meet major giving revenue goals. Identifies where capacity and giving affinity is sufficient to support higher giving and stewards to encourage this. Fundraises for locally produced television programs and other special projects and creates proposals and gathers assets that support this. Creates opportunities for stewardship and cultivation through one-on-one meetings and special engagement events.  Contributes to development team effort to strengthen giving to the stations, including participating on-air in fundraising campaigns.  Plans and implements comprehensive prospecting analysis and outreach in Charlottesville and Shenandoah Valley to encourage members to give at leadership levels.

Job Duties

Primary Job Responsibilities:

• Develops individual stewardship plans for donors to stay on track to meet revenue targets
• Meets with individual donors to thank and share station impact, to get to know them so they can match donor giving with areas in which they are passionate and to solicit higher levels of giving and legacy society participation. Engages donors through station tours, luncheons, personal meetings and events.
• Acts as a resource to donor, staying current with programming, station initiatives and tools to access programming and other PBS/NPR resources like Passport (PBS’s streaming tool)
• Sends weekly email communication to donors and responds to inquiries and ticket requests; develops and sends monthly newsletter to high-value donors or those who don’t use email.
• Manages correspondence, renewals, upgrades, and invitations for client base; participates in numerous direct mail solicitation campaigns throughout the year
• Designs and oversees implementation of regional events to engage donor base with programming
• Performs research and analysis to determine wealth capacity and giving likelihood
• Works in donor database to note donor contacts and to pull progress reports as needed
• Handles donor inquiries and represents their interests, responding promptly and appropriately
• Ensures follows up of gifts with prompt personal contact and collects information on donor background and preferences for data base and weekly activity report
• Participates in membership campaigns, soliciting gifts on air if needed
• Works with mid-level giving staff to encourage lower level donors to move into the $1,200 giving level
• Assists with other projects as needed

Skills Required

Key Qualifications, Skills and Abilities:

• Passion for public broadcasting and its mission and deep knowledge of program content
• Deep experience with giving community in Charlottesville/Shenandoah Valley region and demonstrated successful experience soliciting five to six figure gifts
• College degree plus a minimum 5 years of related non-profit development experience in a major gifts program
• Demonstrated proficiency with MS Office especially Excel and relational databases
• Strong interpersonal skills, especially patience, diplomacy, optimism and sensitivity
• Excellent written and spoken communications skills
• Effective organizational skills with meticulous attention to detail
• Works independently as well as part of a team
• Manages and prioritizes competing demands and deadlines
• Works flexible hours, including weekends and evenings as needed
• Handles confidential information, both relating to donors and within the department
• Valid Virginia driver’s license and travels regularly to headquarters in Richmond, VA.
• Works from home or from Charlottesville VPM office as space and need requires

Additional Info

Interested candidates need to submit a resume and cover letter to careers@vpm.org. Applications without this information will not be considered. This position is open until filled. Learn more about our mission to use the power of media to educate, entertain, and inspire at VPM.org!