Development Officer – Major & Institutional Giving

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Oregon.

📋 Description

• Oversee a portfolio comprising individual donors, family foundations, institutional funders, and high-capacity prospects, accountable for their qualification, cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, and revenue enhancement.

• Create tailored strategies for donors and funders utilizing moves management principles, philanthropic interests, giving history, capacity, and engagement opportunities.

• Increase revenue by retaining current supporters, enhancing giving when appropriate, and discovering new major gift and institutional funding prospects.

• Prepare for and engage in meetings with donors and funders, solicitations, briefings, and follow-up communications.

• Establish a strong planned giving program that includes donor education, marketing, and stewardship to foster long-term legacy support.

• Keep precise donor records, contact reports, next steps, and portfolio activities in Neon or other donor management systems.

• Track donor trends, engagement opportunities, and portfolio progress while offering recommendations to enhance fundraising performance.

• Assist in managing relationships with foundations, family foundations, and institutional funders alongside the Senior Director of Donor Development and organizational leadership.

• Compose and coordinate proposals, concept notes, grant reports, letters of inquiry, funder updates, and other materials for institutional giving.

• Monitor grant deliverables, reporting timelines, funding restrictions, and stewardship commitments to ensure timely and accurate follow-up.

• Collaborate with program, legal, finance, and operations teams to gather necessary information for proposals, reports, budgets, and funder communications.

• Assist in identifying new institutional funding opportunities that align with OCT’s litigation, youth engagement, trauma-informed care, education, communications, and organizational priorities.

• Foster and strengthen relationships in targeted donor markets, particularly on the West Coast, while remaining flexible to engage in other strategic markets where the candidate has strong relationships or opportunities.

• Identify avenues for donor and funder cultivation through litigation milestones, youth leadership achievements, organizational updates, events, board connections, and partner engagement.

• Organize donor stewardship and cultivation initiatives that advance fundraising objectives and deepen connections to OCT’s mission.

• Provide support to the Senior Director of Donor Development, Executive Directors, Founder, board members, and other organizational leaders in donor and funder cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.

• Prepare briefings, talking points, reports, and development updates for donors and funders for leadership, board members, and other key stakeholders.

• Facilitate engagement opportunities for board members, volunteers, and ambassadors who can propel OCT’s fundraising initiatives.

• Create fundraising materials and donor communications, including proposals, appeals, acknowledgments, donor updates, impact reports, pitch materials, institutional funder updates, and stewardship resources.

• Maintain a comprehensive understanding of OCT’s legal strategy, case developments, youth leadership, and organizational priorities to communicate effectively with donors and funders.

• Simplify complex legal, climate, constitutional, and youth-centered work into clear, compelling, and funder-appropriate language.

• Utilize donor data and reporting tools to manage portfolios, track progress toward fundraising goals, and assess donor and funder engagement strategies.

• Collaborate with Operations and Finance on donor data, gift tracking, grant coding, CRM processes, fundraising systems, and alignment with finance systems as necessary.

• Support annual fundraising initiatives, donor acquisition, renewal, retention, sustaining donor efforts, planned giving, and corporate or philanthropic partnerships in line with the development strategy.

• Uphold accountability and compliance with relevant fundraising ethics, regulations, confidentiality standards, grant requirements, and organizational policies.

• Provide supervision, coaching, and project management for development staff, interns, consultants, and contractors as assigned, while helping to establish effective fundraising systems and workflows.

⛳️ Requirements

• 7 years of fundraising experience -OR- Associate’s degree and 5 years of fundraising experience -OR- Bachelor’s degree and 3 years of fundraising experience -OR- Master’s degree and 2 years of fundraising experience.

• Proven success in cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding donors, funders, or high-capacity prospects.

• Experience managing a donor or funder portfolio and applying moves management practices to enhance engagement and revenue.

• Excellent writing skills, with experience drafting proposals, funder updates, donor communications, reports, or other fundraising materials.

• Strong relationship-building abilities and capacity to work efficiently with donors, funders, board members, volunteers, organizational leaders, and colleagues.

• Ability to translate intricate work into clear and compelling communications for donors and funders.

• Familiarity with donor databases or CRM systems for tracking activities, managing portfolios, and supporting fundraising strategies; experience with Neon is a plus.

• Exceptional organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to juggle multiple relationships, deadlines, proposals, reports, and priorities.

• Capability to exercise discretion, sound judgment, and confidentiality regarding donor, funder, and organizational matters.

• Commitment to OCT’s mission, youth-centered advocacy, climate justice, and trauma-informed organizational practices.

• Willingness and ability to travel for donor meetings, funder engagement, events, and organizational priorities, particularly in key donor markets.

🏝️ Benefits

• Health insurance coverage.

• Professional development opportunities.