Senior Major Gifts Officer

About Tipping Point 

Tipping Point finds, funds, and strengthens the most promising poverty-fighting solutions so one day everyone in the Bay Area can prosper. Since 2005, Tipping Point has invested over $412 million in the community to support organizations, advance policies, and develop new ideas to increase economic opportunity. Last year, our investments funded life-changing services in housing, early childhood, education, and employment for more than 100,000 of our neighbors across the Bay Area. Our Board covers 100% of our operating costs, so every dollar donated goes where it’s needed most. Visit www.tippingpoint.org to learn more.

Values

Tipping Point’s core values are at the heart of everything we do and we look for individuals who share our commitments:

• We cultivate community because we know we are more powerful together.
• We practice gratitude.
• We hold ourselves accountable to achieving impact for and with the communities we serve.
• We relentlessly pursue equity because one’s background and identities should not predetermine one’s opportunities.

Position Overview

The Senior Major Gifts Officer has a proven track record of building relationships and driving successful fundraising. The Senior Major Gifts Officer is responsible for securing funding from major individual donors and prospects through effective identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. They serve as an ambassador for Tipping Point, representing the organization to a variety of stakeholders, including donors, partners, and grantees.

This position reports to the Senior Director of Individual Giving and partners with them in setting annual fundraising targets and implementing strategies to achieve them. Additionally, this position works closely with the Chief Development Officer, another Senior Major Gift Officer, and the Giving Officer to execute strategies to expand and strengthen support for Tipping Point.

What will you do?

• Serve as the primary relationship manager for a portfolio of 120+ donors and prospects with the capacity to give $25k+ annually, representing Tipping Point through deep knowledge of our model, an understanding of the programmatic issue areas, and research on the philanthropic landscape.
• Plan, develop, and oversee the implementation of individual strategies for the entire portfolio and independently represent the organization with these donors and prospects.
• Deliver exceptional stewardship to the portfolio of current donors. Continuously identify, qualify, and engage new prospects, and work diligently to convert to active donors in order to ensure the ongoing success of Tipping Point’s work.
• Help inspire and guide donors and prospects to achieve their philanthropic goals by successfully aligning donor interests with Tipping Point’s strategy and educating donors on poverty and Tipping Point’s impact.
• Strategically leverage Tipping Point’s Board and Leadership Council members, Executive Team – including the CEO – and other staff and current donors in prospect identification, meetings, events, and solicitations, as appropriate.
• Partner with the Senior Director of Individual Giving to build annual individual giving goals and set an actionable plan for accomplishing them.
• Consult with and advise organization leadership on matters related to fundraising, including establishing short- and long-term fundraising targets.

All other duties as assigned.

What qualifications are we looking for?

In addition to our core values, Tipping Point staff exhibit four core competencies: ability to be flexible in a constantly shifting environment, strong communication skills, ability to work well on a team, and ability to continuously problem solve in the face of challenges.

Additionally, the Senior Major Gifts Officer must have:

• Accomplished background in major donor fundraising experience with a track record of successful five-to-six figure asks from individual donors that demonstrates an ability to strategically inspire and effectively steward a portfolio of donors.
• Exceptional ability to employ communication skills and empathy, strong interpersonal skills and a highly developed understanding of self and others to build and maintain productive, personable relationships with donors and your team members; equally comfortable speaking one-on-one or to a large group.
• Ability to manage complex processes confidently and efficiently while paying attention to details to provide an excellent donor experience.
• Continual learning mindset, actively seeking opportunities to learn, and a demonstrated knowledge of relevant landscapes (social, political, fundraising, etc.) with an ability to apply it to this work
• Commitment to Tipping Point’s mission, impact, and core values.

Nice to have:

• Local knowledge of the Bay Area business and philanthropic communities.
• Experience using Salesforce a plus.

*“Nice to have” really means just that; it’s entirely possible that you don’t have any of these and are still a great fit. It’s not expected that any single candidate would have expertise across all of these areas — we’re looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas, and have some interest and capabilities in others.