Director of Major Gifts

Veterans Community Project•Kansas City, MO

About The Position

The Director of Major Gifts will build and manage a diverse portfolio of individual, family, foundation, corporate, and other philanthropic prospects to advance Veterans Community Project's mission to fix Veteran homelessness. VCP operates as a network of Villages nationwide, each supported locally, alongside a Central Services Team (CST) that provides the shared infrastructure, systems, and support that keep every Village running. While VCP is a $20 million organization, this role is dedicated specifically to securing unrestricted, capacity-building, and strategic gifts for CST, which operates on an approximate $3 million budget separate from site-level fundraising, with the support of other CST team members. The Director of Major Gifts reports directly to the National Director of Philanthropy.

Requirements

5–8 years of professional fundraising experience, with demonstrated experience cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding individual major donors.
Ability to independently manage a donor portfolio and fundraising pipeline.
Strong relationship-building and interpersonal skills.
Excellent written communication and proposal-writing skills.
Comfort making direct fundraising asks.
Strong organizational skills and consistent CRM/data management practices.
Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively across a national development team.

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated experience securing gifts of $100,000 or more.
Experience structuring complex gifts, including planned gifts, stock or other appreciated-asset gifts, and gifts through donor-advised funds or trusts.
Experience building and scaling a major-gift portfolio or prospect pipeline, rather than solely managing an established one.
Experience with unrestricted, capacity-building, or multi-year gifts.
Experience working with family foundations or high-net-worth individuals.
Experience in a growing nonprofit or national/multi-site organization.
Knowledge of Veteran services, housing, homelessness, or related social-impact issues.

Responsibilities

Build and manage a portfolio of approximately 75–125 qualified major gift prospects and donors, with an emphasis on donors capable of making gifts of $10,000 or more annually.
Develop and execute individualized cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies for assigned prospects.
Conduct donor meetings, calls, visits, and other meaningful engagement activities.
Make direct fundraising asks and close gifts, including unrestricted, multi-year, planned giving, capacity-building, and strategic investments.
Maintain accurate and timely prospect and donor information in VCP’s CRM.
Use moves management to track relationships, next steps, solicitation strategies, and outcomes.
Regularly evaluate portfolio health and move prospects through qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.
Collaborate with the National Director of Philanthropy and other leadership team members on strategy for top prospects and donors.
Develop customized proposals, briefing materials, impact updates, and other donor communications.
Work with Marketing/Communications and program leadership to translate VCP’s national impact into compelling funding opportunities.
Ensure donors receive timely and meaningful stewardship following their gifts.
Develop relationships with donors whose interests align with VCP’s national mission, organizational growth, and capacity-building priorities.
Identify opportunities for donors to make transformational investments in VCP beyond traditional program funding.
Support national fundraising campaigns and special initiatives as assigned.
Develop a more robust, diverse new national major gift prospects through research, referrals, networking, and prospect identification.
Research, rate and qualify new national prospects who are aligned with VCP’s mission, to build a richer national portfolio.