Major Gifts Officer, Family Philanthropy

The Marine Mammal Center•Sausalito, CA

About The Position

The Major Gifts Officer, Family Philanthropy is a senior frontline fundraiser responsible for cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding The Marine Mammal Center’s highest-capacity philanthropic relationships, with particular emphasis on high-net-worth family foundations, private family offices, donor-advised funds, and proposal-driven giving. A key member of the Institutional Giving Team and reporting to the Senior Director, Development, this individual-contributor role brings highly developed specialist expertise to the qualification, solicitation, and stewardship of major and principal-level gifts. Through sophisticated relationship management and customized, compelling proposals, the Major Gifts Officer secures transformational support for marine mammal rescue, research, and education. This position independently develops its own proposals, budgets, and reports, and partners closely with the Senior Director, Development, the Institutional Giving Operations Manager, the Grants Manager, executive leadership, and program staff to investigate, identify, pursue, and secure funding aligned with donor interests and the Center’s strategic priorities.

Requirements

Strong commitment to the mission and strategic priorities of The Marine Mammal Center.
Strong knowledge of major and principal gifts fundraising principles, including prospect identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, moves management, and portfolio planning.
Demonstrated success securing meetings with prospective donors and personally cultivating, soliciting, closing, and stewarding five-, six-, and seven-figure gifts.
Knowledge of family philanthropy and the relationship structures associated with high-net-worth family foundations, private family offices, donor-advised funds, and proposal-driven giving.
Sophisticated relationship management skills, including the ability to build trust and navigate relationships involving donors, family members, trustees, advisors, foundation staff, and other intermediaries.
Ability to understand organizational priorities, assess donor interests, and develop individualized, multi-year strategies that connect donors with the Center’s programs and funding needs.
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to independently research, write, and produce compelling proposals, letters of inquiry, concept memoranda, budgets, stewardship reports, and donor communications.
Ability to understand and synthesize complex program information and communicate it persuasively and accessibly to donors, family foundations, family offices, donor-advised fund advisors, and other audiences.
Strong strategic, analytical, and problem-solving abilities, including using data, research, and forecasting to inform portfolio decisions.

Responsibilities

Manage a focused portfolio of approximately 100 to 125 of the Center’s highest-capacity relationships, with emphasis on high-net-worth family foundations, private family offices, and donor-advised funds, and on five, six, and seven-figure gifts.
Serve as the Center’s lead relationship manager for complex family philanthropy, navigating principals, family members, advisors, trustees, and intermediaries such as wealth advisors, family-office staff, and foundation program officers.
Develop and execute individualized, multi-year cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies, employing disciplined moves management to advance relationships through the donor cycle.
Conduct in-person and virtual donor visits, solicitations, and stewardship touchpoints; personally solicit and close major and principal level gifts.
Provide donor tours and meetings at the Center’s hospital and facilities, conveying mission and impact with warmth, accuracy, and credibility.
Represent the Center at donor meetings, site visits, and philanthropy offices, including periodic regional and national travel to meet with donors, family foundations, and their advisors.
Independently research, write, and produce compelling, customized proposals, letters of inquiry, and concept memoranda tailored to family foundations, family offices, and donor-advised fund advisors.
Develop accurate program and project budgets, in coordination with program and finance staff, that align donor interests with the Center’s funding priorities.
Prepare timely, high-quality stewardship and impact reports that fulfill donor and foundation requirements and demonstrate measurable results.
Maintain a disciplined calendar of proposal and report deadlines, ensuring that all commitments are met with excellence and on schedule.
Partner with the Institutional Giving Operations Manager and the Grants Manager to coordinate pipeline activity, prospect tracking, and operational support, while retaining direct responsibility for the portfolio’s donor-facing strategy and written deliverables.
Collaborate with prospect research, program staff, and executive leadership to identify, qualify, and prioritize new family philanthropy prospects.
Maintain proposal and report information in the Center’s CRM and shared repositories so that active and planned thematic requests are visible across the team, and review those records before approaching program staff or initiating a new request, to prevent duplication of solicitations and of demands on program and development staff.
Work closely with the Development Associate, Individual and Institutional Giving, who provides portfolio support including meeting scheduling, preparation, CRM entry, data pulls, and basic proposal and report assistance and who supports coordination and resource-sharing across individual and institutional giving.
Collaborate with other frontline fundraisers sharing report and proposal information to reduce potential for duplication of efforts by development and program staff.
Contribute to the strategic direction of the Institutional Giving Team and to departmental revenue goals through accurate forecasting and pipeline management.
Perform special projects and research as assigned.
Perform other duties as assigned.