Philanthropy Officer

Mel Trotter Ministries•Grand Rapids, MI

About The Position

The Philanthropy officer plays a pivotal role in enhancing donor relationships and increasing advancement revenue for Mel Trotter Ministries. By focusing on engagement and communication, the Philanthropy officer will ensure that every donor receives timely and positive interactions that lead to recurring contributions for both operational and campaign initiatives. Key impact areas include donor relationship management, fundraising strategy implementation, data reporting, team collaboration and communication, and special campaigns. This job description is not intended to include all responsibilities and may change to align with business needs. We expect all staff to project and exemplify a passion for a faith-based approach to advocacy for the guests, to be humble, supportive team players, who acknowledge their own gifts and those of others, are truthfully transparent, seek input from others, admit and learn from mistakes, and are highly coachable and approachable. We expect a hungry, innovative, goal-oriented, and eager contributor, who shows a dedicated work ethic. We expect our staff to exhibit empathy, compassion, active listening, be self-aware, sensitive across racial, class, and cultural lines, ethical, and approachable. We look for work habits of punctuality, dependability, accountability, responsibility, cooperation, team participation, integrity, problem-solving, and overall positivity. These attributes, combined with the performance of your duties and meeting set goals/ metrics, will be the items we base your overall job performance on. Please refer to them often and feel free to ask for feedback on these areas regularly.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree, skilled knowledge of charitable giving
3-5 years' proven track record initiating and cultivating donor relationships, resulting in exceptional fundraising results
Highly connected in local donor circles and non-profit organizations
Comfortable with prospecting and cold outreach
Excellent interpersonal skills, and professional verbal and written communication
Productive independent worker and positive team participant with excellent relationship building skills
Highly organized, with excellent attention to detail and timeliness
Proficient with Microsoft Office and donor database platform use
Ability to gather, analyze and utilize donor, numerical, and financial data

Responsibilities

Manages a portfolio of 150-200 individual donors with the capacity to give between $2000-10,000+ annually
Develop and execute personal cultivation and solicitation strategies for each donor in your portfolio.
Conduct a minimum of 10 meaningful connections per month with your assigned portfolio to deepen relationships and secure gifts
Ensure at least 80% of your portfolio has at least 1 quality contact every 3 months
Collaborate with the Director of Philanthropy to develop upgrade strategies to move donors to higher levels of giving.
Work collaboratively with the advancement team to ensure donor awareness and
Collect and share compelling and transformative stories that connect donors emotionally to the work of Mel Trotter Ministries.
Research and identify sources of support, proactively seek opportunities to generate new donor proposals based on interests and alignment with Mel Ministries.
Document all donor interactions, strategies, communication, and next steps in the database within 48-72 hours of contact.
Support the advancement team in Meet the Mission events and mission tours.
Generate creative ideas to help sustain fundraising
Generate monthly/quarterly reports on portfolio actively, pipeline movements, and revenue progress.
Partner with programs staff to understand current needs and outcomes for donor conversations.
Work with the communications team to develop donor-facing materials and impact reports.
Meet and/or exceed monthly, quarterly, and annual metrics and goals.
Work with advancement team leadership to set attainable and realistic metric
Work to increase awareness of Mel Trotter Mission's full scope of
Additional duties as assigned.