Senior Director, National Acquisition Strategy

AIPAC

18h•$175,000 - $215,000•Hybrid

About The Position

AIPAC seeks a Senior Director of Acquisition Strategy to design, implement, and oversee a comprehensive national acquisition strategy that drives sustainable, scalable revenue growth in support of the organization's political and advocacy goals. This role will architect the systems, processes, and strategic frameworks that enable AIPAC's national development operation to identify, qualify, cultivate, and secure transformational commitments at scale. In partnership with the Executive Vice President of Development, the Senior Director plays a pivotal role in spearheading a national acquisition strategy across two segments: major gifts ($10,000-$249,999) and principal gifts ($250K and $1M+). The Senior Director is responsible for building a sustainable, metrics-driven acquisition pipeline, operationalizing strategy through coordinated regional execution, and designing prospect engagement frameworks that move high-capacity prospects from identification through long-term commitment. This role serves as both strategic architect and operational leader, ensuring coordination and alignment across a national development footprint of frontline fundraising professionals across eight regions. Based in Washington, D.C., the Senior Director reports to the Executive Vice President of Development and supervises AIPAC's Director of Prospect Research.

Requirements

Passion for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, as well as knowledge of issues related to Israel, the Middle East, and American politics.
Minimum 10 years of development experience with at least 5 years soliciting and securing six and seven figure gifts with specific experience in cold and warm prospect acquisition and moving prospects from identification through cultivation to solicitation and close.
Excellent leadership and team management abilities with a minimum of 5 years of management experience.
Demonstrated experience in pipeline development, prospect identification, and donor acquisition strategy.
Experience in prospect research methodologies, wealth screening protocols, and donor capacity assessment, including experience overseeing research operations or working extensively with prospect research teams.
Demonstrated ability to design and implement acquisition-focused playbooks, cultivation frameworks, and solicitation protocols that can be scaled across multi-regional operations.
Experience designing metrics-based accountability systems that connect individual fundraiser performance to regional and national acquisition goals, including activity-based and outcome-based KPIs.
Ability to inspire and motivate a diverse community of stakeholders towards a shared mission. Experience working with cross-functional teams.
Excellent written and oral communication skills, as well as the ability to listen to others.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities

Design and implement a comprehensive national acquisition framework that segments prospects by capacity (major gifts; principal gifts), propensity, engagement level, and qualification status.
Establish pipeline coverage ratios, metrics, and conversion benchmarks for each segment that inform national and regional goal setting and resource allocation.
Partner with Regional leadership to provide strategic coordination for regional acquisition fundraisers, ensuring each has an active pipeline, necessary tools, training, and regular progress reviews that identify barriers and accelerate outcomes.
Develop and oversee a national prospect pipeline that identifies, qualifies, and advances new high-capacity prospects through engagement signals, event activity, and research intelligence, delivering solicitation-ready prospects into frontline fundraiser portfolios aligned to regional and national acquisition goals.
Collaborate with Marketing & Communications, Events, and Advocacy teams to create acquisition-focused engagement opportunities that position prospects for cultivation and solicitation.
Translate national acquisition strategy into regional execution plans, ensuring Regional Campaign Directors have tools, training, and tactical support to drive local performance.
Establish and evaluate acquisition goals and KPIs that include activity-based metrics and outcome-based performance management, emphasizing qualification rates, solicitation conversion, average gift size, and time-to-close.
Establish metrics-based reporting systems tracking key acquisition indicators: prospect identification rate, qualification-to-portfolio conversion, portfolio activity levels, solicitation volume, close rates, average gift size, and pipeline coverage by segment.
Create and drive adoption of a system that leverages Salesforce to track donor lifecycle progression and forecast acquisition revenue.
Design accountability mechanisms that connect individual fundraiser performance, regional outcomes, and national acquisition goals through transparent, equitable metrics.
Identify barriers to frontline productivity and design pilot solutions that streamline workflows, reduce low-impact activity, and redirect staff time toward high-value cultivation and solicitation activities.
Develop training curricula, solicitation tools, and coaching frameworks that build frontline capacity in qualification, discovery, cultivation, and closing techniques.
Establish acquisition and training playbooks, cultivation frameworks, and solicitation protocols that standardize best practices while allowing regional flexibility for donor-specific customization.
Build a culture of continuous improvement through regular retrospectives on closed gifts, lost opportunities, and emerging acquisition trends.
Oversee and provide strategic direction to AIPAC's Prospect Research operation, establishing standards for prospect qualification, research products, and wealth screening protocols.
Ensure research intelligence directly informs frontline strategy through actionable research dossiers, capacity assessments, and relationship mapping that enable informed cultivation and solicitation.
Partner with national and regional leadership to monitor portfolios that balance fundraiser capacity, prospect quality, geographic considerations, and gift potential.
Assist prospect research efforts as needed through creation of dossiers, connector webs, proactive and reactive research on key targets.