Senior Manager, Major Gifts

Music Will•Covina, CA

11d•$94,320 - $99,869•Remote

About The Position

Music Will is the largest nonprofit music program in the U.S. public school system, aiming to transform lives by transforming music education. They utilize genres like rock, pop, Latin, and hip hop to empower teachers and build diverse music programs that strengthen students' connection to their school, peers, and community. Music Will also provides essential instruments and curriculum. Since 2002, they have served over 2,500,000 students across 50 states and aim to serve 11 million students annually by 2030. The Senior Manager, Major Gifts is a strategic frontline fundraising professional responsible for securing philanthropic investments from individual donors and families. This role manages a portfolio of major donors, cultivates relationships, and collaborates with organizational leadership, program staff, board members, and volunteers to connect donors with opportunities to expand music education. Reporting to the Chief Growth Officer, this position leads cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, and prospect development for gifts of $10,000+, with accountability for revenue, activity, and pipeline goals. The ideal candidate is an experienced relationship builder and fundraiser with strategic thinking, persuasive communication, and a genuine belief in Music Will's mission.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of relevant experience and education.
At least 5–7 years of progressively responsible experience in fundraising, business development, sales, or relationship-management experience, including demonstrated success securing significant philanthropic investments.
Demonstrated success managing a donor or client portfolio, developing individualized relationship strategies, moving prospects through a pipeline, and closing commitments.
Experience soliciting and securing five-figure gifts.
Excellent interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills, including the ability to craft persuasive proposals, donor correspondence, and impact-focused reports.
Strong project-management and organizational skills, sound judgment, attention to detail, and the ability to manage multiple priorities independently.
Demonstrated comfort engaging senior executives, high-net-worth individuals, board members, artists, volunteers, and community leaders.
Proficiency with fundraising databases or CRM systems, such as Salesforce, prospect research tools, and Microsoft Office or Google Workspace.
Willingness to travel nationally and work occasional evenings or weekends for donor meetings, performances, events, and conferences.

Nice To Haves

Experience securing six-figure and multi-year gifts.
Experience in arts, culture, music education, youth development, public media, performing arts, or another mission-driven nonprofit environment.
Familiarity with planned giving, family foundations, donor-advised funds, and multi-year campaign fundraising.
Experience working in a national or geographically distributed organization.
CFRE certification or comparable professional development is a plus.

Responsibilities

Manage and grow a portfolio of qualified major-gift donors and prospects, with primary responsibility for gifts of $10,000+.
Develop and execute individualized cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship plans that reflect each donor’s interests, giving history, capacity, and connection to the organization’s mission and strategic programmatic priorities.
Conduct a high volume of donor-facing activity, including personal visits, virtual meetings, calls, event conversations, and tailored written outreach.
Solicit and secure annual, multi-year, restricted, unrestricted, planned, and campaign gifts in support of organizational priorities.
Meet or exceed annual revenue, activity, and pipeline goals established with the development leadership team.
Identify and qualify new major-gift prospects through research, referrals, events, donor data, and relationship mapping.
Create meaningful stewardship experiences that demonstrate the impact of philanthropy, such as behind-the-scenes access, artist or student engagement, performances, site visits, impact reports, and leadership briefings.
Partner closely with the Chief Growth Officer to establish fundraising strategy, monitor performance, and advance high-priority donor relationships.
Manage and support the regional advisory boards in New York and Chicago, including meeting preparation, note-taking and follow-up, board recruitment, fundraising, and stewardship.
Work cross-functionally with program, finance, marketing, communications, and operations colleagues to ensure funding priorities, donor commitments, and reporting obligations are clearly understood and fulfilled.
Serve as a collaborative member of the growth team, sharing prospect intelligence and contributing to a culture of accountability, learning, and donor-centered service.
Provide administrative support to CEO and CGO including proposing innovative relationship strategies, drafting detailed briefing materials, joining executive donor meetings as a key organizational representative when strategically appropriate and supporting managing post-meeting stewardship, documentation, and follow-up workflows when needed.
Maintain accurate, timely, and comprehensive donor records, contact reports, moves-management plans, proposals, and revenue projections in the organization’s CRM.
Track and communicate progress toward fundraising goals through regular pipeline, forecast, and activity reporting, and use donor and industry insights to recommend improvements to major-gifts strategy and the donor experience.

Benefits

Benefit package (medical, dental, vision), up to 100% paid for employee coverage
Health Savings Account and Flexible Spending Account Options
Short Term Disability, Long Term Disability, and Life Insurance
403(b) Retirement Savings Plan with 3% match after 90 days of service
Eligibility for student loan forgiveness through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program
Discretionary Time Off policy (after 90 days of service), 10 paid holidays, and company-wide office closure from December 24th through January 1st
Flexible work arrangements
Monthly remote work and telecom stipend
Employee Music Enjoyment stipend
Laptop, monitor, docking station, and peripherals for business use