Director of Major Gifts

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an established San Francisco-based nonprofit organization defending online privacy and free expression, is looking for a full-time Director of Major Gifts to develop and implement donor engagement and fundraising strategies while also stewarding and cultivating top-level major donor relationships.

As the Director of Major Gifts, you will be responsible for setting and implementing EFF’s strategy for major and mid-level donors, as well as planned gifts. Your portfolio will include relationships with about 100 current major donors and estates, who you will steward through our giving societies and individual engagement plans. You enjoy building rapport with people and sharing your infectious enthusiasm for EFF’s mission. Working closely with your Membership colleagues, you will craft fundraising materials for major donors’ annual giving and engage donors through a slate of online and in-person events. While we expect you to learn enough about our work to converse with our donor community, you will work closely with our lawyers, activists, technologists, and executives to provide deeper connections for our highly engaged donors.

EFF’s major gifts program is poised for growth. As a seasoned major gifts fundraiser, you will have a vision for what is possible building on our giving societies and individualized strategies for cultivation and stewardship. This includes strategies for acquisition, upgrade, and asks for exceptional gifts. And as a member of the Development team’s leadership, you will help create a culture of collaboration, respect, and joy among your colleagues.

We value candidates who bring diverse experiences and perspectives, professional and otherwise, to our team and to EFF as a whole. If you can add value to EFF’s Development team, please apply.

What You’ll Do

Reporting directly to the Chief Development Officer, the Director of Major Gifts is responsible for the following:

• Creating and implementing the strategy for EFF’s major gifts and planned giving programs, including prospecting and acquisition, retention and growth, and stewardship of donors.
• Serving as the primary point of contact for a portfolio of major donors, including developing tailored engagement strategies to steward and cultivate their support.
• Managing the Donor Relations Manager, who oversees our mid-level Guardian Giving Society and its membership.
• Working closely with the Event Coordinator, craft online and in-person events that deepen EFF’s relationships with our major donors.
• Managing the implementation and refinement of EFF’s giving societies for mid-level Guardians, major donors in the MXM Giving Society, and planned donors in the Lighthouse Society.

What We’re Looking For

To be successful in this job, you’ll need:

• Major gift fundraising experience: A demonstrated record of major gift fundraising is essential. (This does not necessarily need to be in digital civil liberties.) You are a great written communicator comfortable with maintaining a substantial number of relationships. You know how to build a healthy portfolio, and have a history of successfully acquiring, stewarding, and upgrading donors.
• Fundraising leadership: You can balance developing and implementing strategy, and you aren’t afraid to propose bold ideas or experiments. You can keep the big picture of furthering EFF’s digital rights mission in mind while managing multiple tasks. As a manager for your direct report and as a member of the EFF manager community, you know how to provide leadership to a growing team.

What Else You Should Know

You may work from the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Seattle, or Washington DC. This position will need to keep Pacific time zone hours. The compensation for this position is $144,000 to $170,000 depending on experience and location.

EFF is a great place to work! We offer a supportive and empowering environment, along with an excellent benefits package including housing cost assistance, student loans assistance, medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 403(b)(7) retirement savings program with matching, paid time off, holiday benefits, paid parental leave, a dog-friendly workplace, and more.

As an advocacy organization, EFF is committed to being part of a diverse community. Diversity of life experiences makes a big difference in how we identify and litigate legal issues, design privacy-enhancing software, and organize our activism. To that end, we deliberately seek applicants with different perspectives, identities, and experiences to build an inclusive workplace to better inform our advocacy and defense of freedom in our digital world. EFF is an equal opportunity employer and encourages people of all races, genders, ages, abilities, orientations, ethnicities, and national origins to apply. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

EFF is looking to fill this position as soon as possible so please submit your application promptly, and no later than Friday, July 26, 2024. Applications submitted after that date will be considered until the position is filled. Please know we value hearing about you, so applications without a cover letter will not be considered.