Job Summary

Actively seeking an energetic, motivated and growth-oriented development officer who loves both people and animals. The Leadership Giving and Community Engagement Officer serves as a leader in generating funds and friend-raising to sustain and grow our lifesaving work to end the killing of homeless animals. The only limit to PAWS Chicago’s expansion of important programs is funding—this position will enable the continuation and expansion of PAWS Chicago’s No Kill model, which has led the reduction of killing in the city of Chicago by 91 percent since our founding.

The Officer is an entrepreneurial builder who is responsible for working with the Community Development Leadership Team to design and implement a comprehensive, donor-centric major gifts strategy for PAWS Chicago with a focus on growing both the annual budget as well as generating funds for future capital campaigns, planned gifts and an endowment campaign. This major gifts development plan should build upon the success of the existing fundraising and community development programs and outcomes while focusing on creating new ways of acquiring new constituents, as well as upgrading current PAWS Chicago donors and constituents.

The Officer will be a forward-thinking, data driven and a primary communication link for major donors and supporters. This person will consistently demonstrate a “customer-service” attitude and behaviors in ways that steward resources effectively, both in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner. Duties include bringing in new major donors and creating new key relationships, building strong relationships with our PAWS Chicago community, maintaining communications with the Executive Chair, donors and patrons, and providing deep knowledge the Chicago philanthropic community, and of individual giving processes and strategies with our talented team of professionals.

The Officer is accountable for delivering and/or exceeding fundraising goals as well as personally delivering the goals and targets of an individual major gifts portfolio.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Lead the Development Team and PAWS Chicago’s effort to grow our major gifts program, identifying, cultivating and stewarding new relationships.
• Advance the strategic process of identification, cultivation, solicitation, closure, and stewardship of leadership & major gifts in support of strategic capital and programmatic initiatives, for operating, and endowment purposes.
• Manage the systematic process that ensures a pipeline of prospective major gift donors from the Annual Fund.
• Provide support to the Executive Chair, CEO and key top-level volunteers in securing philanthropic support and stewarding donors at the highest levels.
• Proactively strategize and cultivate NEW relationships major donor relationships for PAWS Chicago including donors, foundations and organizations that have a special interest in animal welfare and provide additional cultivation for potential major donors who are already in the PAWS Chicago database.
• Provide guidance and ideas for stewardship strategies and activities for all giving levels and collaborate with Individual Giving Team members.
• Oversee scheduling and systematic tracking of activities related to major gifts.

The Essential Job Functions:

• Drives the identification and advancement of donors at the levels of $25,000+.
• With a proactive approach, lead the creation and execution of strategizes for revenue growth, developing a pipeline of new donors for PAWS Chicago.
• Plays a key role in the planning and execution of major fundraising initiatives for strategic priorities that significantly advance the operations and programs at PAWS Chicago.

• Provides effective frontline staff support to the Founder, Board Members, CEO and Development Team as needed to advance their engagement with individuals and organizations having the ability and inclination to make the largest philanthropic gifts.
• Identifies and qualifies key prospective donors and provides opportunities for them to become engaged in meaningful ways that ultimately yield sustained and increased giving at the highest levels.
• Leads creation of philanthropic engagement communications.
• Prepares and/or reviews all asks and proposals for gifts of $25,000+ to ensure alignment with strategic priorities and to ensure attainment of highest potential. Writes effective proposals and gift agreements in a timely manner, with careful organization for the storage of these important documents for future reference.
• Develops and maintains fundraising tools and information for use by the Founder, CEO and Development colleagues, such as Gift Opportunities lists, Power Point decks for meetings with donors, donor briefing and gift commitment templates and more.
• Provides regular and accurate reports on progress to the Individual Giving Team and PAWS Chicago Leadership.
• Makes effective use of technology, ensuring current biographical and contact information, access to important documents, and tracking of the strategic advancement of prospects and donors.

Requirements

• 
  Bachelor’s degree required.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in a combination of nonprofit development, for profit customer service or sales, and/or wealth management.
• Knowledge of, passion for, and commitment to PAWS Chicago’s No Kill model and animal welfare in general.
• Working knowledge of major Chicago philanthropic contributors and our civic community
• Intellectual horsepower and strong, capable emotional intellect, a relationship-builder, enjoys serving others, highly professional yet approachable.
• Diplomacy, poise, presence
• Caring, excellent written, verbal and interpersonal skills; sensitive to donor intentions, contribution vehicles and experiences. Clearly articulate goals and progress, and how funding strategies impact larger organizational goals.
• Creative, self-starter attitude that is a competent and capable team player working with peers to align programs and projects and advance the mission and vision of PAWS Chicago.
• Deliberate, high connectedness with others, empathy, ability to making connections
• Working knowledge of Raiser’s Edge database with the ability to make basic data pulls and analyze information.

PAWS Chicago Values-in-Action

• Respect: for each and every life.
• Community: of people and organizations committed to helping homeless pets.
• Innovation: to constantly improve best practices and seek out new ideas and strategies to save more lives. To be a Learning Center that evolves and grows.
• Pro-activity: to solve difficult problems and to be prepared to offer emergency and crisis support.
• Transparency: that informs the public about the fate of homeless animals.
• Education: that raises awareness about the realities that homeless animals face in the community and across the nations, providing a forum for people to get involved in effecting change. Promotes and support reasonable pet ownership.
• Sustainability: through financial management practices that maximize the impact and reach of our resources and endure that PAWS Chicago will always be a resource for homeless animals.
• Compassion: towards all people and animals.