Relationships & Giving Team Lead
Skysthelimit.org
About the organization:
Skysthelimit.org (STL) is a tech nonprofit with a mission to become the world's leading business mentoring platform for underrepresented young adult entrepreneurs, providing one-on-one support from their peers & volunteer professionals, as well as training & funding. We built a digital platform to make great mentor-mentee matches so that our entrepreneurs get the right support, from the right people, at the right stage in their entrepreneurial journey.
Skysthelimit.org is primarily funded by Fortune 500 corporate partners, including Accenture, PNC Bank, HP, Goldman Sachs, and others, and we recruit our partners’ employees to volunteer in our program and platform. By partnering with Skysthelimit.org, we help organizations achieve their corporate social responsibility impact and diversity and inclusion objectives through a meaningful, digital, team and skills-based volunteering opportunity. We have engaged thousands of professionals from our corporate partners in virtual, skills-based volunteering roles with our entrepreneurs. We've helped our entrepreneurs create thousands of businesses and jobs, and generate millions in revenue.
The role:
This is a new role and will be an integral part of building our Relationships & Giving Team. You will lead the efforts of philanthropic giving, and work hard every day to connect with donors, raise awareness and secure support for our mission. You will report directly to the Chief of Staff and partner regularly with the Co-founder and CEO on major gift fundraising. You will be charged with and held accountable to revenue generation, and have the opportunity to partner with senior leaders to build our philanthropic giving function. This has the potential to be a career-defining role.
In addition to the specific requirements below, you should be highly organized and possess a strong work ethic and the discretion to handle confidential information. A successful candidate will have excellent communication skills and work well in a remote team environment. You should be able to operate and execute on a variety of stewardship priorities with minimal supervision.
Duties and responsibilities:
- Participate in overall planning and execution of Skysthelimit.org’s philanthropic fundraising strategy
- Build and maintain strong relationships with a portfolio of current and potential donors, ensuring effective communication and engagement for long-term growth
- Proactively identify new funding sources through research and execute propensity/wealth screenings.
- Develop personalized cultivation and stewardship plans for individual donors and regularly communicate progress against these plans to senior staff
- Support the CEO in management of major donors and stewardship activities
- Manage and maintain overall integrity of the donor database; provide documentation, and process/automation improvements over time
- Work collaboratively and strategically with the Marketing and Member Experience teams to foster relationships with our community of entrepreneurs to amplify their stories with donors, including connecting donors and prospects with entrepreneurs.
- Support donor recognition and appreciation programs to foster long-term commitment.
- Create, update and improve written documents and materials to drive philanthropic gifts and facilitate solicitations, including donor decks and presentations, written updates, website copy, and other documents as needed
- Work with the Finance team on end of month financial reconciliation for all donations collected during the previous month
The skills you have:
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience required
- Minimum of five years of experience in a related field, including donor relations, fundraising and development, or sales
- Demonstrated ability to listen, build rapport, create value for, and close donations and/or sales with diverse customer segments
- Experience in basic data management, including CRM software (direct experience with Hubspot a plus)
- Highly organized and detail-oriented, capable of managing multiple tasks, adhering to deadlines, and working effectively both independently and as part of a team
- Demonstrated experience in written and verbal communications, and the ability to understand and translate an organization’s mission, work, and interests for donors and prospects with clarity
- Well developed analytical and problem solving skills
- Personable and enthusiastic about collaborating with leaders, donors, and colleagues
- Proficiency with computers and standard applications (Google Office Suite, Zoom, etc.)
- Enthusiasm for using emergent technologies like ChatGPT and other generative AI tools to improve philanthropic outcomes.
Compensation and benefits:
In addition to offering a competitive base salary of $60,000 to $80,000, this role is eligible for a bonus. The benefits program includes comprehensive, affordable medical, dental, and vision insurance coverage; opportunities to save with retirement benefits; generous time off; and flexibility to maintain a good work/life balance.