Director, Individual Giving, Development

About the role:

The Director of Individual Giving will lead the strategy, growth, and execution of Vera’s individual donor program, with a focus on building a strong and sustainable individual giving pipeline. This newly created role is both a frontline fundraiser and a strategic manager, responsible for personally cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding a portfolio of approximately 75 prospects with capacity of $100,000 or more, while ensuring growth of individual revenue across individual giving channels.  

The Director will manage and support the PMG Manager, Midlevel Manager, Associate Director (Digital), and Events Manager, ensuring that individual donor engagement is integrated, coordinated, and aligned with organizational fundraising priorities. The Director will create and implement strategies to identify, qualify, cultivate, solicit, and steward individual donors, with a particular emphasis on elevating donors throughout the pipeline and increasing long-term philanthropic investment in the organization’s mission. 

1. Frontline fundraising 

Manage a personal portfolio of approximately 75 qualified prospects and donors with capacity of $100,000 or more, creating tailored cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship plans for each relationship 

Identify, qualify, cultivate, solicit, and steward individual donors, with a focus on securing significant gifts, increasing donor retention, and upgrading donors over time 

Prepare and review donor briefings, proposals, solicitation materials, stewardship reports, acknowledgments, and other written materials needed to advance individual giving relationships 

Partner and engage organization leadership and programmatic staff on moves management and cultivation 

Maintain accurate and timely donor records, contact reports, next steps, and pipeline information in the organization’s CRM 

2. Individual giving strategy and management 

Develop and lead a comprehensive individual giving strategy that advances donors through the organization’s pipeline, from digital and event-based engagement to midlevel, major, and principal giving 

Partner with development leadership, executive leadership, board members, program staff, communications, and finance colleagues to shape compelling cases for support and donor engagement opportunities 

Ensure digital fundraising and donor communications strategies support acquisition, retention, segmentation, personalization, and donor movement across the pipeline 

Create systems and strategies that connect annual, midlevel, digital, events, and major gifts work into a cohesive donor experience and clear moves management pipeline 

Use donor data, wealth screening, engagement metrics, and prospect research to set priorities, identify upgrade opportunities, and evaluate progress toward revenue and activity goals 

3. Cross-team collaboration 

Oversee the PMG Manager, Midlevel Manager, Digital Associate Director, and Events Manager, providing strategic direction, coaching, accountability, and coordination across individual giving functions 

Monitor individual giving performance against goals, provide regular reporting, and recommend adjustments to strategy based on results, donor behavior, and organizational priorities 

What qualifications are we looking for?

Required: 

Advanced degree and 12+ years of significant professional experience in individual and major gift fundraising, including managing other fundraising. In lieu of degree requirement, applicable work or life experience may be considered. 

Candidates must have ability to close 6 and 7 figure gifts and experience securing gifts from prospects.  

Minimum of 3 years of team management experience 

Preferred:  

Advanced degree preferred 

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities you'll bring: 

Demonstrated success managing a portfolio of high-capacity prospects and donors, including relationships with seven-figure giving potential. 

Experience designing and implementing individual giving strategies that move donors through a pipeline from acquisition and midlevel engagement to major and principal gifts. 

Proven ability to supervise, coach, and align staff across multiple fundraising functions, including major gifts, midlevel giving, digital fundraising, and events. 

Strong understanding of relationship-based fundraising best practices. 

Experience partnering with senior leaders, board members, volunteers, and cross-functional colleagues to advance donor relationships and fundraising goals. 

Experience supervising, mentoring, and developing fundraising or donor engagement staff, with a track record of setting goals, managing performance, and building collaborative team culture. 

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate organizational priorities into compelling donor-facing materials. 

Proficiency with donor databases or CRM systems, reporting tools, and data-informed fundraising practices. 

Commitment to the Vera’s mission and to building authentic, respectful, and long-term relationships with donors and colleagues. 

Location:

Please note this role will report to our Brooklyn, NY office. Vera employees adhere to a hybrid schedule and are in-office on an alternating schedule that generally amounts to 10 days per month.

Compensation and Benefits:

The compensation range for this position is $180,000 - $200,000. Actual salaries will vary depending on factors including but not limited to experience and performance. The salary range listed is just one component of Vera Institute’s total compensation package for employees. As an employer of choice in our field, supporting Vera staff - both personally and professionally - is a priority. To do this, we invest in the well-being of our staff through other rewards including merit pay, generous paid time off, a comprehensive health insurance plan, student loan repayment benefits, professional development training opportunities and up to $2,000 annual for education costs and fees relevant to Vera work, employer-funded retirement plan, and flexible time. To learn more about Vera’s benefits offerings, click here. 

Application Process:

To receive further consideration for this career opportunity, applicants are asked preliminary questions about logistics, their interest and qualifications. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional details about their experience via a phone screen/form in advance of an invitation for a virtual or in-person interview with the team. Some searches may explore scenarios during the interview process and/or an assessment prior to reference checks and a hiring decision.

Applications may also be faxed to:

ATTN: People, Place, and Culture / [JOBTITLE]
Vera Institute of Justice
34 35th St, Suite 4-2A, Brooklyn, NY 11232
Fax: (212) 941-9407
Please use only one method (online, mail or fax) of submission.
No phone calls, please. Only applicants selected for interviews will be contacted.

Vera is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without unlawful discrimination based on race, color, creed, national origin, sex, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, military status, prior record of arrest or conviction, citizenship status, current employment status, or caregiver status. 

Vera works to advance justice, particularly racial justice, in an increasingly multicultural country and globally connected world. We value diverse experiences, including with regard to educational background and justice system contact, and depend on a diverse staff to carry out our mission. 

For more information about Vera, please visit www.vera.org.