Director, Estate and Gift Planning

Love animals? Want to spend your day surrounded by wagging tails and soft purrs?

Humane Society Silicon Valley (HSSV), a privately funded, 501(c)(3) non-profit, has been serving people and pets in Silicon Valley since 1929. HSSV is a leader in animal welfare through our lifesaving efforts, community programs, and the many ways we are working to move the animal welfare industry forward. Our mission is to save lives, keep families together, and create a better future for pets and their people.

We are a passionate, high-performing team who believes that collaboration is key to our success. Our best work is achieved by leveraging each other’s strengths and creating opportunities for professional growth. Join a team that focuses on our key values of kindness, courage, and impact!

Overview

The Director, Estate and Gift Planning plays a key role in the longevity of HSSV by securing revenue growth in the Bay Area and beyond that is required to realize our ambitious goals. As a frontline fundraiser, will be responsible for cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. With a focus on the estate and gift planning program, this individual will guide related strategies and train team members in cultivating planned gifts. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Lead as a strategic partner and implementation driver focused on estate and gift planning (“gift planning”) with the Vice President, Philanthropy and other Philanthropy fundraisers; helping secure new, recurring, and upleveled gifts. 

Develop and execute strategies to continuously identify new gift planning prospects and increase stewardship of existing gift planning supporters across the HSSV donor portfolios.  

Manage a portfolio of gift planning donors and prospects through all stages of the gift cycle. Nurture donor portfolio to ensure everyone receives a touch point (i.e., phone call, email, letter, visit)
on a reoccurring basis. 

Drive ongoing stewardship to donors so that gift planning commitments remain in place and maximize giving potential over time
as well as
aligned with the donor’s passions and financial capacity. 

Lead the administration of the gift planning program including: the acknowledgement process, ongoing stewardship and donor engagement for the 1929 Society donors, reporting, ongoing monitoring, and reporting on receipt of planned gifts. 

Translate HSSV’s vision and strategic priorities into articulate and creative ways to increase gift planning opportunities; articulate the need for support so that individuals "buy in" to the vision, mission, and goals of HSSV and with sufficient effectiveness to secure planned and complex asset gifts and/or blended gifts (i.e., a combination of annual, outright, revocable and irrevocable deferred gifts). 

Provide training for blended and planned gift fundraising to further the fundraising and donor engagement goals for HSSV.

Partner with others in the design and implementation of gift planning marketing and communications.  

Leverage metrics to continuously identify and cultivate new prospects and maintain donor database with interactions, opportunities, plans, and outcomes to produce comprehensive understanding of giving opportunities. 

Enable HSSV to produce successful donor engagement events by supporting the execution of the events. 

Other job duties may be assigned as needed. 

Requirements

Successful experience with gift fundraising in a non-profit environment. 

Highly collaborative thinker
with a demonstrated track record of securing gift planning commitments and a proven ability to refine and actualize fundraising priorities in conjunction with key partners. 

Passion for animal welfare and creating a better future for pets and their people. 

Must have a level of professional judgment and decisiveness to inspire confidence among prospects and donors. 

Strong ability to engage donors, understand charitable and financial goals, and how donor engagement can inspire action and confidence to support the mission. 

Outstanding communication and relationship building skills (with internal and external audiences), including excellent written and verbal communication skills.  

Strong project and time management and organizational skills; ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced environment and work calmly under pressure with excellent listening and critical thinking skills and an attention to detail. 

Ability to work independently and collaboratively; performance-oriented individual who has demonstrated achievement of goals with capabilities in data analysis. 

Proven ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams. 

Desirable technical knowledge: Salesforce constituent management database, Springboard giving platform, Pardot digital communication platform, or equivalent; gift planning software a plus. 

Ability to travel around the region and attend events on evenings and/or weekends. 

Work Days and Hours
Primary schedule is Monday-Friday in a hybrid work environment with participation in some events that are on evenings and/or weekends. The majority of your time will be spent in the field, actively engaging with the team and donors and cultivating meaningful relationships to advance our mission.

Candidate Tip

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