Major Gifts Officer - Individual Giving

Job Summary:

The Commit Partnership ("Commit" or the "Partnership") seeks a passionate, experienced, solutions-based leader who is strongly committed to the Partnership's mission to increase the regional living wage attainment rate for young adults in Dallas County to 50% by 2040 irrespective of race, to serve as the organization's Director of Philanthropic Investments. This person will report directly to the Partnership's Managing Director leading its Philanthropy efforts.

The Partnership's Philanthropic Investments team plays a critical role in ensuring adequate funding resources are available for the organization to execute initiatives and make progress towards our North Star goal. Since the Partnership's founding in 2011, the Philanthropy team has secured over $200 million represented by a 50/50 split in local versus national funder investments. Efforts made possible by philanthropic investment in Commit have helped yield transformative outcomes, including informing four state legislative sessions across the years 2017-2023 that collectively created over $7.0 billion of new and potential annual funding for a state that educates 10% of the nation's PK-12 students. The work has also accelerated the adoption of numerous impactful practices enabled by (i) the Partnership's leading of two statewide learning communities involving ~20 districts educating 1 in 4 Texas children as well as (ii) its formation with Educate Texas of the Texas Impact Network, which supports numerous "educational backbone" entities similar to Commit across the state. Best practices implemented have included: full-day PreK; extending the elementary school year to reduce summer learning loss; creating pathways to a B.A. in Early Childhood Education for less than $10,000 in total tuition over four years; and compensating educators higher and sooner in their career based on their classroom effectiveness and where they teach (vs. solely based on their seniority).

To accelerate progress towards our North Star goal, the Partnership recently launched Opportunity 2040, a long-term strategic plan to improve economic mobility in Dallas County significantly. The full cost of Opportunity 2040 is $13.4 billion of which $347 million is projected to be raised over the next 17 years, from private, philanthropic investments from local, statewide, and national investors. Anchored by an initial $50 million anchor investment from Blue Meridian Partners, a national philanthropic fund, Opportunity 2040 strives to aggregate flexible philanthropic capital to be deployed against a set of data-backed initiatives focused on living wage attainment and reducing child poverty. This role will have a unique opportunity to work closely with regional and national partners and a growing pool of investors to build an innovative philanthropic model, leveraging private investments to help access, unlock, and influence significant and sustainable public funds.

About the role

We are seeking an energetic, self-starter who is driven by building relationships with individual investors, ensuring investors understand the impact of their investment, and growing the number of champions in our work. Critical to the success of the Philanthropic Investments Team, the Major Gift Officer's primary responsibility is to manage a portfolio of individual investors contributing five- to-seven figure gifts through the entire donor cycle to reach a portfolio goal of at least $8-$9 million shepherded annually. As a key lever to meet this goal, the Director will translate the work and impact of Commit into compelling and customized fundraising narratives and opportunities that secure meaningful investments from local and, in select cases, regional and national high-net-worth investors.

Our team operates cohesively and at a fast pace which includes lots of deadlines and collaboration to get the job done. In addition to reporting to the Managing Director of Philanthropic Investments, this role will work in close collaboration with other Philanthropy team members and internal and external stakeholders to meet organization, team, and individual goals. Expectations of the role include:

Fundraising and Strategy

• Work with the Partnership's Chair and Chief Executive Officer and its Managing Director of Strategic Philanthropy to develop and execute a strategy and build a pipeline for new five- to seven-figure prospects from outside of the organization's existing donor pool.

• Develop and implement appropriate strategies for the cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, and upgrade of existing high-level individual donors.

• Drive the development of new stewardship strategies, often independently, and help to create a more unified stewardship experience for major investors.

• Work with program staff routinely to acquire the knowledge needed to solicit investments and build investor relationships effectively.

• Achieve annual revenue goals and assist in helping direct reports and the team to meet individual and departmental goals.

• Pitch and close new and renewed investment proposals.

• Draft proposals, concept papers, pitch decks, reports, and other relevant materials to pitch, close, and steward fundraising opportunities.

• Routinely engage Partnership board members, organization executives, and current investors in peer-prospect identification, visits, and major gift closings.

Investor Engagement and Communication

• Work with the Investor Relations team to create relevant collateral, events, and other messaging to steward, engage, and secure investors.

• Craft and review investor proposals and engagement content and materials.

• Ensure appropriate cultivation and solicitation strategies and timing for investor/prospect visits, debrief and manage follow-up activity.

• Implement investor cultivation and stewardship communications and events when appropriate. Identify and cultivate new possible event hosts.

• Collaborate with team members to ensure the timely and accurate completion of routine work such as gift acknowledgments, solicitation and cultivation mailings, event invitations, and investor communications.

Leadership and Team Coherence

• Serve as a champion and advocate of Commit and our public education systems in external opportunities in our community and with investors.

• Champion the Philanthropy Team Standards and serve as a role model exhibiting standards and coach for all team members to consistently exhibit standards.

• Works with the Philanthropy Operations and Finance teams to ensure best practices in record keeping in various systems including OneDrive, Salesforce, and Teamwork.

• Use Commit's investment and investor data to create annual goals and track progress toward goals.

• Ensure best-in-class record-keeping via the Salesforce database.

• Performs other duties as assigned.

Relevant Background

• Passionate about improving our public education systems, increasing economic mobility for Dallas and the state of Texas, and holds a deep belief that EVERY student deserves access to high-quality education and the opportunity to succeed.

• Bachelor's degree in business, non-profit management, communications, marketing, sales, or other related field.

• 5+ years of experience in fundraising involving direct personal major donor solicitation of individuals with a record of accomplishment of securing investments at the $25,000+ level.

• Superior interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills, including specific experience writing funding proposals.

• Demonstrated ability to work with a high degree of autonomy and accountability and to be a team player.

• Ability to develop and follow through on creative and effective solicitation strategies and to motivate and generate enthusiasm for them among team members.

• Ability to quickly build and continuously develop trusting relationships with funders and other stakeholders.

• Ability to create and deliver highly professional, compelling presentations to investors and facilitate investor meetings.

• Deep understanding of both the Dallas philanthropic landscape.

• Experience working with executive staff, board members, and major gift investors.

• Demonstrated ability to work with a high degree of autonomy and accountability and to be a team player.

• Proficient with Microsoft Office and familiar with using donor management software.

Philanthropy Team Standards - Who you are:

• Relationships drive your work, and you continuously focus on starting, building, and strengthening relationships both internally with team members and across the organization, and externally with investors and partners.

• You are driven by finding ways to sell, communicate, and collaborate with investors and other team members about challenges, solutions, insights, outcomes, and impact on students and systems.

• You operate with a customer service mindset to investors and team members.

• You are solutions-focused, proactive in addressing challenges, and constantly thinking one step- ahead.

• You are constantly learning, sharing, asking questions, and keeping up with your field.

• You are meticulous about systems, processes, data, and numbers, and how those pieces connect to a big picture goal or idea.

• You lead with your individual strengths and skills and see success as a team effort

About The Commit Partnership:

Our Mission

We believe that through our actions, Dallas County - which educates 10% of Texas and 1% of the nation- can be an inclusive and prosperous region where economic opportunity is shared equitably. That's why our true north goal is that by 2040 at least half of all 25-34-year-old residents of Dallas County, irrespective of race, will be provided the opportunity to earn a living wage.

To increase living wage attainment, we must equitably increase educational success aligned with high-demand jobs, maximizing the cumulative impact from early education all the way to college, career, and/or military readiness and accessing and completing a strong postsecondary education. Our staff aligns community stakeholders around this shared future roadmap - analyzing data to lift up strategic initiatives that improve policies, practices, and funding that grow our community's capacity to serve every student more effectively.

Our Story

Founded in 2012, this partnership is the nation's largest educational collective impact organization, composed of backbone staff and over 200 partners across Dallas County and the state of Texas working collaboratively to solve systemic education challenges. Our staff aligns community stakeholders around a shared future roadmap - analyzing data to lift up strategic initiatives that improve policies, practices, and funding that grow our community's capacity to serve every student more effectively.

Together, we work to advocate for excellent and equitable public education that ensures all students - regardless of race, place, or socio-economic status - have the power to determine their future and earn a living wage. We do this work through several ventures including Early Matters Dallas, North Texas Tutoring Corps, Dallas County Promise, Texas College Bridge, Dallas Thrives, Commit's Policy Team, the Texas Impact Network, and several coalitions.

True North Traits

Our True North Traits creates a mission-driven environment and champions us to do our best work each day.

Systemic Impact: You understand the barriers and lived experiences that our students face and are skilled at delivering systemic solutions at scale that address these needs. You achieve significant, sustainable results that increase equitable outcomes through your work (including the reallocation or improvement in public funding), and you recognize the difference between activity and impact.

Judgment: You exhibit a relentless "students first" focus by thinking strategically about what data must be collected, analyzed, visualized, and activated (and what steps must be taken, in what order) to cause resources to be reallocated and actions to be taken to systemically overcome the root causes hindering achievement of the Partnership's mission.

Communication: By listening to understand before seeking to be understood, you're able to build trust and facilitate collaboration across lines of difference, recognizing that both are essential to our success. You are also able to find common ground with diverse stakeholders and can tailor the organization's message to different audiences as needed to influence meaningful change.

Innovation: You can create or meaningfully contribute to the design and execution of a systemic and transformational strategic plan to solve complex problems, often at scale, that improves organizational effectiveness and/or closes equity gaps for our students and families.

Equity and Inclusion: You intentionally create spaces where relevant stakeholders have a seat or voice at the table, ensuring that each person at the table's thoughts and perspectives are shared, valued by all others at the table, and reflected in our work. You're excited to help build and/or contribute to teams where everyone feels welcomed, respected, valued, and highly supported.

Joy: You recognize that people are central to our work, striking a balance between people and process, and you inspire others with your optimism and thirst for substantive change in service to the mission.

Integrity: You admit mistakes openly, share learnings widely, and elevate bad news quickly, also capable of making difficult decisions in all situations to ensure the success of the organization.

The Commit Partnership is an Equal Opportunity Employer that seeks to hire individuals with backgrounds similar to that of the stakeholders they serve. As an organization that embraces equity and inclusion, all employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, national, social or ethnic origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local laws.

Commit does not sponsor visas of any kind.