Leadership Giving Officer
Harvard University · Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States · hybrid
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Why join the Harvard Graduate School of Design?
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) educates design, research, and scholarship leaders to make a resilient, just, and beautiful world. The GSD offers degree programs across a range of design disciplines-architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, urban design, design engineering, and real estate-as well as advanced research programs that cut across these disciplines and a robust public program of lectures, exhibitions, and publications. The immense variety of people, programs, and ideas at the School sustains a vibrant and rich environment for learning, inquiry, and collaboration, unlike any other design school. For more information about Harvard GSD see: https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/.
Job Summary:
The Graduate School of Design (GSD) is a global leader in design education and research, training the next generation of architects, landscape architects, urban planners, urban designers, and design thinkers whose work will shape the future of cities, communities, and the planet. At a moment when the world faces urgent and interlocking challenges—from climate change and environmental justice to access to housing, public health, and infrastructure—the GSD is uniquely positioned to generate the creative, interdisciplinary, and actionable solutions these crises demand.
The School’s faculty and students push the boundaries of knowledge and practice, advancing ideas that influence policy, industry, and communities worldwide. To sustain and accelerate this impact, the GSD must secure philanthropic investments in its core priorities: ensuring access for exceptional students, supporting world-class faculty, and fueling innovative programs and research.
Development and Alumni Relations is central to advancing these goals. Our dynamic and collaborative team, including five frontline fundraising positions, is pivoting toward a more metrics- and goal-oriented development program designed to significantly increase philanthropic support for the School. The Leadership Giving Officer (LGO) will play a pivotal role in this evolution, helping to build a robust, sustainable pipeline of annual leadership donors who are deeply engaged with advancing the GSD’s mission and work.
Reporting to the Senior Director of Annual and Leadership Giving, the LGO is a key frontline fundraiser for the GSD responsible for managing and growing a portfolio of approximately 300 annual leadership giving donors and prospects, with an actively managed segment of approximately 125–175 individuals. The LGO will develop and execute thoughtful, data-informed multi-channel personalized strategies to acquire, renew, and retain annual and multi-year current-use commitments of $10,000 or more, while building a sustainable pipeline of future leadership donors.
The LGO will be responsible for conducting approximately 125 substantive donor and prospect visits annually. A key responsibility is securing approximately 20-30 commitments of new or renewed gifts of $10,000 or more, with a goal of increasing this each year. This position will also oversee DevAR’s annual giving pipeline for all assigned prospects and will collaborate with other gift officers on annual giving strategies. Additionally, the LGO will assist with meeting overall assigned revenue and retention goals for annual fundraising.
The position oversees stewardship and engagement for the GSD’s Leadership, Loyalty, and Legacy Giving Circles and collaborates with colleagues on Term Fellowship fundraising and donor experiences. The LGO will attend and staff approximately 5-10 GSD receptions in conjunction with annual industry/professional conferences and will leverage these conferences for meaningful visits and meetings.
This position requires a person comfortable in an energetic, action-oriented environment who brings a high level of organization, professionalism, and mastery of the objectives of annual, current-use fundraising. This is a frontline fundraising position that requires regular donor contact, domestic travel, occasional evening and weekend work, and strong collaboration with faculty, School leadership, and Development and Alumni Relations colleagues.
This full-time, exempt position is hybrid, with a general expectation of one-to-two days per week in the Cambridge office.
Job-Specific Responsibilities:
Portfolio Management, Annual Giving Fundraising Strategy, and Closing Commitments
- Manage a performance-based, data-informed leadership giving program, including managing a dynamic portfolio of approximately 300 leadership giving prospects, including an actively managed segment of approximately 125–175 donors and prospects, with an emphasis on closing annual $10,000 and up commitments, and/or securing multi-year lead annual giving/current-use pledges, against assigned goals.
- Move prospects toward solicitation and completes assigned solicitations on the agreed upon timeline. The LGO’s goal is to secure approximately 20-30 commitments of new or renewed gifts of $10,000 or more, with a goal of increasing this each year.
- This position will also oversee DevAR’s annual giving pipeline for all assigned prospects and will collaborate with other gift officers on annual giving strategies, building towards the team securing 50 or more annual gifts of $10,000 or more in the next 2-5 years.
- Promote and manage Term Fellowship giving opportunities as an impactful giving opportunity to GSD prospects.
- Proactively identify and qualify annual giving prospects, building and strengthening a robust pipeline for current-use gifts.
- Conduct at least 125 one-on-one visits (in-person, Zoom, and phone) to engage, solicit, and steward prospects and donors.
- Partner and collaborate with the Assistant Director of the Annual Fund on annual giving calendar, targets, themes, and engagement strategy for the year.
- Work collaboratively with colleagues in Development and Alumni Relations, and across the University as appropriate, to share intelligence and coordinate engagement strategies.
- Use data, research, and performance metrics to prioritize activity, inform decision-making, and drive toward ambitious annual revenue and activity goals.
Collaboration, Engagement, and Institutional Representation
- Serve as a compelling and informed ambassador for the GSD, articulating the School’s mission, vision, and priorities—and the urgency of design’s role in addressing global challenges—in a clear and inspiring way.
- Attend and staff approximately 5-10 GSD receptions in conjunction with annual industry/professional conferences and will leverage these conferences for meaningful visits and meetings.
- Partner effectively with faculty, School leadership and staff, and University partners as needed to amplify annual giving at the GSD.
- Contribute positively to a collaborative team culture that values openness, learning, and shared success across all Development and Alumni Relations functions. Participate actively in the GSD campus community.
Stewardship and Donor Experience
- Manage and oversee the Leadership, Loyalty, and Legacy Giving Circles. Develop high-impact stewardship strategies for these annual donors.
- Ensure high-quality stewardship for leadership donors, informing tailored impact reporting, recognition, and ongoing engagement aligned with donor interests.
- Collaborate with colleagues to develop creative engagement opportunities that deepen donors’ connection to the GSD’s work, including managing the Term Fellowship cohort of donors.
- Maintain accurate and timely documentation of all donor and prospect activit