JOB DESCRIPTION
Growing Home, a job training program for individuals with employment barriers, has been working in Englewood for the past decade. The Development department at Growing Home is looking for a dynamic Individual Giving Associate to join our team. We are seeking candidates who are detail oriented, have exceptional organizational and relationship building skills, and thrive working in a dynamic role.
Top candidates will be energetic, committed to individual and social change, and willing to assist in all aspects of our development work. The Individual Giving Associate is responsible for leading the team in donor prospecting, cultivation, solicitation, acknowledgement, and engagement at all levels of giving—working closely with the Executive Director or Designee to build and manage a robust major gifts program. The Associate will take a lead role in planning the annual campaign and donor cultivation and stewardship events; this work includes supporting Benefit planning and leading the Backyard Dinner/Urban Ag. Crawl and other small events as key donor engagement opportunities. The Associate will lead the Associate Board and support the Executive Director or Designee in facilitating Governing Board fundraising.
The Individual Giving Associate works Monday through Friday 8:00 - 4:00 pm at Growing Home’s administrative offices currently located at 6429 S. Honore Street, Chicago, IL. For special events or at particularly busy times per year, the Individual Giving Associate will be required to work weekend or evening hours.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Primary Duties:
- Donor program management: conduct donor research/segmentation and prospecting, assist in developing gift proposals, create reports.
- Donor relations: develop donor cultivation, acknowledgement, and stewardship strategies, lead activities including cultivation events, and ensure proper tracking of donor engagements in the organization’s donor database, in partnership with the Development team.
- Data Entry: Enter donation and other relevant data into Salesforce/Google Drive Spreadsheets. Make all necessary donor information updates in Salesforce.
- Annual campaign: with the Dir. of Operations and External Affairs, implement the end-of-year fundraising campaign, and implement additional campaigns as appropriate
- Annual Benefit and Urban Ag. Crawl/Backyard BBQ: play a lead role in benefit planning and implementation as appropriate
- Events: lead 2-3 smaller fundraising/friendraising events throughout the year.
- Associate Board: serve as the staff lead to the Associate Board, leading member recruitment, engagement, and fundraising with support of the Development team.
Secondary Duties:
- Communications: assist with newsletters, marketing collateral, annual reports, and other communications as needed—especially as it applies to donor engagement
- Public Relations: Assist Marketing & Communications Coordinator, manage press relations and media outreach especially as it applies to donor audiences
- Grants: assist with institutional grant and report writing, and management as needed
- Other duties as assigned
SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor’s degree strongly preferred
- Superior written and verbal communication skills
- Event planning experience preferred
- Demonstrated ability to build long-term relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders in a positive, engaging manner
- Preferably: At least two years’ experience in supporting an individual giving program, planning fundraising events and campaigns with digital and hard copy mailers, attending to board relations and/or major gifts
- Experience with communications, public relations, and/or grant-writing preferred
- Professional computer skills, proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, Google Suites, SalesForce, Canva, WordPress, Constant Contact, GiftWorks, iWave, or similar programs a plus
- Commitment to Growing Home’s mission
- Ability to work some evenings and weekends