About Glide
GLIDE is a nationally recognized center for social justice, dedicated to fighting systemic injustices, creating pathways out of poverty and crisis, and transforming lives. Through its integrated comprehensive services, advocacy initiatives, and inclusive community, GLIDE empowers individuals, families, and children to achieve stability and to thrive. GLIDE is on the forefront of addressing some of society’s most pressing issues, including poverty, housing and homelessness, and racial and social justice. GLIDE’s mission is to create a radically inclusive, just, and loving community mobilized to alleviate suffering and break the cycles of poverty and marginalization.
Position Summary:
The Senior Director of Major and Individual Gifts is a pivotal leadership role responsible for the strategic integration and performance of GLIDE’s comprehensive individual giving program. Encompassing the Annual Fund, Mid-Level/Major Giving, and Planned Gifts, this role serves as a trusted partner to the Chief Advancement Officer and a key architect of the Fund Development team’s growth. The individual in this role is an organizational leader who can ably—both internally and externally--represent the spirit and culture of philanthropy on which Glide is built.
The successful candidate will design and execute an ambitious, sustainable fundraising roadmap that ensures a seamless individual donor pipeline—strategically stewarding supporters from their initial contribution through transformative legacy commitments—in partnership with the CEO, Board members, staff, and others. As the team’s lead Major Gifts Officer, the Senior Director will also personally manage a high-level portfolio of 50-75 prospects with the capacity to support GLIDE with major commitments.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities:
Leadership and Strategy
- Strategic Vision: Design and implement a multi-channel individual giving strategy that integrates the Annual Fund, Mid-Level, Major Gifts, and Planned Giving into a unified, high-growth engine.
- Revenue Benchmarking: Establish, monitor, and achieve rigorous annual and multi-year revenue targets across all individual giving streams.
- Moves Management: Oversee the Major and Mid-Level Gift processes, mentoring gift officers in sophisticated moves-management techniques to deepen philanthropic ties and maximize donor lifetime value.
- Annual Fund Oversight: Provide executive direction for the Sr Manager of Annual Fund, collaboratively defining goals for donor acquisition, retention, direct mail, and digital campaigns.
- Segmentation and Strategy: Define clear donor segmentation and strategies to successfully recruit new supporters and transition existing donors to the giving ladder.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with the Communications Team, GLIDE Memorial Church, organization-wide staff and Board leadership to ensure a synchronized solicitation of cadence and cohesive messaging across all donor touchpoints.
Fundraising, Pipeline, and Performance Management
- Portfolio Management: Directly cultivate, solicit, and steward a high-priority portfolio of XX donors, including ultra-high-net-worth individuals and prospects capable of 7- and 8-figure transformative gifts.
- Pipeline Stewardship: Guide the broader team in creating meaningful stewardship journeys that convert prospects, first-time donors, regular supporters, and others into long-term, invested partners.
- Performance Management: Rigorously track performance metrics—including revenue, retention rates, and participation—and pivot strategies proactively based on real-time data.
- Collaboration: Work across all levels of GLIDE staff and Board leadership to craft and execute personalized fundraising strategies that appeal to individuals’ philanthropic goals.
General
- Philanthropic Spirit: Personify, champion and perpetuate GLIDE’s organization-wide culture of philanthropy, ensuring it is reflected in all internal and external interactions.
- Partnership: Foster deep, collaborative, and trusting partnerships with staff across all departments to align fundraising efforts with programmatic impact.
- Context: Actively engage with GLIDE’s ethos by developing an expert-level understanding of its history, social justice mission, and core values from its founding through its current role in San Francisco’s ecosystem
- Other duties as assigned
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience. Master’s Degree, CFRE, CAP, 21/64, and other fundraising certifications a plus;
- Seven to 10-plus years of significant nonprofit fundraising and leadership (preferably 5-7 figure individual giving in the social/human services area);
- Demonstrated multi-year experience managing a stable and successful fundraising team
- Excellent interpersonal and communications skills (written and verbal) with both internal and external constituencies. Proven experience in telling the story of an organization and conveying its importance.
- Commitment to professional and personal integrity;
- Ability to establish priorities and execute tasks with little direct supervision;
- Adaptable and flexible style maintaining the appropriate balance of rigor and flexibility
- Ability to establish and maintain strong working relationships across difference—from front-line staff to Board members
- Ability to maintain the highest level of confidentiality;
- Strong writing skills: adept at crafting proposals, solicitation letters and correspondence;
- Adept at creating and tracking budgets, adhering to expense limits;
- Computer Skills: MS Office suite including Excel and Word (mail merge preferred), Adobe products, fundraising software (Salesforce preferred)
- Experience with Wealth Screening and Prospecting Software, such as Lexis for Development Professionals and Windfall preferred
Leadership Competencies
Glide values and expects its leaders to possess and demonstrate the following competencies:
- Adaptive Leadership & Resilience: Leads with agility, composure, and resilience during change and uncertainty while maintaining momentum and supporting team stability.
- Strategic Vision & Systems Thinking: Sees the broader organizational picture, connects cross-functional work, and plans proactively to advance shared goals and long-term success.
- Operational Excellence & Accountability: Ensures strong execution, stewardship, and follow-through while taking ownership of outcomes and maintaining operational effectiveness.
- Emotional Intelligence & Interpersonal Dynamics: Builds trust and psychological safety through self-awareness, empathy, communication, and curiosity.
- Talent Development & Collaboration: Invests in people and fosters collaboration across teams to strengthen organizational effectiveness and shared leadership
Work Environment
GLIDE’s buildings are located in the Tenderloin neighborhood. GLIDE maintains an "open door" policy to the community and its clients, who frequently enter and leave the building.
