Director of Major Giving

Job Summary

The Commit Partnership (“Commit”) seeks a passionate, experienced, solutions-based fundraising leader who is strongly committed to our mission to serve as a Director of Major Giving. This person will report directly to Commit’s Managing Director of Philanthropic Investments.

Commit’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 to increase living wage attainment for young adults in Dallas County to 50% by 2040 irrespective of race. Commit is the largest collective impact organization in the nation, focused on supporting educational and living wage attainment in both Dallas County as well as the state of Texas via substantial educational policy development, advocacy, and implementation. Since our founding in 2011, the Philanthropy team has secured over $275M 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.

About the Role

We are seeking an energetic, results-oriented, motivated self-starter who is driven by building relationships with individual investors—ensuring they 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 Director’s primary responsibility is to manage a portfolio of high-net-worth investors and prospective investors with the capacity to contribute five- to-seven figure gifts to reach a portfolio goal of securing at least $3-4M annually. As a key lever to meet this goal, the Director of Major Giving will translate the work and impact of Commit into compelling and customized fundraising narratives and opportunities that secure meaningful investments from local, regional, and national 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 organizational, team, and individual goals. Expectations of the role include:

Salary Range

$110,000 - 139,000 annually

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Fundraising and Strategy

• Work with the Partnership’s Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, President, and Managing Director of Philanthropic Investments to develop and execute strategies to qualify new prospects and develop a pipeline of new high-capacity individual investors with the capacity to give five- to seven-figure gifts
• Routinely engage Commit Board Members executive team, and current investors to engage their networks and grow our major investor pipeline
• Develop and implement appropriate strategies for the cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, retention, and upgrade of existing high-level individual donors, building and maintaining a portfolio of approximately 100 qualified donors with an annual fundraising target of $3-4M
• Drive development of new stewardship strategies, often independently, and help to create a more unified stewardship experience for major investors
• Partner effectively with program staff to build and deepen investor relationships and solicit key new and upgraded investments.

Investor Engagement and Communication

• Work with the Investor Relations and Communications teams to create relevant collateral, compelling proposals, pitch decks, reports, and other personalized messaging to effectively steward, engage, and secure investors
• Develop and implement appropriate cultivation and solicitation strategies including investor/prospect meetings, debrief, and follow up activities
• Lead the design and execution of personalized donor experiences, including small gatherings and events, that deepen engagement and drive giving
• Collaborate with team members to ensure the timely and accurate completion of routine investor communications such as gift acknowledgements, cultivation and stewardship mailings, and event invitations

Data Management

• Maintain timely and accurate donor data and interactions in Salesforce database
• Partner with the Philanthropy Operations and Finance team members to ensure accurate tracking of gifts, pledges, and reporting requirements in various systems including OneDrive, Salesforce, and Teamwork
• Track deadlines and deliverables for reporting and donor recognition
• Monitor key performance indicators and fundraising goals to ensure alignment with annual and multi-year revenue strategies, adjusting strategy as needed to ensure success

Leadership and Team Collaboration

• Serve as a champion and advocate of Commit and our public education systems in external opportunities in our community and with investors
• Work collaboratively across the Philanthropy team to identify collective approaches to investor communication and engagement and strategies for the team to secure investments
• Champion the Philanthropic Investments Team Standards and serve as a role model and coach for all team members to consistently exhibit standards
• Work with the Philanthropy Operations and Finance team members to ensure best practices in record keeping in various systems including OneDrive, Salesforce, and Teamwork

Performs other duties as assigned.

Education and Experience Required

• 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 and institutions with a track record of securing investments at the 5- to 7-figure level.

Qualifications and Skills Required

• 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.
• Experience working with executive staff, board members, and major gift investors.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office and familiar with using donor management software

Philanthropic Investments Team Standards: Who We're Looking For

• 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 towards 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. 

Work Environment

This is a Dallas-based position with a minimum requirement to be in person at the Commit Partnership offices on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm and remote on Tuesdays and Fridays which requires reliable internet connection.

About The Commit Partnership:

Our Mission

We believe that through our collective actions, Dallas County—which educates 10% of Texas and 1% of the nation—can become an inclusive and prosperous region where economic opportunity is shared fairly. That’s why our True North Goal is that by 2040, at least half of all Dallas County residents ages 25–34, irrespective of race, will have the opportunity to earn a living wage.

To increase living wage attainment, we must equitably increase educational success aligned with high-demand, well-paying jobs—maximizing the cumulative impact from early education through college, career, and military readiness to strong postsecondary completion. Our team aligns community stakeholders around this shared roadmap for the future, using data to surface strategic initiatives that improve policies, practices, and funding. Together, we work to address the systemic root causes that hinder progress and strengthen our community’s capacity to serve every student effectively.

Our Story

Founded in 2012, the Commit Partnership has grown into the nation’s largest educational collective impact organization, uniting more than 70 backbone team members and over 200 partners across Dallas County and Texas—all working together to address the systemic education challenges facing our region and state. Our team brings community stakeholders together around a shared roadmap for the future, using data and practitioner insights to inform effective policy solutions that accelerate progress toward our goals and strengthen our collective capacity to serve every student well.

Together, we advocate for an excellent public education that ensures all students—regardless of race, place, or socioeconomic status—can shape their own futures, earn a living wage, and share in the prosperity of the world’s eighth-largest economy. We pursue this mission through several key initiatives, including Early Matters Dallas, Dallas County Promise, the Texas Urban Council, and the Texas Impact Network.

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.