At a nonprofit, university, or institutional advancement office, you coordinate the major-donor program — supporting gift officers on portfolios, managing donor research, organizing cultivation events, and the operational backbone of major-gift work.
The day tends to mix prospect research, donor briefings, event coordination, and the steady support of gift officers' calendars. You're often the operational engine beneath the major-gifts officers who carry visible portfolios. Briefing memos, donor profiles, and event run-of-show are recurring deliverables.
The harder part is often the volume of small touches that shape major-donor experience — a misspelled name in a briefing memo, a wrong dietary preference at a dinner, a poorly-staged tour all erode the cultivation work. Variance across employers is wide: at universities and major nonprofits the work is structured with specialty teams; at smaller organizations you may also handle gift entry and stewardship.
Coordinators who thrive tend to carry organizational discipline and warmth toward donors. CFRE eligibility builds across years. The trade-off is the back-office positioning — the credit flows to officers closing gifts, while the operational support runs in the background.
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Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Business Operations roles →At a nonprofit, university, or institutional advancement office, you coordinate the major-donor program — supporting gift officers on portfolios, managing donor research, organizing cultivation events, and the operational backbone of major-gift work.
Median pay for a Major Donors Coordinator is about $66K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $43K to $107K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Speaking, Persuasion, Reading Comprehension, Active Listening, and Writing.
Most people in this role hold a bachelor's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 4.3% through 2034, with roughly 105,930 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Major Gifts Director, Grant Writer, and Donation Specialist.
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