Major Gifts Manager
At a nonprofit, university, or hospital, you lead the major-gifts function — managing a team of gift officers, overseeing donor portfolios, supporting the senior cultivation work that closes six- and seven-figure gifts, and the strategic leadership of major-gift fundraising.
What it's like to be a Major Gifts Manager
The work runs across team management, portfolio oversight, senior donor work, and the strategic conversations with executive sponsors. You're often carrying your own portfolio of top donors while leading the team carrying theirs. Dollars raised against goal, gift-officer retention, and pipeline health drive how the work shows up.
The friction tends to be the back-loaded result cycle intensified at managerial scale — major gifts close in years, while board reporting wants quarterly progress, and the manager defends the time horizon. Variance across employers is wide: at universities and major hospitals the major-gifts function is structured with planned-giving, principal-gifts, and stewardship teams; at smaller nonprofits the manager carries broader fundraising responsibility.
Managers who thrive tend to carry warm cultivation instincts, coaching discipline, and credibility in difficult board conversations. CFRE and senior fundraising credentials anchor advancement. The trade-off is the public visibility of fundraising results and the donor-attendant social calendar that comes with senior fundraising leadership.
Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
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.
How this category is changing
Skills & Requirements
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