Leadership Giving Officer

Leadership Giving Officer

Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc.
Located at the National Museum of the United States Air Force™ | Dayton, Ohio

About the Air Force Museum Foundation

The Air Force Museum Foundation is the exclusive 501(c)(3) nonprofit providing philanthropic support for the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Through philanthropy and strategic partnerships, the Foundation strengthens the Museum's ability to preserve stories, enhance transformative experiences, and connect audiences to the legacy, service, and future of Air and Space.

Position Summary

Reporting to the Chief Development Officer (CDO), the Leadership Giving Officer executes the strategy and program design for the newly established 1923 Society, AFMF's leadership annual giving program, and manages the Foundation's leadership-giving portfolio. The officer cultivates, solicits, and stewards qualified donors and prospects whose cumulative annual household giving ranges from $1,000 to $10,000.

This newly created position manages a portfolio of 150-200 active donors and qualified prospects, with responsibility for retention, renewal, upgrading, qualification, and consistent movement through the fundraising pipeline. The officer also contributes donor insight, performance analysis, and recommendations to the CDO during the annual review and adjustment of the program.

This is a national, frontline fundraising opportunity for a relationship-driven professional who is confident conducting face-to-face solicitations, energized by building long-term donor relationships, and disciplined in using data and moves management to produce measurable results. By growing philanthropic investment, the officer advances the Foundation's mission and strengthens its support for the Museum.

1923 Society and Portfolio Scope

The 1923 Society is AFMF's newly established annual giving society and recognizes cumulative annual household giving from $1,000 through $25,000+, including both unrestricted gifts and gifts restricted to approved priorities. Within the Society, this position is responsible for qualified donors and prospects giving from $1,000 to $10,000.

Duties & Responsibilities

1923 Society Program Execution and Improvement

• Execute the systems, policies, procedures, donor benefits, recognition framework, and engagement strategy established by the Foundation for the 1923 Society.
• Implement coordinated renewal, retention, upgrade, and acquisition strategies that grow Society participation and philanthropic revenue.
• Use program results, donor feedback, and portfolio data to support annual analysis and recommend future adjustments to the CDO.

Donor Portfolio Management and Fundraising

• Manage 150-200 active donors and qualified prospects within the assigned leadership-giving segment.
• Regularly qualify and rebalance the portfolio by retaining, upgrading, advancing, or removing records as appropriate.
• Develop and execute individualized cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies that secure unrestricted and restricted gifts aligned with approved Foundation priorities.
• Conduct a minimum of 10-12 off-site, in-person donor and prospect meetings each month, emphasizing face-to-face cultivation and solicitation in addition to ongoing phone, email, written, and digital follow-up.
• Achieve an assigned annual fundraising goal and maintain an accurate, current pipeline and revenue forecast.

Donor Engagement and Stewardship

• Create meaningful donor experiences through Museum visits, briefings, events, recognition opportunities, and tailored engagement connected to individual interests.
• Deliver timely stewardship, renewal, and benefit fulfillment that demonstrates impact and reinforces the value of continued giving.
• Partner with Marketing and Communications on donor appeals, collateral, digital content, Society materials, and recognition communications.

Development Team Collaboration and Donor Continuity

• Partner with appropriate members of the Development team to coordinate donor strategies, share information, provide referrals, and support moves management across all giving levels.
• Maintain established donor relationships regardless of giving level while engaging colleagues with relevant expertise, including referring planned giving inquiries to the Director of Planned Giving and collaborating as appropriate.
• Collaborate across AFMF departments and, when appropriate, with Museum colleagues to provide donors with coordinated, confidential, and mission-aligned engagement.

Data, CRM, and Fundraising Operations

• Maintain timely and accurate records in Raiser's Edge NXT, including substantive contacts, cultivation strategies, solicitations, proposals, ask amounts, donor interests, outcomes, next steps, and referrals.
• Use reports and dashboards to monitor renewals, retention, upgrades, portfolio movement, solicitation activity, and progress toward fundraising goals.
• Partner with Data and Analytics on gift processing, record quality, reporting, and stewardship fulfillment while retaining direct responsibility for assigned relationship records.

Performance Expectations

Specific annual goals will be established with the CDO and may be adjusted on an annual basis based on organizational priorities, portfolio performance, and program needs. Performance will be evaluated across these KPI categories:

• Achievement of the assigned annual fundraising and gift-closure goals.
• Donor renewal, retention, and upgrade performance, including growth in Society participation and revenue.
• Portfolio quality, qualification, movement, and consistent execution of individualized donor strategies.
• Completion of a minimum of 10-12 off-site, in-person donor and prospect meetings per month and related solicitation activity.
• Effective collaboration, referrals, and coordinated moves management across the Development team, including appropriate engagement of Planned Giving.
• Timely, complete, and accurate CRM documentation, pipeline management, forecasting, and reporting.
• Effective execution, annual analysis, and continuous improvement of the 1923 Society program.

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.
• Minimum of five years of progressively responsible experience in frontline fundraising, annual giving, membership fundraising, or a closely related development role.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Demonstrated success managing donor relationships or a fundraising portfolio and moving donors through cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.
• Demonstrated success personally soliciting and closing annual or leadership-level gifts, including face-to-face solicitations.
• Demonstrated success retaining and upgrading donors and meeting assigned fundraising goals.
• Demonstrated ability to use a donor CRM and fundraising data to document activity, guide strategy, manage priorities, and evaluate performance.
• Strong written, verbal, presentation, relationship-building, organizational, and follow-through skills.
• Ability to work independently, manage multiple priorities, collaborate across teams, exercise sound judgment, and protect confidential donor information.
• Ability and willingness to travel occasionally throughout the United States and participate in evening and weekend donor events or Foundation activities as needed.
• Adherence to strict confidentiality of member and donor-related information, as well as all gift information files, documents, and reports.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience building, launching, or growing a leadership annual giving, mid-level giving, membership, or donor recognition program.
• Familiarity with donor segmentation, moves management, prospect development, and national donor engagement.
• Experience with Raiser's Edge NXT or a comparable donor CRM platform.
• Experience in museums, cultural, educational, military heritage, or nonprofit fundraising environments.

Reporting and Work Requirements

The Leadership Giving Officer reports to the Chief Development Officer, has no direct supervisory responsibilities, and is based at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.This position requires off-site donor meetings, occasional U.S. travel, and periodic evening or weekend work.The National Museum of the USAF is open seven days a week. This position is non-supervisory, full-time, salaried, exempt.

Compensation

Other Significant Facts

The Air Force Museum Foundation performs background checks on 100% of its employees prior to hiring. The candidate must be willing to submit to a background check, as a condition of employment.

The Air Force Museum Foundation is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of any characteristic protected by law.

This is a non-DoD position with a private organization and does not require military service (including commission and enlistment).

AFMF Core Values

Candidate must agree to adhere to the Air Force Museum Foundation’s Core Values:

• Passion – Performing our roles with purpose, pride, and a positive attitude.
• Integrity – Accepting responsibility for our actions by making business decisions through experience and good judgment.
• Accountability – Dedicated to achieving positive results; owning and learning from our successes and failures.
• Respect – Committed to an inclusive and collaborative work environment.

Interested applicants should submit applications to:
The Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc.
hiring@afmuseum.com

Please include your resume and cover letter as email attachments.

Please include desired salary expectations.

Please include your first and last name in the titles of these attachments.