Director Principal Gifts, Northeast

How many people can answer the question, "What do you do for a living?" with the answer, "I help find cures for cancer." At Blood Cancer United, employees take our mission seriously. Whether you work in one of our regions, are an accountant at the national office or a specialist in our Information Resource Center, you work each day on making our bold goal a reality: to enable patients with blood cancer to gain more than one million years of life by 2040. Join us and give new meaning to the word, "job."

Position Summary: The Director Principal Gifts, Northeast is a senior frontline fundraiser responsible for building and managing long-term relationships with individuals, family foundations, and family offices capable of making transformational gifts. The Director will develop highly personalized engagement strategies, connect donor interests with the organization’s highest-impact priorities, and secure seven and eight-figure commitments that advance Blood Cancer United’s mission.
Working in close partnership with Executive Leadership, Board members, mission leaders, and regional colleagues, the Director will help bring the organization’s boldest opportunities to life for donors across the Northeast.

Key Relationships: 

• Partners closely with Executive Leadership, Board leadership and volunteers, Mission, Donor Engagement, the Transformational Philanthropy prospect researcher, regional fundraising teams, and other cross-functional partners.
• Serves as a trusted relationship manager for principal gift prospects, donors, family foundations, and family offices.

Primary Responsibilities
Transformational Revenue Generation

• Meet or exceed annually established fundraising goals through the identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of principal gift prospects and donors.
• Manage an active portfolio of approximately 30-50 prospects and donors with giving capacity of $1 million or more, primarily across the Northeast.
• Develop compelling, donor-centered opportunities for outright, blended, multi-year, and other complex philanthropic commitments.
• Maintain a consistent rhythm of high-value donor activity, including meaningful personal outreach, meetings, proposals, and solicitations, while collaborating with Donor Engagement to develop and execute thoughtful, personalized stewardship plans.

Donor Strategy and Executive Engagement

• Collaborate with the Donor Engagement team to create and execute customized engagement plans that reflect each donor’s interests, motivations, readiness, and relationship with the organization.
• Work directly with Executive Leadership to prepare for and participate in donor strategy, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship opportunities.
• Thoughtfully engage Board members, mission experts, regional leaders, and other internal partners to deepen relationships and move opportunities forward.
• Serve as a knowledgeable and inspiring mission ambassador, translating complex organizational priorities and research into clear, compelling investment opportunities.

Pipeline and Partnership Management

• Partner closely with the Transformational Philanthropy prospect researcher, as well as regional and enterprise colleagues, to identify, research, and qualify new principal gift prospects and strengthen the transformational giving pipeline.
• Coordinate donor strategies across teams to ensure transparency, clear ownership, thoughtful engagement, and a seamless donor experience.
• Develop and document strategic cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship plans in Salesforce and other organizational tools.
• Monitor portfolio health, activity, next steps, and revenue projections, adjusting strategies as relationships and opportunities evolve.
• Contribute to a collaborative, ambitious, and donor-centered culture across the Philanthropy team.
  

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Seven to ten or more years of progressive experience in major or principal gift fundraising, with demonstrated success securing complex, high-value gifts.
• Proven ability to build trusted relationships with high-net-worth individuals, family foundations, family offices, senior volunteers, and organizational leaders.
• Experience developing donor-centered strategies and aligning philanthropic interests with institutional priorities.
• Strong executive presence, judgment, communication, and collaboration skills.
• Ability to manage multiple sophisticated relationships and opportunities with focus, discretion, and accountability.
• Proficiency with Salesforce or a comparable constituent relationship management system preferred.

Travel and Work Environment

• Regular travel throughout the Northeast and to organization-wide meetings and events, approximately 40%-50% of the time.
• Periodic evening and weekend work is required.
• Physical demands are minimal and typical of similar roles in comparable organizations. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

Employee Value Proposition:
As a valued member of Blood Cancer United, you are eligible for a comprehensive benefits package. Our offerings include medical, dental, and vision insurance; life insurance; flexible spending accounts; a 403b retirement plan along with generous paid time off. In addition, we observe federal paid holidays throughout the year, and offer a wellness program and an employee assistance program.
We are excited to share the base pay range for this position is $107K to $160K. The offered compensation may vary based on factors such as geographic location, business need, market conditions, proficiencies, skills, education, and experience. Additionally, at Blood Cancer United we place a high value on internal pay equity and will consider the current compensation of similarly situated roles and direct team members. Base compensation is only one component of our Total Rewards program, which also includes an annual incentive plan and a competitive benefits package.

The statements herein are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by employees, and are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of responsibilities, duties, and skills required of employees.  Furthermore, they do not establish a contract for employment and are subject to change at the discretion of the Company.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Disclaimer

Blood Cancer United is an equal employment opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion in its workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender, gender identity and expression (including transgender status), sexual orientation, pregnancy, age, race, color, creed, national origin/ancestry, citizenship, religion, genetic predisposition or information, physical or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Blood Cancer United seeks such skilled and qualified individuals to share our mission and where they will join a cohort of others who have chosen to call Blood Cancer United home. Blood Cancer United complies with all applicable laws which prohibit discrimination and harassment in the workplace, and is committed to maintaining a diverse and inclusive environment supportive of all of our employees and the communities we serve.