Summary
Description
Why STARability Is Building a Development Team — Right Now
STARability Foundation, an organization supporting individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities, is in the midst of a transformational $60 million capital campaign, Opening Doors — and the response so far has confirmed something we've long known: our donor base is deep, loyal, and ready to invest in our mission. What we haven't had is the infrastructure to fully engage them.
That's why we're not filling one role — we're building an entire Development team from the ground up. This is a rare opportunity to join an organization at a true inflection point, where the foundation (a strong case for support, an engaged donor base, and momentum from a major campaign) is already in place, and the new team has the exciting job of building the systems, programs, and deepening relationships that will sustain this growth for years to come. We're creating complementary roles that will work as a team and embrace collaboration with our partners in the Programming department and incredible volunteers.
Position Summary
The Director of Individual Giving builds and manages a portfolio of donors giving in the range (typically $100–$25,000 annually), serving as the bridge between the organization's broad-based annual fund and its major gifts program. This role is relationship-driven: the Director of Individual Giving understand donor cultivation and has experience increasing donation capacity. They understand the value of identifying donors for major giving ($25K+) and works with the Major Gift Officer to provide these prospects with customized cultivation. This individual is creative and understands the importance of a case for support for annual giving and is confidant in how they personalize cultivation and stewardship for qualified donors.
Key Responsibilities and Expectations
- Manage a portfolio of 100–150 mid-level donors, developing individualized cultivation and stewardship plans for each.
- Ability to demonstrate a strong understanding of how to use donor metrics to implement new donor and annual donor retention and growth strategies
- Conduct strategic and routine donor outreach – has experience that demonstrates the candidate understands this expectations.
- Design and implement a mid-level giving strategy, including a donor society or recognition program, tailored communications, and upgrade asks.
- Identify and qualify prospects within the portfolio for potential referral to the major gifts team based on capacity, affinity, and readiness.
- Solicit renewals and upgraded gifts, and personally close gifts within an assigned dollar threshold.
- Partner with the Philanthropy staff to identify possible sponsorship opportunities for events
- Coordinate timely, personalized gift acknowledgments and stewardship touchpoints (impact updates, invitations, recognition).
- Track all donor interactions, moves-management stages, and next steps in the CRM/donor database.
- Support donor-facing events, site visits, and small-group cultivation and stewardship gatherings.
- Monitor portfolio performance against retention, upgrade, and revenue goals; report progress regularly to the Chief Philanthropy Officer.
- Potential to manage annual giving staff.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience; 2–4 years of experience in nonprofit fundraising, donor relations, or a related relationship-management role.
- Demonstrated ability to build genuine rapport with donors and manage a multi-touch portfolio.
- Comfort with direct donor solicitation and confidence discussing giving levels and upgrades.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills, with attention to a warm, personalized donor experience.
- Experience using a CRM/donor database to manage portfolios and track moves management (e.g., Raiser's Edge, Salesforce, Bloomerang, or similar).
- Highly organized, self-motivated, and able to prioritize a high volume of donor touchpoints.
- Willingness to travel locally for donor meetings and occasional evening/weekend event support.
