Director of Annual Giving

ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW

The LifeFlight Foundation is a small, private non-profit charity with an important public mission dedicated to assuring that everyone in Maine has access to emergency medical care when they need it most. The LifeFlight Foundation supports LifeFlight of Maine, a distinct but interrelated 501(c)3 nonprofit and an internationally recognized leader in transport medicine. It is LifeFlight of Maine’s stated objective to demonstrate through practice the highest levels of safety and quality. LifeFlight operates medical helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, and specialized ground teams providing a full range of transport services for both interhospital and direct scene support.

As more rural communities struggle to provide a full spectrum of emergency services and as specialty care becomes more and more centralized in Maine’s largest hospitals, the need for LifeFlight’s services is increasing. As part of our response, we are expanding our team.

The Foundation raises funds for aircraft, medical equipment, hospital helipads, statewide aviation improvements and the many educational outreach programs provided by LifeFlight of Maine.

Vision: The LifeFlight Foundation and LifeFlight of Maine hold a shared vision of Maine as a place where every person, in every community, has access to critical care and medical transport when they need it.

POSITION DECRIPTION

The LifeFlight Foundation is seeking an innovative and experienced development professional to serve as its first Director of Annual Giving. The Director will develop, lead, and manage a strategic and comprehensive annual giving program that reflects industry best practices designed to maximize charitable contributions.

This is an exciting opportunity for a talented, committed, and collaborative professional to join a small development team where he/she can have an immediate impact and add tremendous value.  The Director will build on past appeal success to create a robust, multi-faceted annul fund campaign; will serve as the Foundation’s primary point of contact with our event management contractor for the annual Cross For LifeFlight event and golf tournament; and will oversee the Foundation’s annual town outreach campaign.  This important position reports directly to the Foundation’s Executive Director.

The Foundation office is located in Camden, Maine and the team is currently working (safely) in the office. The Director can work remotely from within Maine but is expected to be in Camden 1-3 days/week as needed.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree in communications, organization management, healthcare, philanthropy, or business is desirable.
• Preference of three-five years’ experience in philanthropy or related field with demonstrated competence in planning and executing a successful annual giving campaign.
• Experience with event planning, marketing, management, and peer-peer fundraising is preferred.
• Major, planned, and campaign experience is beneficial but not a prerequisite.

Required minimum knowledge, skills, and abilities

• Able to prioritize and take initiative to offer creative solutions and solve problems.
• Excellent communicator – possessing both strong writing and verbal skills. Comfortable with public speaking engagements.
• Consistently demonstrate strong sense of urgency and drive to achieve goals, meet deadlines, and maintain focus on key initiatives.
• Project management skills – must be well organized with the ability to successfully manage simultaneous complex projects.
• Possess solid understanding of traditional development programs.
• Strong analytic skills.
• Enjoys forging relationships both internally and externally with various constituencies.
• Proficient and comfortable with MS Office programs – Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.
• Facile with Zoom and other video conferencing and/or webinar technologies
• Direct experience with data input and output in a donor database. Experience with Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge is preferred.
• Exceptional judgement, personal integrity, and ability to nurture and maintain positive relationships with tight-knit team is essential.
• Ability and willingness to work a flexible schedule that may often include weekends and evenings.
• Valid driver’s license.

Key Programmatic Areas

Annual Fund Outreach, Engagement, and Stewardship:

1. Works in partnership with the Executive Director to plan and execute the vision and strategy for the LifeFlight Foundation Annual Fund, including goals, objectives, budgets, and operational plans. This includes but is not limited to:

• Prior year analysis and realistic goal setting.
• Creation and execution of a multi-faceted and segmented outreach strategy for the entire year (working in conjunction with LifeFlight Director of Communications), including:
  • Direct mail collateral
  • Email campaign
  • Social media plan
  • Web site content and updates
  • Personal donor calls and visits
  • Metric analysis to determine ROI on various outreach
  • Event marketing
• Analysis and strategy for various constituent segments
  • Ongoing reporting and strategy refinement to meet goals.
  • Developing and delivering a donor stewardship plan.

1. Performs data entry in Raiser’s Edge to track actions and outreach.
2. Partners with the LifeFlight Development Associate to build queries and generate Raiser’s Edge reports as needed in relation to assigned duties.
3. Utilizes data and tools in RE to refine donor outreach strategies.
4. Writes annual fund articles and actively participates in the planning process for Foundation publications as needed.

Town/Municipality/Civic Group Outreach:

1. Leads the planning, organizing, and execution of annual outreach to Maine’s municipalities to seek continued, increased, and new monetary support.
2. Creates outreach material to be sent to municipalities throughout the year.
3. Maintains and coordinates schedule and serves as primary Foundation representative at all town meetings that require a presentation.
4. Determines and fulfills related request obligations, such as town applications and petitions.
5. Creates and oversees a timely and meaningful town giving stewardship plan.
6. Creates and regularly shares verbal and written updates on results.
7. Records all actions and requests in the donor database in a timely and thorough way.
8. Identifies and coordinates opportunities for presentations and requests for support from groups and organizations across the state.

Foundation Lead for Annual Events:

              Cross For LifeFlight

1. Works with outsourced event management partner to plan, refine, expand, and execute the Foundation’s largest annual event, which happens every summer.
2. Coordinates needed support from other members of the Foundation team, Board, and committees.
3. Regularly tracks and reports on key aspects of event planning and results to proactively address potential concerns and create opportunities for improvement.
4. Annual targets: 300-450 participants, $500-$600,000 gross revenue
5. Aggressively manages and tracks expenses to protect event ROI.
6. Identifies, cultivates, solicits, and stewards event sponsors.

              Annual Golf Tournament

1. Partners with LifeFlight of Maine leadership to plan and execute annual golf tournament.
2. Annual targets: 36 teams, sponsorships, $40-$50,000 gross revenue
3. Identifies, cultivates, solicits, and stewards event sponsors.

Leadership Annual Gifts:

1. Manages an active pool of 25-50 leadership annual gift prospects and donors to strategically advance them through the engagement cycle for gifts of $5,000 - $25,000.
2. Responsible for developing strategies specifically tailored to individual prospects to move them through the donor engagement process in an efficient and effective manner.
3. Creates specific proposals to engage and inspire prospects and donors.
4. Delivers creative, authentic, timely donor stewardship.

Serves as the Foundation Liaison to the Board Development Committee:

1. Works with the Executive Director and Committee Chair to determine committee priorities and goals.
2. Partners with Committee Chair to create and distribute meeting agendas, materials, and minutes.
3. Tracks and manages meeting “action items” to ensure progress is made between meetings.
4. Works with Executive Director and Committee Chair to create quarterly committee reports for presentation to the Board of Trustees.

Applications will be accepted through April 5, 2021 or until the position is filled. Please submit an electronic letter of introduction, resume, and three professional references to: Renee Johnson, Development Associate – rljohnson@lifeflightmaine.org . Renee can be reached at 207.230.7092 for questions.

 It is anticipated the selected individual for this position will begin within the month of May or early June. Compensation range is $75,000 - $90,000 depending on experience, plus benefits.