United States of America: Major Gifts Officer

ABOUT LAST MILE HEALTH

Founded by survivors of Liberia’s civil war, Last Mile Health (LMH) (known in Liberia as Tiyatien Health) is committed to saving lives in the world’s most remote villages. Working in remote jungle communities cut off from even basic life-saving health services, LMH is building a health system that reaches everyone—by bringing health care to villagers’ doorsteps. LMH trains community members to be health practitioners for their villages and connects them with rural health clinics to offer every person access to the care they deserve. These Frontline Health Workers are able to prevent, diagnose, and treat the top ten most life-threatening health conditions. LMH plans to leverage this experience to help the Liberian government design, deploy and sustain a national network of community health workers that can have a transformative impact on maternal and child health outcomes in remote communities.

Over the past six months, a historic outbreak of the Ebola virus has devastated Liberia and has tragically demonstrated that weak, inequitable health systems leave everybody vulnerable. To match a historic crisis with a historic response, LMH is partnering with Boston-based, Partners in Health (PIH) to launch a significant expansion of LMH’s model, integrated with a package of Ebola treatment and hospital strengthening efforts led by PIH. The goal of this project is to deploy a comprehensive health system—from life-saving essential primary care services in remote communities all the way to strong inpatient Ebola and tertiary care in regional hospitals—for approximately 150,000 rural Liberians, and to work with the Liberian government to sustain that system and expand it to the rest of the country over the coming years. LMH will also work alongside the Liberian government to direct major new sources of funding towards long-term health system strengthening efforts to protect and maintain progress on MDGs 4, 5 and 6 relating to infant and maternal mortality – critical health measures that have regressed most acutely in remote communities since the Ebola outbreak.

GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY:

The Partnerships & Development team is playing a critical role in identifying new areas of collaboration and leveraging new resources to expand the scope and impact of LMH’s transformative work in Liberia. In the face of the Ebola crisis, the Partnerships & Development team is accelerating its priorities to position LMH to make a lasting, significant contribution to the lives of those in Liberia’s most remote communities. The Partnerships & Development team is growing its operation to enable it to secure more funding from multilaterals, engage new institutional funders, encourage disaster response funders to support underlying country-owned health system strengthening plans and improve communications to reinforce LMH’s role as a thought leader in the global health community.

The Major Gifts Officer will manage LMH’s relationships with individuals and philanthropies providing major financial gifts to the organization. This individual will help the Chief Development Officer develop and implement a major gifts strategy to double funding streams from individuals and philanthropies in 12-months and by 5-fold by 2016.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

• Work with the Chief Development Officer to develop and implement strategies to achieve assigned annual targets for major gifts.
• Develop a strategy to identify philanthropies aligned with LMH’s mission and values and outline a road map to pursue these untapped resources and maintain new funding streams over the long-term.
• Develop and implement cultivation and solicitation strategies for prospective individual donors and family foundations.
• Develop and execute a stewardship and recognition program for current donors
• Effectively and consistently contact donors to secure financial support for Last Mile Health's mission
• Leverage current relationships, set up meetings, and arrange briefing materials for the CDO, CEO, Board members and other senior members of the organization
• Plan, develop and manage engagement events and activities to recognize and motivate current and prospective donors
• Diligently use and support donor relationship management tools, such as Salesforce
• Develop and write proposals, presentations, concept papers and other program materials, which align prospects to LMH’s needs
• Provide analysis and reports to track major giving progress toward fundraising goals
• Prepare major gifts contribution status reports for board and organization’s leadership
• Work with the Communications Manager to develop informative and compelling communication materials aimed at philanthropic donors.
• Provide regular status reports and other assistance as needed by the Chief Development Officer.

REPORTING RELATIONSHIPS:

REPORTS DIRECTLY TO: Chief Development Officer, Partnerships & Development

WORKS DIRECTLY WITH: Communications Manager

SUPERVISES:

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

· Bachelor’s degree required

· 1-3 years experience supporting a non-profit manage relationships with philanthropies and individual donors and major gifts prospecting

· Exceptional verbal and written communication skills and ability to develop clear and convincing presentation materials

· Strong interpersonal and networking skills

· Ability to work independently with limited structural support

· Successful and proven negotiation, communication and organization skills.

· Generosity of spirit, sensitivity/diplomacy, and willingness to make sacrifices in service of the mission

· Commitment to health and social justice

· Flexibility and ability to handle multiple tasks at one time in time-sensitive manner

· Comfort working with a casual but high-performing team

· High degree of English fluency required

SUCCESS FACTORS:

A successful Major Gifts Officer will be able to quickly familiarize themselves with LMH’s current large donors and start supporting the Chief Development Officer in shaping and executing a major gifts strategy. This individual is extremely comfortable engaging potential donors and can confidently articulate LMH’s value proposition and areas of alignment with them. The Major Gifts Officer will have a natural ability to make philanthropies and other large donors feel appreciated and an integral part of LMH’s mission.

Commitment: 40 hours/week

Location: Boston, MA or New York, NY

Compensation: Salary commensurate with experience

Apply: Applications accepted on a rolling basis via the Last Mile Health website, www.lastmilehealth.org .