VICE PRESIDENT, INDIVIDUAL GIVING November 2022
Vice President, Individual Giving
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ABOUT THE AFRICAN WILDLIFE FOUNDATION African Wildlife Foundation’s mission is to ensure wildlife and wild lands thrive in modern Africa.
The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) is the oldest international conservation organization focused solely on Africa. Since our founding in 1961, AWF has recognized that Africa’s wildlife resources and ecosystems are critical to the future prosperity of Africa and its people. Some key facts about AWF:
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• With a geographic focus on the continent of Africa, AWF works with Africans at the local, regional and national levels to conserve the continent’s tremendous natural resources. • We believe that sustainable development is good for Africa when balanced with biodiversity conservation. • We focus on key African species, including elephants, rhinos, lions and other large carnivores, mountain gorillas and Africa’s other great apes. • AWF is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, with offices throughout Africa and in Europe and North America. Our Conservation Approach For long-lasting impact, conservation in Africa must be done at a large-landscape level, together with local, national and global partners. Conservation must also consider the needs of not simply the wildlife living in the area but also the people. To that end: • Supporting, promoting, investing in African conservation leadership is in our DNA and a fundamental building block
Vice President, Individual Giving
in everything we believe in and do as an organization. • AWF targets large landscapes that include protected areas and a patchwork of lands owned and managed by communities, governments and other stakeholders. • We implement a variety of conservation initiatives, all of which are centered around three specific areas: land,
wildlife and people (including education and enterprise). • AWF incorporates climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts into many of our projects. Because conservation does not always take effect without political will, we also work with governmental partners and regional bodies to effect policy change
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INVESTING IN EFFICIENT, PLANNED, AND SUSTAINABLE UTILIZATION OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES
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THE ROLE Reports to: Senior Vice President, Development & Public Engagement Location: Washington, DC (strong preference) or on EST Salary: $185,000 – $200,000 USD
AWF seeks an ambitious Vice President, Individual Giving to lead a high-functioning, strategic individual giving program. This is a unique opportunity for a sophisticated development professional with excellent management experience and a track record of raising major gifts, in and out of campaigns. This new VP will be responsible for driving the development of the individual giving fundraising strategy and building a highperforming team currently charged with raising $25M annually, with goals to double this individual portfolio through a special gifts campaign of $150M over the next five years.
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The successful candidate will be a senior fundraiser with the vision, technical skill and management experience needed to build a thriving, donor-centric program that includes principal gifts, major gifts, planned giving, mid-level and a membership program. The team is also engaged in the management of AWF’s leadership council and trustee alumni programs. Creativity, a hands-on work and leadership style, and focus on results will be key to the VP’s success. Ideally, this position will be based in Washington, DC and will supervise staff in DC, New York, Austin, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, New England, as well as London and Ottawa.
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RESPONSIBILITIES
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Leadership & Management: • Lead, direct and build a high-functioning individual giving department, including a legacy giving team, major gifts team, mid-level team, membership team, and our growing programs in the UK and in Canada to increase and maximize the revenue from individual donors. Establish new standards of performance and a metrics-based evaluation for both individuals and for the individual giving programs. • Provide leadership and mentoring to the individual giving staff; train and supervise a team of front-line fundraisers tasked with securing 5 -, 6-, 7- and 8- figure gifts. • Build a culture where the marketing, development and programming functions collaborate and make decisions that are informed by reliable market-tested data. • Contribute to organizational strategy and planning as member of Senior Management Committee. • Work with the Development leadership, AWF CEO and Program heads to develop and consistently deliver an inspiring narrative for investing in AWF’s African-led approach and strategic priorities to realize ambitious AWF’s 10-year strategic vision. Fundraising Strategy, Planning & Implementation: • In partnership with the SVP, Development; VP, Corporate & Foundations Relations; and VP, Enterprise Investment and Program Design, develop and implement annual and multiyear fundraising plans in service to the strategic five-year fundraising plan that showcases AWF as the premier global African conservation organization and inspires donors to invest in the mission and work of the organization. • Create and direct all aspects of the individual donor
Vice President, Individual Giving
effort, including the creation of a comprehensive individual giving plan. • Increase the sophistication and effectiveness of donor identification, qualification, engagement, solicitation, and stewardship within fundraising programs as well as donor journey across programs. Work with individual giving teams to build donor-centric cultivation methods and deploy effective moves management strategies that harness the many assets of AWF.
• Expand and diversify AWF’s donor base/pipeline to secure funding for new initiatives. • Oversee the development an effective planned giving program that utilizes all front-line individual team members and delivers a robust and reliable stream of planned gift revenue. • Refine and improve AWF’s membership program including a robust mid-level bridge program focused on stewardship, identification and qualification for our growing major gifts program.
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RESPONSIBILITIES
Board Engagement: • Support the leadership to build out a more robust Board that is capable of contributing 6-, 7- and 8- figure gifts to AWF, and of advancing Board engagement and recruitment. • Contribute to board giving strategies.
• Support SVP, Development with timely and accurate fundraising reports, strategy presentations and other material as needed for the Board Development Committee as well as AWF Canada and UK Boards of Governors.
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• Assist in optimizing AWF’s use of safaris program and safaris industry partners to successfully target and secure new high net worth donors to AWF and use them to inspire additional larger gifts for AWF priority landscapes. • Strengthen donor operations and stewardship (donor communications, events, donor research, data management) and support institutional fundraising efforts as needed. • Develop strong relationships with program staff and effective ways to communicate their work to our donors and prospects, while encouraging collaboration with the development team. • Command and communicate a comprehensive understanding of African Wildlife Foundation’s history, mission, strategic goals, programs, and impact in the context of the critical issues facing the future of Africa’s wildlife. • Work with the VP, Corporate & Foundation Relations; VP, Program Design; VP, Marketing & Communications staff; and national staff, to develop and guide new fundraising programs in UK and Canada markets. • Work with the Vice President, Communications & Marketing to ensure all donor messaging reflects AWF’s African-led conservation approach and celebrates and promotes African conservation leadership, a hallmark of the AWF brand. • Directly manage a select pool of high-net-worth donors; participate in one-on-one cultivations and solicitations with donors.
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QUALIFICATIONS
• Outstanding interpersonal skills, judgment, and ability to collaborate with a wide range of colleagues at the local and global levels. • Demonstrated passion, appreciation and knowledge of Africa, wildlife conservation, international development, and broader African conservation history and strategies. Direct experience working in Africa, with nonprofits working
with wildlife and/or conservation is highly desirable. • Ambitious with a love of fundraising. • Willingness and ability to travel – domestically and internationally. • Multi-lingual, multi-cultural or cross-cultural experience appreciated.
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• Bachelor’s degree required, advanced degree preferred. • Minimum 15 years’ progressive fundraising experience in fundraising from individuals with emphasis on major gifts fundraising, to include minimum 5-7 years at a senior management level with comparable staff and budget responsibilities. • Comprehensive campaign experience highly desirable. • Excellent management skills, experience managing large, autonomous teams. • Demonstrated ability to raise 6-, 7-, and potentially 8-figure gifts from individuals. • Strong leadership skills, with an entrepreneurial spirit and strong business and management skills; demonstrated ability to inspire and motivate staff, donors, volunteers (including trustees), and potential partners a must. • Strong analytic and project management skills; demonstrated experience overseeing and executing complex or multiple time-sensitive projects, including meeting financial goals and project deadlines, monitoring, evaluating and adaptively managing individual performance, programs and budgets, and coordinating the work of key staff and partners. • Ability to succeed in a highly complex, matrixed organization—strong ability to collaborate, influence and persuade others. • Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to influence and engage a wide range of donors and build long-term relationships.
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EMPOWERING AFRICAN OWNERSHIP AND STEWARDSHIP OF WILDLIFE AND WILD LANDS
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HOW TO APPLY All correspondence, at this stage, should be via Oxford HR. To apply for this post, click on the “Apply” button on the job advert page, complete our online application form, and submit your CV and cover letter.
Please provide a CV and cover letter in two different documents, which should be prepared before applying as they will be considered in the application process. The cover letter should be no more than two pages long and explain why you are interested in this post and how your skills and experience make you a good fit. The document should be saved in PDF in the following format: Your First Name-Your Last Name-Document NameDate (mmyy) e.g., Pat-Jones-CV-102022-AWF or Pat-JonesCoverLetter-102022-AWF.
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Timeline Closing Date: 19th December 2022 Screening interviews will be conducted on a rolling basis, so please apply early if you are very interested in this role Selection process All candidates will receive an update regarding their application after the closing date. We advise candidates to add the role email to their safe senders list and regularly check their spam folder.
Vice President, Individual Giving
Equality Statement Equality and diversity are at the core of AWF’s values. Staff are expected to work collectively and individually to promote a constructive and sensitive approach to others from a variety of backgrounds, where the work of others is valued and respected.
Queries If you have any queries on any aspect of the appointment process, need additional information, or would like to have an informal discussion, please email at awf-individual@oxfordhr. co.uk in the first instance.
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ABOUT OXFORD HR Oxford HR operates globally - mainly within the international development and charity sectors. We carry out retained executive search mandates at board and senior management levels. We also offer human resource and organisational development consultancy.
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Oxford HR has many years of experience in search as well as an extensive network of international development, social sector, corporate, public sector, and academic contacts from across the world. We carry out comprehensive and often international searches designed to meet the specific needs of our client.
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OXFORD
LONDON
AMSTERDAM
NAIROBI
SINGAPORE
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Workify Africa
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Oxford
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Nairobi
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United Kingdom
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+44 (0) 1865 985 457
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+254 (0) 797 233 217
+65 9114 1439
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www.oxfordhr.co.uk | Company No. 6456325
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