Major Gift Officer

Major Gift Officer

At Wellesley, our mission is to deliver an outstanding liberal arts education to women who will make a difference in the world. Our collaborative community, comprising of faculty, students, staff, and alumnae, is guided by our shared commitment to educational excellence. Join us in this transformative journey!

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The Major Gift Officer will manage a portfolio of 250 high-capacity prospects rated $250,000 to $1,000,000 or more, including alumnae, parents, and friends of the College. The Major Gift Officer will be responsible for developing personalized strategies for engagement and solicitation that maximize each individuals philanthropic capacity and support for the Colleges funding priorities, as well as broad-based engagement, qualification, and cultivation strategies for pool segments as a whole. The Major Gift Officer will collaborate across the department to move prospects and donors through the pipeline and solicit gifts, working closely with frontline colleagues in The Wellesley Fund, Gift Planning, and the Principal Gifts team. In addition to managing an assigned portfolio of prospects, the Major Gift Officer will be responsible for a special assignment to a particular Friends, affinity group, or strategic priority, serving as the captain, both building support for and serving as liaison with campus partners and bringing back to the Department information and updates.

Wellesley College was founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant, who were passionate about the higher education of women. The first president, and nearly all the Colleges early faculty and staff were women. Today, Wellesley is still known as a unique community that continues to send accomplished women out into the world, committed to making a difference. Situated on a breathtaking campus in the quintessentially New England town of Wellesley, and home to over 2,400 of the highest-achieving female undergraduates in the world, Wellesley is a lively learning community dedicated to probing inquiry and creative, cross-disciplinary thinking.

The College also fields 13 athletic teams that compete in the NCAA Division III New England Womens and Mens Athletic Conference, which includes the 2022 NCAA Division III rowing champions. With an alumnae base of more than 35,000, the women of Wellesley continue to support the institution, and one another, long after they leave the beautiful campus. This powerful network of alumnae helped the College raise a record breaking $514 million in its most recent campaign, The Wellesley Effect. Wellesleys motto, Non Ministrari sed Ministrare (Not to be ministered unto, but to minister), is evident in the Colleges mission to provide an excellent liberal arts education to women who will make a difference in the world.

Wellesley is committed to creating the conditions that make it possible for all students and all members of its community to excel. Inclusive excellence represents the strength of difference and the power this gives Wellesley to fulfill its mission. Wellesley was founded on the radical idea that women have an equal right to the best education in the country. It still believesin fact, it knows from experiencethat the boldest ideas, the brightest solutions, and the healthiest communities draw on a range of voices, perspectives, and experiences. It is dedicated to ensuring that all members of the Wellesley community have an equal opportunity to flourish, no matter their race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, physical ability, or any other category that can be used to divide people.

The Major Gift Officer will report to the Director of Major Gifts and Leadership Annual Giving, Farrah R. Rubenstein.

Wellesley has a longstanding tradition of educating women who will go on to make a difference in the world. The best and brightest students from across the world join our community to learn from brilliant faculty at the forefront of their fields, explore new interdisciplinary areas of study, and pursue their passions. A Wellesley education prepares students to reach their highest aspirations. Our alumnae go on to live lives of service and leadership and are passionately committed to ensuring todays students and faculty have the resources they need to thrive. Their unwavering support has enabled Wellesley to continue need-blind admission for all domestic applicants and to meet 100 percent of calculated financial need for admitted students, eliminating socioeconomic status as a barrier to education. Our alumnae helped Wellesley to build a brand-new Science Complex to provide students with access to a first-class STEM education and unique research opportunities unavailable at many undergraduate institutions. They care deeply about the College, its traditions, and its future. And so do we. The Major Gift Officer will join a strong team with extensive institutional knowledge. I am looking for someone who thinks creatively and strategically about our philanthropic goals; a fundraiser who can connect with alumnae across a range of ages, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and experiences; who can motivate a team to inspire prospective donors to support Wellesley. Wellesley was founded on the radical idea that educating women leads to progress for everyone. I believe in the vital role of womens education in shaping the leaders of tomorrow and am proud that Wellesley is a global leader in teaching and empowering women to change the world. Rarely does one have the opportunity to work at an institution where you can have such an extraordinary impact. I look forward to supporting an equally passionate and energized fundraiser who will help us lead Wellesley, and the world, toward an extraordinary future.

The Major Gift Officer will :

• Cultivate and solicit Wellesley alumnae, parents, and friends with the capacity to make gifts of $250,000 or more to support College priorities, employing appropriate strategies and tactics in prospect and portfolio management that meet donor interaction and dollar goals including traveling to meet with prospects and donors;
• Collaborate with other frontline colleagues in the department to identify prospects for The Wellesley Fund and Gift Planning, as well as those who might be principal gift prospects;
• Create and execute strategies and plans for an assigned portfolio of alumnae, parents, and friends of the College, traveling nationally and internationally across multiple geographic regions;
• Work with Donor Relations and Development Marketing to identify and create cultivation and stewardship collateral as needed; and
• Participate in events on campus, as well as other national and international events as scheduled throughout the year at which alumnae, parents, and friends are present, such as Family & Friends Weekend, Commencement, and Reunion.

Farrah R. Rubenstein is Wellesleys inaugural Director of Major Gifts and Leadership Annual Giving. In this role, she is building a new fundraising unit to provide deeper and broader coverage of Wellesleys robust alumnae and donor pool. Once fully staffed, the Major Gifts team will cover a portfolio of 2,200 prospects and donors rated $250,000 up to $5,000,000; and the Leadership Annual Giving team will cover a portion of the 6,500 prospects and donors rated between $10,000 up to $250,000. Rubenstein has spent more than two decades working in social change and education philanthropy, most recently at the Berklee College of Music and at Brandeis University. She delights in providing sophisticated and budding philanthropists opportunities to support the enduring need to educate women to lead change in the world.

Marisa Jaffe 95 is Associate Vice President for Development and oversees gift planning in addition to her responsibilities leading principal gifts, leadership giving, and corporate and foundation relations. Jaffe earned her B.A. from Wellesley and her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. After working as a litigation associate at Boston firms for corporate clients, Jaffe returned to her alma mater to begin what has become a 17-year career in development, mostly at Wellesley. In addition to her time at Wellesley, she worked at Harvard Medical School (HMS) as Director of Development, Principal and Major Gifts, supporting the departments of Global Health and Systems Biology. Jaffe launched the principal gifts program ahead of the Colleges most recent record-breaking Wellesley Effect campaign. Jaffe has served as Interim Vice President for the Development Office twice. She is eager to contribute to creating a more fluid pipeline that runs through The Wellesley Fund, Major Gifts, Principal Gifts, and Gifts Planning. Jaffe continues to be inspired by the cadre of generous donors and alumnae she works with every day, knowing first-hand the profound impact of a Wellesley education.

Wellesley College seeks a Major Gift Officer with :