June 12th, 2024
The Thacher School
Director of Leadership Giving
( California | Hybrid )
Job Description
Director of Leadership Giving
The Thacher School
Ojai, CA – Hybrid
Founded in 1889 by Sherman Day Thacher, The Thacher School serves academically talented students from 24 states and 9 countries in a rigorous college preparatory experience. The faculty and students live and work closely together on a 427-acre campus nestled in the foothills of the Los Padres National Forest in Ojai, California (85 miles north of Los Angeles). Honor, fairness, kindness, and truth are the cornerstones of school life. Together, the school community commits to the belief that demands in the academic classroom, when combined with those of mountains and horses, of sports and the arts, produce independent minds, strong bodies, and powerful character.
Thacher trains young people in the art of living for their own greatest good and for the greatest good of their fellow citizens in a diverse and changing world. To that end, the School augments its highly challenging academic program with profound lessons learned from the care of a horse, regular chores around the School, teamwork on playing fields, outstanding instruction in the arts, the give and take of everyday life with schoolmates and teachers, and adventures shared in the wilderness. The aim is to inspire and encourage hard work, integrity, self-reliance, a lifelong love of learning and truth, self-knowledge, and a deep concern for the world in which we live.
With an operating budget of $29 million and an endowment of $170 million, Thacher’s track record of fundraising has a strong foundation on which to continually build. In June 2021, they finished the $197 million “Next Peak” Capital Campaign to enhance the endowment, create a new Dining Hall, and the new Creativity and Technology Center. Annual giving and events programs are also robust—42% percent of alumni and 90% of parents supported the School last year.
Reporting to the Director of Development and collaborating closely with a Leadership Giving Team of four, the Director of Leadership Giving is responsible for identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding Major Gifts ($25,000-$1,000,000) and Annual Fund leadership gifts ($10,000-$50,000).
The Director of Leadership Giving will work with prospective donors to determine their philanthropic interests related to the School’s fundraising goals through the Annual Fund, Endowment, Capital, and Planned Giving Programs, while serving as an integral team player within the Alumni and Development office and with their team and department leadership.
Thacher is open to hybrid work model, in which the Director of Leadership Giving would be expected to be on campus 6-10 days a month. They can anticipate traveling locally and long distance approximately 50% of the time.
Candidates must have at least five to ten years of experience in successfully cultivating, soliciting, and closing leadership gifts.
To express interest, please submit your cover letter and resume in confidence https://apptrkr.com/5319250
For more information, please visit www.developmentguild.com.
For more information about The Thacher School, please visit https://www.thacher.org/