Nonprofit Job Titles: Fundraising

Nonprofit jobs and for-profit positions generally share the same titles. A Chief Executive Officer at a big corporation is still going to have that same title at a smaller nonprofit.  There are some jobs, however, that you are not going to find in a typical business.

Chief among those titles would be any in the category of fundraising. Whether it's a Major Gifts Officer or a Fundraising Manager, there are many different job titles in the nonprofit sector that deal with raising money for the organization. Let's take a look at some of the more popular ones, straight from our career center:

• Major Gifts Officer: These individuals are in charge of cultivating donors that have the capability of donating large amounts of money. What constitutes a major gift varies by organization, though it's usually in the thousands.
• Manager of Special Events: Special events are often a great source of funding for organizations. Managers of these events will be in charge of oversight of all aspects of event management and logistics for organization events including site and vendor selection, contract negotiation, management of timelines and logistics, development of graphic design and printed materials, tribute video production, program and scripting, on-site event management, and budgeting and post event analysis.
• Director of Annual Giving: The Director is responsible for raising support to aid the organization  mission through growing the unrestricted Annual Fund as well as restricted gifts.

You can find more nonprofit job titles by visiting our Search by Titles page.

Nonprofit Job Titles

It always helps to know what you want.  This is especially true when looking for a job.  Before you start your job search, you should have a good idea of the kind of work you want to do.  There are countless positions in the nonprofit sector.  Knowing the various nonprofit job titles, and the roles they play, is a good first step to landing a quality job.

Let's get one thing clear: It's going to be next to impossible to memorize the descriptions for every job title you are interested in.  That's why you need to narrow it down to the possibilities that make the most sense for you.  You may be interested in a fundraising job, but it's highly unlikely you will land a high level position in that line of work if you are just graduating college.  What title would you hunt for this kind of position?  Here are some examples:

• Major Gifts Officer-Will identify and cultivate major gift opportunities.  Often times will be responsible for writing donor briefings, special correspondence, and proposals.
• Planned Giving Officer: This position is responsible for designing and implementing fundraising programs for planned giving.  They will also be in charge of handling deferred and insurance gifts.

Typically, any fundraising title below "director" is considered entry level.  You can do a Google search for "nonprofit job titles" to discover even more positions.  If you want to know even more about these jobs, such as how much they pay, I would recommend taking a look at The NonProfit Times' Salary and Benefits Report.