Director of Philanthropy in at Kesem

REPORTS TO: Chief Operating Officer & Chief Growth Officer

ABOUT KESEM:

We are a nationwide community, driven by passionate college student leaders, that supports children through and beyond their parent’s cancer with innovative, fun-filled programs that foster a lasting community.

ABOUT THE POSITION:
The Director of Philanthropy is Kesem’s relationship fundraiser responsible for growing major gifts, strategic foundation partnerships, transformational philanthropy, and other significant individual and institutional funding opportunities.

The Director builds and manages a portfolio of high-value donors and prospects, personally cultivates and solicits significant gifts, and develops relationships with private and family foundations and other philanthropic partners. A major priority of the role is building Kesem’s pipeline of high-capacity Chapter-connected donors, working across Development and Chapter Operations to identify strong prospects, determine the right relationship strategy and lead, and develop opportunities that can deepen support for a Chapter, National priorities, or both.

The Director also builds a strong pipeline for CEO and COO/CGO engagement, guides Kesem’s most significant philanthropic relationships, and manages the Philanthropy & Prospect Development Coordinator, who supports prospect research, foundation execution, stewardship coordination, and portfolio administration.

The Kesem Development Team shares collective accountability for achieving Kesem’s overall fundraising goals. Every team member is expected to work across revenue streams, identify opportunities, and pursue the strongest outcome for Kesem rather than optimizing only for a single internal revenue category.

KESEM'S VALUES

The Director of Philanthropy must uphold and build a culture that continues to support and strengthen the following behaviors to help us realize our vision:

• Continuous learning - We operate with curiosity and a willingness to try new things, and we see our successes and setbacks as opportunities for growth.
• Accountability - We are individually and collectively responsible for advancing our mission.
• Resilience - We empower and support each other through challenges while fostering a spirit of joy and hopefulness.
• Empathy - We seek to understand and appreciate other perspectives and experiences.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS & RESPONSIBILITIES

Major Gifts & Chapter-Connected Philanthropy

• Build, manage, and grow a qualified portfolio of major donors and prospects with clear goals for cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, renewal, upgrade, and revenue.
• Personally cultivate, solicit, close, and steward significant individual gifts through relationship strategies grounded in donor interests, capacity, giving history, and Kesem’s priorities.
• Build a strong Chapter-to-major-gift pipeline in partnership with Development Operations & Revenue Intelligence, and Chapter Operations, ensuring high-potential Chapter donors are systematically identified, qualified, and developed.
• Determine the appropriate lead and relationship strategy for significant Chapter-connected prospects, partnering with Chapters when local relationships should remain central and personally leading cultivation and solicitation when senior fundraising expertise can strengthen the opportunity.
• Grow major giving from Chapter-connected donors regardless of whether the resulting support ultimately benefits the Chapter, National priorities, or a coordinated combination.
• Prioritize retained major donors, lapsed and lapsing donors, Board- and alumni-connected prospects, and other high-capacity relationships surfaced through Kesem’s prospecting systems.
• Develop strategies for donor-advised funds, stock, QCDs, planned and legacy giving, family philanthropy, and other complex gifts.

Foundation & Institutional Philanthropy

• Lead relationship strategy for significant private, family, community, healthcare, and other foundation opportunities.
• Personally lead cultivation, asks, and stewardship for new, large, complex, or strategically significant foundation relationships.
• Develop philanthropic strategies that connect individuals, families, family foundations, donor-advised entities, and other related relationships.
• Translate Kesem’s strategic priorities, program growth, and expansion opportunities into compelling fundable opportunities and match them to the strongest prospects.
• Review and strengthen significant proposals, LOIs, concept notes, budgets, reports, and multi-year funding strategies while the Philanthropy & Prospect Development Coordinator manages routine renewals, applications, research, and grant administration.
• Maintain visibility into both National and Chapter foundation pipelines and identify opportunities with broader organizational potential.

• Partner with the CEO and COO/CGO to identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward Kesem’s highest-capacity and most strategically significant donors and funders.
• Build and maintain a pipeline of opportunities for CEO and executive engagement and determine where their involvement can meaningfully advance a relationship.
• Prepare senior leaders and Board members with prospect strategy, relationship history, meeting objectives, talking points, ask guidance, and clear next steps.
• Manage and prioritize the CEO’s philanthropy-facing engagement calendar with support from the Philanthropy & Prospect Development Coordinator.
• Guide relationship strategy, timing, ask amount, positioning, and the appropriate involvement of Board members, staff leaders, Chapters, and other connectors.

Pipeline, Moves Management & Stewardship

• Lead Kesem’s major-gift and foundation pipeline and moves-management practices, ensuring significant opportunities have clear ownership, strategy, next actions, ask amounts, timing, and forecasts.
• Partner with Development Operations & Revenue Intelligence on wealth screening, segmentation, and systematic prospect identification; direct deeper research and qualification of priority prospects.
• Establish clear standards for portfolio assignment, qualification, handoffs, and relationship ownership across Chapter and National fundraising.
• Ensure major donors, strategic foundations, and significant prospects have intentional stewardship and engagement plans, including appropriate use of camp visits, events, program experiences, executive engagement, and other mission connections.
• Ensure donor commitments, restrictions, reports, recognition, and follow-through are fulfilled accurately and on time.

• Manage, coach, and develop the Philanthropy & Prospect Development Coordinator, with clear decision rights for routine foundation work, prospect research, stewardship coordination, and portfolio support.
• Partner closely with the Director of Community Fundraising & Revenue Strategy, Director of Events & Major Gifts, Corporate Partnerships, Chapter Operations, Finance, Marketing, and other teams when significant relationships cross functions.
• Apply Kesem’s rules of engagement around relationship ownership, opportunity ownership, revenue designation, and contribution credit.
• Build repeatable systems and delegate execution effectively so substantial Director capacity remains focused on frontline relationship fundraising.

REQUIREMENTS

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• 7+ years of progressive nonprofit fundraising experience with substantial direct responsibility for major gifts, foundation/institutional philanthropy, or closely related relationship fundraising.
• Demonstrated success personally cultivating, soliciting, and closing significant five- and six-figure gifts.
• Demonstrated ability to build relationships with both individual donors and institutional/foundation funders.
• Strong understanding of major-gift strategy, donor cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, moves management, and pipeline development.
• Experience developing or overseeing foundation proposals, LOIs, reports, budgets, and multi-year institutional relationships.
• Strong writing, communication, negotiation, and relationship-management skills.
• Experience partnering with executives and Board members on significant donor relationships.
• Experience using Salesforce or another CRM to manage portfolios, opportunities, activity, forecasting, and reporting.
• Strong judgment around donor intent, relationship ownership, confidentiality, and ethical fundraising.
• Ability to manage and develop staff while maintaining substantial personal frontline fundraising responsibility.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with private/family foundations, donor-advised funds, planned giving, stock gifts, QCDs, and family philanthropy.
• Experience in a national, chapter-based, volunteer-led, higher-education-adjacent, or distributed nonprofit.
• Experience developing Chapter-connected or geographically distributed major donors and institutional funders.
• Experience with prospect research and wealth-screening tools.
• CFRE or comparable fundraising credential.

COMPENSATION

The salary range for this position is $101,000-$126,000. Placement in this range would be based on relevant professional experience in a similar career-level role. In addition, Kesem offers a benefits package for full-time employees including employer-subsidized health benefits, employee-funded dental and vision benefits, employee-funded 403(b) retirement plan, Employee Assistance Program (EAP), a healthcare concierge service, flexible work scheduling, telecommuting, PTO, Short-Term Disability, and parental leave offerings.

TO APPLY

To apply, please fill out the application by November 4, 2026, where you can also upload your thoughtful cover letter and resume:

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION STATEMENT

Kesem’s mission of supporting children through and beyond a parent’s cancer, and our vision of ensuring that every child impacted by a parent’s cancer is never alone, can only be realized through an ongoing, steadfast commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in every part of our organization. To that end, Kesem makes the following commitments:

• To continually expand the communities we support and work with - our camper families, volunteers, staff, alumni, partners, donors, and boards - with attention to engaging communities we are not currently reaching.
• To strive for equity in delivering a transformative, fun, and empowering community that recognizes and embraces our differences.
• To aspire to create shared spaces that are safe for every member of the Kesem community to feel valued and respected.
• Kesem will engage in continued meaningful learning in order to better support our mission and our growing Kesem community.

Kesem is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

WORK EXPECTATIONS

• The Director of Philanthropy role is a full-time position, with responsibilities that require approximately 40 hours of work per week, with some weeks requiring additional hours based on organizational needs.
• This is a fully remote position with no geographic preference, provided the employee is able to meet Kesem’s travel and work-hour expectations.
• It is expected that the Director of Philanthropy will maintain a reliable internet connection and professional remote work environment and will be available and actively working from 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. in their local time zone, unless otherwise approved by their supervisor.
• As a senior fundraising leader, this role requires flexibility to support time-sensitive organizational priorities, donor and partner relationships, incidents, Board responsibilities, and cross-functional needs.
• It is expected that the Director of Philanthropy will be available for staff calls, Board and committee meetings, donor and partner meetings, and other events that may occur outside of normal work hours.
• As a collaborative organization, employees are expected to demonstrate flexibility in supporting organizational priorities, including providing temporary coverage for colleagues during leaves of absence or other staffing needs, as assigned.
• Travel may include Board meetings, staff meetings, donor and partner meetings, fundraising events, camps, leadership gatherings, conferences, and other organizational priorities, approximately 10-15 times per year.