CharityVillage

Take A Hike Foundation (Take a Hike) is seeking a Director, Individual Giving to become part of our Development Team. As we continue to grow across the BC, we are looking for potential interest and encourage you to send over your application! 

THE ORGANIZATION: 

Take a Hike empowers youth who experience vulnerability to change the trajectory of their lives with a full-time mental health and emotional well-being program embedded in an alternate education classroom. Take a Hike engages youth with intentional, continuous clinical counselling, experiential land-based learning, and community. Our public school district partners provide high quality education, and together, we empower youth with the skills and resilience they need to graduate high school, build healthy relationships, and achieve success – however they define it. 

For more information on the program, please visit www.takeahikefoundation.org.   

THE OPPORTUNITY: 

Reporting to the Senior Director, Development, the newly created Director, Individual Giving serves as an integral member of the organization and development leadership team, building a robust individual major gifts program to advance Take a Hike’s mission.  

The Director is responsible for identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding potential and existing individual donors, with a focus on qualifying and upgrading Take a Hike donors. The Director of Individual Giving will build on and establish and implement comprehensive systems and strategies to increase the number of donors and revenue from major gifts with a personal target of $1,000,000 annually.  

The ideal candidate is an experienced relationship builder who is resourceful and entrepreneurial and thrives in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment. The incumbent will have experience working in or building a “best practice” individual giving program. Three key priorities will be to increase renewals and leverage increased giving, grow the pipeline of individual major donors, and institutionalize a planned giving program. 

The Director, Individual Giving will join a Development Team that describes themselves as “passionate, hard-working, collaborative, respectful, and flexible”. The role will supervise one to two staff (and growing with the needs of the organization) with the specific role(s) yet to be determined.  

PHILANTHROPY AT TAKE A HIKE: 

To support Take a Hike’s ambitious scaling aspiration, the Development Team has created a plan to guide growth in philanthropic and other revenue from a diversified range of sources. Since the beginning of the strategic plan (2021/2022), Take a Hike has seen its annual revenue grow from $2.6 million to $6.4 million with a target to achieve $8.5 million annually by 2025/2026. This growth is due in large part to a deeply committed and growing community of private donors who believe in the youth Take a Hike serves and their success. Given this performance, coupled with internal plans (which focus on raising awareness of Take a Hike’s brand) and external trends around youth mental health, there is potential for significant, additional growth in individual mid- and major gifts revenue over the next years. 

Capacity building is a strong priority for Take a Hike in order to achieve its strategic goals. In addition to a Director, Individual Giving, Take a Hike has recently hired a Senior Manager, Annual Giving to join the current team of nine and has plans to continue to expand the Development Team by four additional roles in the next 18 months. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES: 

Fundraising + Donor Relations 

• Develop and execute a comprehensive fundraising strategy for an individual major and planned giving program grounded in best practices that influences individual donors, donor advised funds, estates, and family foundations. 

• Actively manage a portfolio of new and existing donors to develop and implement comprehensive individual strategies for qualifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding major and planned gift donors (five to seven figure level). 
• Thoroughly qualify new and lapsed prospective donors to ascertain interest and readiness in giving at a major gift level. 
• Maintain a stewardship portfolio, ensuring that donors receive personalized correspondence, reports, and updates in a timely and professional manner. 
• Work in partnership with Foundation teams to coordinate strategies with assigned prospects, developing tailored and personalized proposals, and actively participating in and occasionally taking the lead with cultivation events. 
• Identify giving patterns of current donors and high-level prospects. Identify donors with potential for growth and increased involvement with Take a Hike. 
• Act as a key ambassador of the organization at events, conferences, meetings, etc. 

Leadership + People Management 

• Provides direct management, supervisory responsibilities, and establishes priorities for individual and/or major giving team members as the team grows to meet the needs of Take a Hike 
• Recruits, onboards, trains, and evaluation of staff and ensures resources are in place for ongoing mentorship and professional development. 
• Provide leadership and direction to team members through advice, interpretation of policies, procedures, and processes, including resolution of issues related to daily activities. 
• Assists in the development, implementation and evaluation of operating procedures and policies related to the efficient and effective operation of the individual and/or major giving team(s) with a goal to maximize fundraiser productivity. 
• Foster a positive and respectful workplace and cooperative working relationships with employees, and other stakeholders. 
• Contribute to an organizational culture that is safe and ethical which attracts, retains, and motivates employees to contribute to the successful delivery of programs and services. 
• Act as an ambassador for Take a Hike’s culture, ensuring all team members understand and our living our values, following our Team Guidebook and are championing Take a Hike’s brand. 

Database, Compliance and Donor Privacy 

• Ensure compliance with all relevant fundraising regulations and donor privacy laws.  
• Safeguard donor information and maintain confidentiality. 
• ·Record account activity in relationship management system to facilitate open communication and team-based fundraising  
• Keep meticulous donor records to improve donor engagement and identify major gift prospects. 

May be asked to perform other tasks which are related but not necessarily regular duties. 

QUALIFICATIONS 

• Bachelor’s Degree (supplemented with a fundraising diploma and/or CFRE certification preferred)  
• 7 to 10 years of significant and progressive strategic fundraising experience, including a proven track record in major gift fundraising, donor stewardship, and donor and engagement with at least 3 years’ experience in a people management capacity. 
• Expert relationship manager with proven success in identifying, soliciting, and securing gifts, including a strong track record closing gifts at the 5- to 7-figure level. 
• Expert strategic knowledge of fundraising and donor cycles, and major and planned giving. 
• Demonstrated experience working closely with and supporting key volunteers to help them confidently and successfully engage in major gift fundraising. 
• Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to inspire confidence from staff, and other stakeholders. 
• Previous experience managing high performing fundraising teams. 
• Ability to think strategically and manage competing priorities in a high-volume and results-oriented environment. 
• Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills with ability to influence, persuade and collaborate with individuals and teams at all levels, both internally and externally. 
• Strong analytical, creative problem-solving, and decision-making skills with the ability to identify trends, establish benchmarks, and provide credible analyses and business recommendations.  
• Excellent organization and time and project management skills, as well as the ability to successfully manage changing priorities often in ambiguity. 
• Ability to work with confidential information, data, and materials. 
• Strong computer skills: comfort with Microsoft Office suite and basic knowledge of CRM databases (Salesforce is an asset). 
• Commitment to Association of Fundraising Professionals code of ethics and standards. 
• Knowledge of Non-Profit sector and CRA fundraising rules and guidelines. 
• Ability and willingness to travel.  
• Satisfactory completion of a criminal record check with vulnerable populations. 

TERMS AND COMPENSATION 

This is a full-time permanent position based in our Vancouver, BC office with a minimum of two days a week in the office required and an expectation to be available for some evenings and weekends dependent on the needs of the department.  

We offer a salary of $91,500 - $108,000, commensurate with experience, based on a 37.5-hour work week with generous benefits that include:  

• Employer-paid benefits including extended health and dental 
• Disability and Life Insurance 
• Employee Assistance Plan 
• Health Spending Account 
• Retirement Savings Plan with employer matching 
• Generous vacation time 
• Professional development budget and training opportunities 

 
Applications will be evaluated, and interviews conducted, on a rolling basis and you are encouraged to apply early. 

Take a Hike values the diversity of the people it hires and serves. Diversity at Take a Hike means fostering a workplace in which individual differences are recognized, appreciated, respected, and responded to in ways that fully develop and utilize each person’s talents and strengths. Individuals who identify as LGBTQIA+, Black, Indigenous, racialized Canadians, or candidates with lived experience in mental health are encouraged to consider this opportunity. 

Our commitment to reconciliation can be found on our website here.