WHAT DOES AN INDIVIDUAL GIVING MANAGER DO?

Published: Sep 8, 2025 - The Individual Giving Manager coordinates and delivers direct marketing appeals, manages budgets, and leads the fundraising team to achieve annual income and KPI targets. This role involves overseeing donor relationships, managing agencies and suppliers, ensuring compliance with fundraising standards, and reporting on campaign performance. The Manager also develops new fundraising products, supports legacy and corporate fundraising initiatives, and creates tailored approaches to secure and steward partnerships.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Individual Giving Manager

1. Individual Giving Manager Accountabilities

  • Strategy Development: In partnership with senior leadership, develop and launch a multi-year strategy to significantly increase the size and number of individual gifts.
  • Donor Portfolio Management: Grow a portfolio of individual donors by identifying, researching, and qualifying prospects.
  • Cultivation Strategies: Set cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies, and execute action plans for a defined portfolio of prospects.
  • Leadership Support: Support senior leadership with their donor portfolios by identifying prospects, conducting research, preparing briefing materials and proposals, and ensuring timely follow-up to close gifts.
  • Donor Engagement: Personally meet with donors and prospects while preparing senior leadership for donor meetings.
  • Stewardship Oversight: Oversee stewardship to ensure a high-quality donor experience through correspondence, engagement opportunities, proposals, mailings, and acknowledgments.
  • Event Collaboration: Collaborate with senior leadership and the communications team to implement donor cultivation and stewardship events.
  • Data Tracking: Efficiently track and monitor communications, actions, events, and commitments in the donor database.
  • System Development: Develop and maintain systems to communicate progress toward fundraising goals and strategies.
  • Team Collaboration: Actively participate in a collaborative fundraising department and provide additional support to development colleagues.

2. Individual Giving Manager Functions

  • Lottery Operations: Support all day-to-day activity around lotteries and gaming, working with the Head of Lotteries and Gaming.
  • Campaign Coordination: Ensure campaigns and activities are effectively coordinated and that wider teams are enabled to support delivery.
  • Activity Management: Take responsibility for the end-to-end delivery of lottery-related activities, including management of third-party agencies.
  • Regulatory Compliance: Work with the Head of Lotteries and Gaming to ensure lottery and raffle processes are current and compliant with all relevant regulations.
  • Raffle Support: Assist with raffle-related activity, including creation of stewardship communications and oversight of response processing.
  • Marketing Collaboration: Collaborate with colleagues in Marketing and other departments to deliver regular social media promotions and email campaigns related to lotteries and gaming.
  • Player Engagement: Support the development and testing of new approaches to player acquisition, retention, and engagement to enhance the success of lottery and gaming activities.
  • Membership Recruitment: Work with the Head of Lotteries and Gaming to recruit new lottery members through third-party agencies.
  • Agency Relations: Serve as the point of contact for agencies, deliver induction and engagement events, and collate and share feedback.

3. Individual Giving Manager Job Description

  • Fundraising Strategy: Partner with the Director of Leadership Giving to strategize and execute an annual fundraising plan to maintain and grow mid-level donors through inquiry, outreach, solicitations, and benefits fulfillment.
  • Donor Portfolio Management: Develop, oversee, and implement strategies for a portfolio of existing and prospective donors with the capacity to increase their support.
  • Relationship Building: Collaborate with senior leadership, board members, volunteers, and other partners to strengthen relationships and move donors forward.
  • Donor Engagement: Work with development and marketing teams to design and implement innovative strategies for donor solicitations and stewardship to cultivate donor engagement and retention.
  • Project Support: Assist with special projects and events related to donor relations.
  • Data Management: Utilize the donor database to log activity with donors, and partner with the database administrator to provide reporting and analysis to review progress and guide strategy.
  • Monthly Donor Program: Support and grow the individual monthly donor program through outreach.
  • Donor Mailings: Assist with mailings to major donors.
  • Administrative Support: Provide fundraising administrative support and conduct prospect research.

4. Individual Giving Manager Overview

  • Data Research: Identify and research data sources to ensure an ongoing pool of potential partners and funders.
  • Prospect Analysis: Perform and synthesize research to prioritize and expand understanding of potential partners.
  • Funding Research: Leverage team capacity and subject matter expertise to complete funding opportunity research.
  • Donor Cultivation: Support leadership in cultivating and maintaining excellent relationships with prospects and current donors in the individual giving portfolio.
  • Brief Preparation: Prepare accurate, concise, and thoughtful meeting briefs to support donor engagement by the President and CEO and the leadership team.
  • Fundraising Communications: Draft and review compelling fundraising communications that highlight the organization’s vision, priorities, and goals for the individual giving campaign and portfolio.
  • Prospect Understanding: Develop and refine an understanding of barriers and motivations for each prospective partner, anticipating funders’ profiles and backgrounds, even without direct meetings.
  • Pipeline Management: Track the pipeline of current and prospective donors rigorously, driving activities to meet goals, including meetings, new prospects identified, outreach conducted, and follow-up completed.
  • Relationship Management: Manage up assertively with relationship owners, proactively following up after interactions to capture key information and own follow-up activities.
  • Interaction Support: Prepare relationship owners for interactions to maximize effectiveness, including clarifying next steps to move prospective relationships forward.

5. Individual Giving Manager Details and Accountabilities

  • Document Preparation: Prepare documents, collateral, emails, and talking points for calls, meetings, and events.
  • Donor Engagement: Prompt relationship owners to pursue each touchpoint with prospective funders at the right time.
  • Strategic Planning: Partner with leadership to develop and launch a multi-year strategy to increase both the size and number of individual gifts.
  • Campaign Management: Manage annual giving campaigns for the organization.
  • Donor Research: Research and analyze donor and prospect interests to develop compelling pitches, engagement strategies, and stewardship plans.
  • Data Analysis: Analyze historical and market data to inform revenue goals and benchmarks.
  • Event Management: Plan, manage, and execute development events.
  • Progress Tracking: Track fundraising progress by maintaining accurate and up-to-date donor records and data.
  • Record Management: Own and maintain meticulous records of donor engagement through CRM systems and electronic files.
  • System Development: Develop and maintain systems to communicate progress toward goals and strategies.

6. Individual Giving Manager Tasks

  • Donor Relationship Management: Work collaboratively with the Chief Development Officer to develop and strengthen relationships with a portfolio of current and potential major donors.
  • Major Gift Strategy: Partner in developing and implementing major gift fundraising strategies, with an emphasis on cultivation, in-person and virtual solicitation, stewardship, and donor retention.
  • Giving Program Support: Support the Chief Development Officer in creating and executing strategies for annual giving, monthly giving, and planned giving, with a focus on major donors.
  • Fundraising Planning: Assist in developing and implementing the annual fundraising plan, providing strategies and objectives for achieving major gift goals.
  • Pipeline Development: Use data and metrics to identify and develop a pipeline of major gift prospects and measure progress toward fundraising goals.
  • Donor Communications: Collaborate with the communications team to design and execute donor communications, including messaging and graphics for direct mail, social media, website, and print materials.
  • Technology Utilization: Leverage technology to support major donor prospect research, identification, cultivation, and stewardship.
  • Philanthropy Culture: Work closely with the development team, program staff, and volunteers to foster a culture of philanthropy across the organization.
  • Gift Administration: Partner with the annual fund manager to ensure accurate and timely gift entry and acknowledgment, including documentation and follow-up of verbal and written commitments.
  • Performance Monitoring: Monitor key fundraising metrics and prepare reports to track progress toward major gift fundraising goals.
  • Board and Volunteer Support: Assist the Chief Development Officer in supporting the board, staff, and volunteers with fundraising initiatives.
  • Event Participation: Participate in fundraising events and donor activities, providing support on demand.
  • Organizational Contribution: Attend department and organizational meetings, contributing to the overall strategic growth of the organization.

7. Senior Individual Giving Manager Roles

  • Donor Portfolio Management: Prospect, cultivate, solicit, and steward a portfolio of current and new donors and prospects.
  • Prospect Strategy: Build an individual donor prospect strategy that actively diversifies the donor base in alignment with the organization’s commitment to equity and inclusion.
  • Donor Communications: Strengthen the donor experience by preparing personalized correspondence, donor updates, invitations, and other communications.
  • Case Development: Develop compelling cases for support that can be adapted for impact reports, solicitations, and personalized donor communications.
  • Portfolio Support: Support the CEO and VP of Development in managing the individual giving portfolio by composing prospect briefs and data reports, and build capacity to segment the donor pipeline for cultivating and stewarding major donors, mid-level donors, and annual donors.
  • Cross-Organizational Engagement: Partner with leaders across the organization to ensure donor engagement through meetings, events, and campaign opportunities.
  • Fundraising Calendar: Draft and implement the organization’s annual fundraising calendar, taking a leadership role in overseeing the annual gala.
  • Project Management: Manage special projects to further the department’s goals as assigned by the VP of Development.
  • Stakeholder Representation: Represent the organization to key stakeholders, including the Board of Directors, major donors, and prospects.
  • CRM Management: Develop protocols to systematize and utilize the CRM, maintaining data-driven systems and structures that support weekly, monthly, and quarterly reporting.

8. Individual Giving Manager Additional Details

  • Appeals Management: Coordinate all appeals to achieve annual targets and KPIs.
  • Budget Management: Manage an expenditure budget to deliver agreed income targets.
  • Team Leadership: Line manage the Fundraising Officer and oversee the development of donor relationships.
  • Supplier Management: Manage suppliers and agencies, maintaining strong and efficient partnerships to ensure maximum value.
  • Contract Negotiation: Negotiate contracts with agencies to achieve the best possible value.
  • Campaign Reporting: Report on campaign performance monthly and continuously monitor progress against agreed financial and non-financial KPIs.
  • Compliance Oversight: Ensure direct marketing activity aligns with compliance standards and best practices set by relevant regulators.
  • Agency Compliance: Monitor agency compliance, ensuring internal controls are followed to safeguard donor satisfaction and mitigate reputational and financial risk.
  • Product Development: Deliver new fundraising products for appeals.
  • Legacy Programme Support: Support the development of the legacy programme for members and supporters.
  • Prospect Research: Undertake prospect research for potential corporate partnerships that align with appeals, campaigns, and events.
  • Corporate Pitches: Develop and deliver creative pitches to secure corporate support against KPIs and targets.
  • Partnership Stewardship: Account manage, report to, and steward all corporate partnerships, meeting agreed income targets and providing regular progress updates.
  • Fundraising Materials: Develop a range of approaches, products, and materials to support corporate fundraising activity.

9. Individual Giving Manager Essential Functions

  • Donor Support: Create, implement, and manage efforts to secure renewed and new financial support from individual donors.
  • Solicitation Strategy: Coordinate solicitation strategy sessions, prepare action and statistical reports, and develop and promote a variety of giving opportunities.
  • Donor Communications: Write and create the monthly donor e-newsletter in collaboration with the Director of Marketing.
  • Database Management: Work within Raiser’s Edge to generate donor reports and analyses, support stewardship efforts, and edit acknowledgment letters prepared by the Donor Database Coordinator.
  • Appeals Management: Manage all aspects of direct mail and electronic appeals.
  • Stewardship Support: Ensure appropriate donor relations steps are followed to support stewardship and gift renewals.
  • Prospect Research: Support prospect research and prepare donor profiles and giving histories in collaboration with the Director of Donor Engagement for major gift prospects.
  • Donor Reporting: Collaborate with the Director of Donor Engagement to prepare donor reports following special events or appeals.
  • Board Engagement: Work closely with Associate Board leadership and members to develop, execute, and manage annual strategies for engagement and fundraising goals, including organizing Associate Board special events and volunteer opportunities.
  • Parent and Alumni Engagement: Liaise with parent association leaders and potential alumni leaders to design and implement strategies for engaging parents and alumni while meeting fundraising goals.
  • Scholarship Management: Work closely with student services staff to organize, select, and steward student scholarships and awards, coordinating payments with finance staff.
  • Donor Recognition: Collect biographical information from scholarship recipients to share with scholarship funders.
  • Event Collaboration: Collaborate with the Development and Marketing team to fundraise for, produce, and execute the annual gala.
  • Community Representation: Represent the organization at community events and task forces.

10. Individual Giving Manager Role Purpose

  • Stewardship Planning: Support the Associate Director of Development by executing a thoughtful and strategic stewardship plan for mid-level donors.
  • Donor Ticketing: Coordinate all aspects of donor ticketing and subscriptions/packages, serving as the development department’s liaison with the box office.
  • Donor Engagement: Provide additional touch points beyond acknowledgment letters, including greeting donors at select performances.
  • Stewardship Calendar: Develop and manage a stewardship calendar that ensures frequent and meaningful interactions with donors.
  • Donor Communication: Monitor the donor phone line and email inbox, ensuring prompt responses to all messages.
  • Donor Reporting: Review reports and flag key contributors for staff leadership.
  • Organizational Representation: Maintain in-depth knowledge of programming and serve as a passionate representative for the organization.
  • Donor Renewal: Collaborate with the Associate Director of Development to renew, recapture, and upgrade mid-level donors.
  • Moves Management: Implement a donor-centered moves management system to guide the identification and cultivation of key prospects.
  • Prospect Screening: Screen and segment donor households for review with the Associate Director of Development.
  • Gift Solicitation: Solicit renewed gifts through multiple channels and support other solicitors in securing contributions.
  • Personal Solicitation: Personally solicit gifts from assigned prospects and donors.
  • Event Portfolio Management: Plan and execute a portfolio of events to engage current and prospective donors.
  • Event Coordination: Organize in-person and virtual events related to donor benefit fulfillment.
  • Reception Coordination: Coordinate Opening Night receptions.
  • Departmental Support: Support other departmental events designed to cultivate and steward mid-level and major donors and prospects.
  • Cross-Department Collaboration: Collaborate with the Events Director and other departments on event needs.
Relevant Information
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