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Donor Relations Manager
Portland, ME, USA
USD 65k-73k / year
Posted on Jun 29, 2026
Job Type
Full-time
Description
Job Title: Donor Relations Manager
Supervisor: Annual Giving and Donor Engagement Manager
Starting Salary Range: $65,000-$73,000
Overview
The Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) develops and delivers collaborative solutions to global ocean challenges. We are dedicated to the resilience of the Gulf of Maine ecosystem and the communities that depend on it. To learn more, visit gmri.org.
The Donor Relations Manager (DRM) creates and implements plans to cultivate donors capable of making major gifts and/or planned gifts to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI). They conduct meetings with donors and prospects to cultivate relationships, solicit gifts, and deepen engagement with GMRI. The DRM provides ongoing opportunities for contact with new and current donors and plays a critical role in elevating donors into major, principal, and planned gift cultivation strategies in collaboration with senior fundraisers.
Essential Functions
The Donor Relations Manager is responsible for the identification, qualification, cultivation, and solicitation of major and planned gift prospects through meetings, trips, events, and other activities. Working closely with the Annual Giving Manager, the DRM will solicit gifts, identify and move prospects capable of making major gifts into the prospect pool for management by senior fundraising staff. Additionally, they will work on a variety of activities, including providing regular and relevant impact reports, extending personal invitations to key donor engagement opportunities, coordinating donor visits, and more. They will use GMRI’s CRM, Raiser’s Edge, to update donor information, conduct analysis, and track and cultivate donors. The DRM understands donors’ influencing factors and various giving vehicles; applies knowledge to interactions with donors and gift asks and meticulously maintains records of such.
Key Responsibilities
- Responsible for an annual fundraising goal of $500,000 or more, along with a goal for bequest notifications.
- Manage a portfolio of 125-175 individual donors with the capacity to make a gift up to $50,000, once the portfolio is developed and will be responsible for 125–175 visits and 375–525 moves annually.
- Partner with senior fundraising staff and advancement services to identify key prospect pools and set cultivation strategies to persuasively convey the mission and impact of GMRI.
- Manage several concurrent fundraising plans, including individualized cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies, while achieving fundraising goals, meeting deadlines, and demonstrating accountability, all while contributing to shared team objectives and fostering a collaborative team culture.
- Ensure donor intent is honored in programmatic commitments and collaborate with Advancement Services to manage communications internal stakeholders as needed.
- Financial responsibilities include meeting fundraising objectives and may include negotiating and/or contracting with vendors or supporting budget development.
- May manage or participate in complex or sensitive negotiations during solicitation process.
- Act with autonomy and exercise independent judgement to identify and execute solutions.
- Demonstrate sensitivity in handling confidential information.
- Travel frequently, work long and flexible hours as needed.
Requirements
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree and 5 years of related experience or an equivalent combination.
- Major gift and direct fundraising experience.
- Experience, coursework, or other training in fundraising principles and practices.
- Demonstrated ability to manage and track multiple prospects and donors.
- Experience building relationships with donors, volunteers, and staff.
- Demonstrated success working with cross-functional teams.
Desired Qualifications:
- Ability to determine an individual’s interests, capacity and potential for helping GMRI meet its goals, and act appropriately to tie those interests with GMRI’s work.
- Capacity to implement and manage fundraising plans, including individualized cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship plans.
- Excellent relationship management skills and the ability to work with various stakeholders (both internal and external) at all organizational levels.
- Knowledge of fundamentals and current trends in charitable giving in the areas of capital and/or comprehensive campaigns, major gifts, or planned giving.
- Strong negotiating and organizational skills.
- Strong analytical, planning/time-management, and organizational skills.
- Multi-lingual skills and multi-cultural or cross-cultural experience appreciated.
- Sensitivity, discretion, understanding, and experience working with confidential information.
- Strong work ethic and impeccable attention to detail.
- A commitment to working in a diverse and inclusive work environment.
- Advanced level of proficiency in Microsoft software (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), Asana, and Slack.
- Raiser’s Edge experience preferred.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) has a long-standing policy and commitment to providing equal access and equal employment opportunities in all terms, conditions, processes, and benefits of employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, family status, veteran status, or any other classification protected by law. GMRI's employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, family status, veteran status, or any other classification protected by law.
Applicants and employees are encouraged to voluntarily provide certain status data to assist GMRI in fulfilling various reporting requirements of the federal government. This self-identification is completely voluntary, will be kept confidential and separate from your application data, and used only to meet certain state or federal reporting requirements. Providing or declining to provide this information will not result in adverse action of any kind.
Salary and Benefits
Gulf of Maine Research Institute offers a competitive salary and benefits package.
Application Instructions
All applications must be accompanied by a cover letter and résumé. Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the successful candidate has been selected. The deadline to submit applications is July 27, 2026.