Philanthropy Advisor

Job Description

Compensation: Pay starts at $120,000 but may be higher based on an individual’s experience and capabilities. Our salaries are benchmarked for the cost of living in Oakland, CA, where GiveWell is based, and we adjust the salaries of remote employees based on the federal geographic location adjustment database.

Benefits: Read about the benefits we offer here.

Location: You will be joining a hybrid team that works remotely throughout the U.S. GiveWell has an office in Oakland, California, that you are welcome, but not required, to work from. As a general rule, we request that employees work in locations that are within three hours of the Pacific Time Zone. Exceptions to the time zone rule may be made in rare circumstances.

Flexibility: We support and encourage flexible working, including flexible hours, working remotely, and working from the office when you choose. The majority of our staff, including senior management, work flexibly in one way or another.

Timeline: Applications will close at midnight PST, June 20, 2022.

Visa Sponsorship: We can sponsor work visas. However, please be aware that processing times can be much longer than usual right now and are subject to specific country circumstances.

Cross-applicability: We are also recruiting Philanthropy Associates. If you would like to be considered for the Philanthropy Associate position, please select the appropriate tick box on your application for the Philanthropy Advisor role.

As Philanthropy Advisor, you will have a direct impact on the amount of funding GiveWell can channel to support people living in extreme poverty. This is a great opportunity to join a high-impact nonprofit and make a real difference with your career.

Reporting to and partnering with the Director of Development, you will be responsible for building long-term relationships with GiveWell supporters. You will manage a portfolio of 100-150 individuals giving in the 6-figure range and foster their relationship with GiveWell, encouraging them to stay connected and increase their giving. Specifically, you will:

• Create individual goals and an annual outreach plan for each donor in your portfolio based on their giving history, forward interests, and capacity;
• Arrange and complete 120+ in-person meetings or calls per year to build and deepen donor relationships, with the ultimate goal of soliciting and closing significant gifts that support GiveWell and its recommended grantees;
• Work collaboratively across the outreach and research teams to fully understand GiveWell’s research and funding opportunities and craft compelling funding proposals to alert individual donors to giving opportunities that reflect their passions and priorities;
• Track all donor activity in your portfolio and create monthly reports to reflect donor status and likely annual income;
• Help vet a separate pool of prospective major donors in order to recommend promising candidates to elevate into a philanthropy advisor portfolio; and
• Collaborate with peers on the outreach team to test and scale new ways of attracting high-net-worth donors.

Note: Confidence can sometimes hold us back from applying for a job. Here’s a secret: there’s no such thing as a “perfect” candidate. GiveWell is looking for exceptional people who want to help create a place where everyone can thrive. So however you identify and whatever background you bring with you, please apply if this role would make you excited to wake up everyday.

We encourage you to apply even if you do not have all of the below. To be successful we expect that you possess most of the following characteristics:

• Enjoy and are energized by speaking with and building relationships with people.
• Have excellent verbal and written communications skills. You can convert complex ideas and funding opportunities into stories that are clear and engaging and compel donors to take action.
• Maintain a high level of tact, diplomacy, and confidentiality.
• Have 2 or more years of experience in front-line fundraising, business development, or enterprise sales (or related field), and have a strong track record in closing gifts/deals.
• Are passionate about helping the global poor. GiveWell is currently focused on programs that help people in low- and low-to-middle-income countries. You should be passionate about maximizing the resources we can direct to help the people in these countries.
• Value honesty and transparency. GiveWell has a strong work culture committed to honesty and transparency about our shortcomings and strengths, as well as those of our recommended charities.
• Are excited to work in a growing team. GiveWell’s outreach team is small and we expect team members to be nimble and responsive to new opportunities.
• Have the ability to travel both domestically and internationally 5-6 times throughout the year for both internal programming and donor visits.

Apply here. We only accept applications through our website.

We plan to respond to all submissions. Please contact givewell-jobs@givewell.org with any questions.

If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at givewell-jobs@givewell.org.

As part of our dedication to the diversity of our staff, GiveWell is committed to the principles of Equal Employment Opportunity and to making employment decisions based on merit and value. We are committed to complying with all federal, state, and local laws providing Equal Employment Opportunities, as well as all laws related to terms and conditions of employment. We desire to maintain a work environment free of harassment or discrimination due to sex, race, religion, color, creed, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, citizenship, physical or mental disability, marital status, familial status, ethnicity, ancestry, status as a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault, age, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local laws.

We will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

About the Organization

GiveWell is motivated by the simple question: how can we do as much good as possible?

In our efforts to answer this question, our staff search for and make grants to support the most cost-effective programs we can find to save and improve lives. We focus on global health and poverty alleviation programs in the lowest-income parts of the world because that is where we've found we can have the greatest impact, according to our criteria.

In 2020, we directed more than $240 million. In 2021, we expect we directed more than $500 million (our numbers are not yet final as of this writing). By 2025, we aim to be directing $1 billion per year, making GiveWell one of the world's largest private funders of global development efforts.

Recent grants have supported programs that:

• Are evidence-backed, cost-effective, transparent, and in need of more funding. Many of our largest grants have supported malaria chemoprevention, antimalarial nets, vaccine incentivization, vitamin A supplementation, and deworming medication.
• Have the potential to have an outsized impact through affecting health policy. Grants have supported lead reduction, pesticide suicide prevention, alcohol control, and testing the effectiveness of face masks.
• Test our assumptions through further research, such as for antimalarial nets, water chlorination, and vaccine incentivization.

GiveWell is expanding our team so that we can move more money to high impact programs. Highly effective people in outreach will be integral to that growth and the success of our mission. By joining GiveWell, you will have the opportunity to directly influence our success in raising and directing millions of additional dollars in funding to support some of the poorest people in the world.