Director of Planned Giving Los Angeles LGBT Center

Los Angeles, CA

The Center is seeking a Director of Planned Giving, a planned giving professional who directs a robust fundraising program to promote, cultivate, solicit and steward deferred gifts to the Los Angeles LGBT Center. The Director of Planned Giving also facilitates all legal administration of new and on-going estates of which the Center is a beneficiary.

The Center’s legacy society is the Circle of Life, and it is currently comprised of about 550 members. The Center has recently undertaken a drive, called “Project 1000,” to reach a goal of 1,000 members of this valuable group. The Director of Planned Giving is charged with growing the number of members of the Circle of Life and is the primary steward of this group of donors.

Reporting to the Director of Development, she/he is a member of his Development Leadership Team and works closely with team members, especially major gift Officers, senior staff members, board members and other volunteers, as well as outside counsel and other professionals.

Director of Planned Giving Los Angeles LGBT Center

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES

Prospecting & Identifying Donors

• Execute a comprehensive planned giving program with a goal to increase the overall number of planned giving donors (generally, Circle of Life members) and the total amount of their gifts;
• Devise and spearhead implementation of an annual marketing plan that educates and informs the LGBT community about the work of the Center and the opportunities to make planned or deferred gifts; create annual budget for this plan;
• Create and update collateral material, including letters, marketing mailers, and the planned giving folder, to enhance and expand the deferred giving program; create, edit and oversee mailing the quarterly newsletter, The Shared Vision;
• Oversee and update the Center’s planned giving website;
• Work with the Chief Development Officer on identifying the top 500 planned giving prospects based on wealth screening, loyalty to the Center and immediacy of a commitment;
• Engage with allied professionals in the legal, accounting, financial services, insurance, and trust administration professions and enlist their support of the Center and its planned giving program; increase the number of these professionals (Circle of Life “Advisors”) and cultivate them professionally; work collaboratively with them on donors and prospects to determine appropriate method of charitable giving, etc.

Stewarding Legacy Donors

• Initiate gift discussions and respond to inquiries with and from donors and prospects and assist them with their life/estate planning, developing strategies that are helpful and appropriate for them and that best benefit the Center;
• Enhance recognition and solicitation opportunities through the Center’s legacy organization, the Circle of Life; produce the two annual events to honor this group: the summer luncheon, and the holiday brunch;
• Assist with, support and participate in fundraising events and stewardship activities with Development team colleagues, and in activities of various program areas of the Center, supporting the Center and leveraging opportunities to cultivate estate gifts and to support colleagues with major gifts and sponsors;

Managing Matured Legacies & Administration

• Facilitate all necessary administration, court filings, written communications for estates with the Center as beneficiary and/or as executor; maintain current and accurate files on donors and estates: past, current and future; track wills in probate, monitor settlement costs; follow up with executors and attorneys; regularly check on trusts under administration and communicate with trustees as appropriate;
• Work with the Center’s Finance Department to ensure that current gifts and documentation for future gifts are recorded properly and that documentation is accurate and transparent for internal auditors;
• Oversee filing of required government and insurance commission reports by Center’s banking institution;
• Maintain continuing education and information on current same-sex estate planning challenges and solutions; educate colleagues on estate planning issues;
• Perform other duties as assigned by the Director of Development.

PROFESSIONAL REQUIREMENTS

The successful candidate will have a minimum of 10 years of legal and/or fundraising experience that includes planned giving in a non-profit organization or law firm. A bachelor’s degree is required. A J.D., C.P.A., or other advanced degree is preferred. Other personal characteristics necessary are:

• Knowledge of and experience with planned giving vehicles such as bequests, charitable remainder and charitable lead trusts, unitrusts, charitable gift annuities, gifts of real estate, tangible personal property, life insurance, etc.
• Personal success in presenting, negotiating and closing gifts to a charitable organization (or related closing of investment or trust sales);
• Superior communications skills, both in writing and orally, including presentations to various types of audiences: prospects, current donors, professionals, external;
• Exceptional inter-personal skills and judgment, and a strong desire to promote the Center by establishing productive relationships on the Center’s behalf; facility around conversations about end-of-life issues;
• Experience managing an estate through the probate process toward closure.

PERSONAL REQUIREMENTS

Our client is seeking an energetic self-starter who also has the patience to deal with the sometimes slow decision making processes of elderly donors. This individual will work closely with the major gift staff and the Finance Department, and s/he should be collaborative and team-oriented. The Director must be goal oriented and motivated by measurable results.

Other essential characteristics include an entrepreneurial attitude; mental flexibility to personally navigate through highly-varying types of work; ability to prioritize these tasks and successfully complete them; and exemplary ethical standards.

COMPENSATION

Our client is offering a competitive salary for this position, along with a comprehensive benefits package, including health, dental, vision, life and long-term disability. Although a local candidate is strongly preferred, they are prepared to discuss basic relocation expenses, if necessary, for the exceptional individual they are seeking.

OPPORTUNITY

This is a high profile opportunity for an experienced development professional to make a major contribution at a critical historical moment to the growth and development of the nation’s oldest and largest organization for LGBT people. The Director of Planned Giving can be an integral part of an exceptional and dedicated senior management team, which is recognized nationally for its leadership. S/he will have the personal satisfaction of contributing to a program of enormous public importance and to an organization which is in the forefront of the leading civil rights struggle of our time.

Increases in compensation are directly tied to the success of the candidate and growth of the organization.

The Center is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
Salary: Competitive

THE CLIENT

Since 1969 the Los Angeles LGBT Center (formerly the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center) has cared for, championed and celebrated LGBT individuals and families in Los Angeles and beyond. Today, the Center provides services for more LGBT people than any other organization in the world through its programs.

Each month, the Center welcomes more than 42,000 visits from people who represent the full diversity of the LGBT community: people of all races, religions, genders, sexual orientations and ages. All services, which are available to everyone, are free or low-cost.

Private gifts, including planned gifts, are of critical importance to the Center. They support an efficient infrastructure and bridge the gap between the overall cost of services and what the government will pay in support of those services (virtually all government-funded programs must be subsidized by privately-raised dollars).

The LGBT Center is ranked by Guidestar as the #1 local LGBT non-profit in the nation and awarded Charity Navigator’s highest rating (4 stars) for four consecutive years.

The Center’s more than 450 employees and 3,000 active volunteers provide services and programs that span four broad categories: Health, Social Services and Housing, Culture and Education, Leadership and Advocacy:

Health

As one of the nation’s largest and most experienced providers of LGBT medical and mental healthcare, the Center helps LGBT people lead healthier, happier lives by keeping their minds and body well.

HIV/AIDS Specialty Care: Since the earliest days of the epidemic, the Center has been providing leading-edge medical care for people living with HIV/AIDS. Through the Jeffrey Goodman Special Care Clinic, a Federally Qualified Health Center, the Center offers a holistic approach to treatment and helps clients with all aspects of managing their life with HIV.

The Center’s clinical research program conducts research studies and clinical trials that are focused on improving the health and well-being of LGBT communities locally and globally and that contribute to scientific knowledge to the prevention, intervention and treatment of HIV and sexually transmitted infections. This work is funded by private industry, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health, and others.

An estimated 20% of people who are HIV-positive don’t know it. The Center works to lower that percentage by offering free HIV testing in Hollywood and in West Hollywood, where testing for other sexually transmitted diseases is available.

Mental Health Services: For people who are feeling depressed, anxious, stressed or dealing with issues that seem beyond their control, the Center offers individual/group counseling and psychiatric care by providers who specialize in serving LGBT people. A variety of facilitated coming out support groups are offered, and the Center operates one of the nation’s few programs to support LGBT people involved in domestic violence.

The Center offers many programs to combat substance abuse, including individual and group therapy, the convenience and anonymity of online chats with therapists, and a renowned outpatient program for those who want to stop using crystal methamphetamine and other substances.

Pharmacy: The staff specializes in caring for LGBT people and their health needs. Clients count on the Center’s pharmacy staff to provide warm, personalized and prompt services, including free mail order delivery of prescriptions

Social Services and Housing

The Center provides a vital social safety net for the LGBT community in all its diversity and a safe, welcoming place where individuals can find help, as well as hope, when they most need it.

Homeless Youth: Los Angeles is one of the most popular destinations for homeless LGBT youth; a staggering 40% of the 6,000 homeless youth on the streets of L.A. every day are LGBT.

The Youth Center on Highland offers a place to stay for a night or up to 36 nights; 3 meals/day; clothing; support groups; an education program; an employment preparation, training and placement program; and whatever support youth (24 and under) need to get off the streets.

The Center offers medical care, counseling, a 24-bed Transitional Living Program (TLP) where youth can stay for up to 18 months, and even affordable apartments for the youth who graduate from the TLP.

LifeWorks: The Center offers all LGBT youth, 24 and younger, the help needed to achieve their full potential through the LifeWorks program which provides one-on-one mentoring by specially trained adults, a charter high school for LGBT youth who don’t feel safe or comfortable in traditional schools, college and trade school scholarships, workshops, social activities and the world’s largest free conference for LGBT young people, Models of Pride.

Seniors: The Seniors Services Department is the largest direct-service program in the nation for LGBT seniors. In April the Center merged with the Gay and Lesbian Elder Housing complex (GLEH), and Senior Services expanded to provide services to residents of the Los Angeles’s only affordable housing complex for LGBT seniors. The merger resulted in 104-units of housing at Triangle Square, the world’s first affordable housing development for LGBT seniors. The Center also has a large and fast-growing Senior Services program that helps meet many of the life-sustaining needs of seniors, including food, case management, and a wide array of activities.

Legal Services: Supported by a team of staff and volunteer attorneys, law students, paralegals, and interns, the Center is the country’s largest community-based provider of LGBT legal services. It serves many of the legal needs of LGBT people, with a special focus on survivors of violence, undocumented immigrants, the transgender community and youth.

Family Services: The Center helps build stronger families by providing a wide range of support services, activities and events for LGBT parents and their children, and by advocating for them in schools. It also offers support and referrals for those who want to start a family.

Culture and Education

Because arts and educational programs are integral to the health and well-being of the LGBT community, the Center is home to a vibrant gathering place where LGBT people and allies from all walks of life come together to learn, grow and celebrate.

Cultural Arts Program: In its galleries and on its stages, the Center produces award-winning performances and hosts exhibitions that reflect and celebrate the lives and experiences of LGBT people. In addition to the work of emerging artists and performers, the Center has entertained audiences with shows by celebrities like Jane Fonda, Kathy Griffin, Alec Mapa, Coco Peru and others.

Learning Curve Adult Education & Enrichment: The LGBT Center offers one of the world’s only adult education, adventure and enrichment program specifically for LGBT people. High quality, low cost courses help people grow career skills, pursue creative passions and improve health.

Charter High School: Because every youth has the right to an education in a place where they feel safe and welcome, the Center operates a charter high school, in conjunction with Opportunities for Learning, where all students are welcome where diversity and acceptance are part of the campus culture.

CyberCenter: The David Bohnett CyberCenter and computer lab help bridge the “digital divide” by not only offering free Internet access, but the free use of office software to create a resume, build a spreadsheet or just brush up on software skills.

Leadership and Advocacy

The Center works to advance civil rights and freedoms for LGBT people domestically and internationally through education, advocacy and community organizing.

Leadership LAB (Learn Act Build): The Center organizes and empowers communities to defeat anti-LGBT prejudice locally, supported by a volunteer corps of hundreds; nationally, by providing assistance to campaigns throughout the country; and globally, by mentoring activists for LGBT equality from around the world.

The Emerging Leaders program, supported by funding from the U.S Department of State, is working to counter the influence of anti-LGBT activists in the world’s most populous country, China, and to advance freedoms for LGBT people there by identifying the country’s best and brightest activists and hosting them for five-week long internships at the Center.

Project SPIN (Suicide Prevention Intervention Now): The Center leads a coalition of organizations, partnered with the L.A. Unified School District to end conditions on school campuses that result in bullying, homophobia and even the thought of suicide among students.

RISE (Recognize Intervene Support Empower) Project: Some of the most vulnerable people in the LGBT community are LGBT and questioning foster youth who represent a hugely disproportionate percentage of youth in the foster system. Through the groundbreaking, federally-funded $13.3 million RISE initiative, the Center is creating and testing a service model that will help these youth find stable, loving homes, with the goal of replicating that model in cities around the country.

The Center’s Capital Campaign

The Los Angeles LGBT Center recently entered the public phase of a $25-million Capital Campaign to build a “McCadden Campus” that will provide more than 100 units of affordable housing for low-income seniors and young adults (more than doubling the organization’s current number of beds for homeless LGBT youth), a Senior Services Center, a Youth Center, and much more.

When finished, the new building will form a campus with the Center’s arts, educational and cultural facility – known as The Village at Ed Gould Plaza – and span more than one city block. It will also become the Center’s new headquarters, facilitating a major expansion of medical services at the current headquarters in the McDonald Wright Building on Schrader Boulevard.

The Center has already raised about $19 million in pledges toward the $25 million goal. The project is expected to break ground in 2016, with construction taking two years.

Contact Information

Joseph McCormack
Managing Partner
WBB+McCormack
1775 E. Palm Canyon Drive
Suite 110-202
Palm Springs, CA 92264

(323) 549-9200
(323) 549-9222 (fax)
search@wbbmccormack.com
http://wbbmccormack.com/

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