Principal Gift Officer

About USA Triathlon Foundation

The USA Triathlon Foundation supports grants and programs that advance three philanthropic priorities: encouraging youth participation, inspiring pathways to access and inclusion, and igniting Olympic and Paralympic dreams.

With the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games on the horizon, USA Triathlon and the USA Triathlon Foundation are entering an extraordinary period of opportunity and visibility for the sport. The Foundation launched the Elevate28 Campaign in 2026, a $28 million fundraising initiative built to elevate the future of triathlon in the United States and strengthen the pipeline of development and elite athletes, programs, and resources leading into and beyond LA28.

Position Overview

The Foundation's frontline fundraising team consists of three roles reporting to the Chief Development Officer: the Principal Gift Officer, the Director of Major Gifts, and the Senior Manager, Annual Leadership Giving. Together, this team covers the full continuum of individual giving, from first gifts through transformational commitments.

The Principal Gift Officer works in close partnership with the Chief Development Officer on the Foundation's largest and most complex prospects and gifts, contributing to how the Foundation approaches its highest-capacity relationships alongside the CDO.

The Foundation is in an early, foundational chapter: it is building a mature major and principal gift pipeline largely from scratch. The Principal Gift Officer will be central to that build, establishing the portfolio structure, prospect strategy, and moves-management discipline that the program will run on for years to come, not simply managing gifts within an already-mature system.

The Principal Gift Officer will manage a clearly defined portfolio of approximately 40–50 high-capacity individuals, families, foundations, and organizations. While the portfolio spans prospects capable of six-figure commitments, the role's core focus and expectation is identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and closing gifts in the seven-figure and above range, up to $5 million+.

This is a remote position open to candidates nationwide, with a preference for the Northeast given the region's proximity to a greater concentration of the Foundation's donor prospects. The role involves approximately 40% travel to markets across the country for donor engagement, events, and competitions.

The Foundation's development team currently totals five people: three frontline fundraisers (the Principal Gift Officer, the Director of Major Gifts, and the Senior Manager, Annual Leadership Giving) and two additional team members supporting operations, strategy, and stewardship. The Principal Gift Officer is a frontline, individual-contributor role and does not manage staff, but works closely and collaboratively with the frontline fundraising staff to ensure a seamless donor pathway.

The Foundation is roughly $5 million into its $28 million Elevate28 goal and has built a solid major-gift pipeline over the past year. As the Foundation moves closer to the LA28 Games, the focus now shifts to a more strategic and thoughtful approach to larger, principal level gift asks, building relationships from scratch around triathlon affinity rather than inheriting an already developed portfolio.

What You'll Do

Portfolio and Gift Strategy

• Manage a clearly defined portfolio of 40–50 high-capacity prospects and donors, with individualized strategies calibrated to move relationships from six-figure entry gifts toward seven-figure and larger commitments.
• Help build the Foundation's principal gift infrastructure from the ground up: portfolio segmentation, moves management, qualification criteria, and prospect pipeline stages appropriate to a program still maturing.
• Lead the development of customized $1 million–$5 million+ proposals, including cases for support, naming opportunities, multi year commitments, endowed funds, and other creative gift structures, while also closing well structured six-figure gifts that build toward future principal-level commitments.

Partnership with the Chief Development Officer

• Work in close, collaborative partnership with the CDO on the Foundation's largest and most complex prospects, helping shape solicitation strategy, prioritizing high- capacity prospects, and joining key donor visits and asks together.
• Share observations and input with the CDO on donor readiness, campaign priorities, and prospect movement across the portfolio.

Coordination Across the Frontline Team

• Work hand in glove with the Director of Major Gifts and Senior Manager, Annual Leadership Giving to ensure a coordinated donor pathway, from first gift through principal-level giving, with clear ownership and no duplicated outreach.
• Determine, in partnership with frontline colleagues, when a prospect should shift into a principal-gift strategy versus remain with a frontline officer, and when a joint approach is most effective.
• Support frontline fundraisers in raising donor aspirations and preparing for larger, more complex solicitations.

Campaign and Mission Engagement

• Play a central role in the $28 million Elevate28 Campaign, advancing principal-gift opportunities tied to LA28 Games preparation, athlete development, high- performance, and youth and inclusion programs.
• Build authentic relationships with high-net-worth individuals, families, foundations, and corporations aligned with the Foundation's priorities.
• Work closely with Olympic and Paralympic athletes, coaches, alumni, Board of Trustees Members, and organizational leadership to create meaningful, story-driven donor engagement.
• Represent the Foundation with professionalism, a positive attitude, and discretion in high-level donor interactions, and travel as needed, including evenings and weekends, for donor engagement, events, and competitions.

What We're Looking For

An accomplished, entrepreneurial fundraiser who has personally closed seven-figure and larger gifts, and who is energized by the challenge of building a principal-gift program rather than simply operating within an established. This person understands that transformational fundraising is a team sport: they are equally comfortable leading a complex, multi-million-dollar solicitation themselves and coaching a frontline colleague through of their own.