About the GitLab Foundation

The GitLab Foundation is committed to helping people grow their lifetime earnings through education, training, access to employment, and systems change across workforce, employer, and policy ecosystems on a global scale. Our North Star is to maximize increases in lifetime earnings for every dollar we invest, with an ambitious target of generating over $100 in lifetime earnings gains for every dollar spent. We focus on supporting individuals earning below a living wage, enabling meaningful, sustained improvements in their lives. Our vision is a world in which one million more people can afford a better life.

In addition to high-impact grantmaking, the GitLab Foundation extends its impact through advisory services that support peer foundations in impact modeling and measurement, and through donor engagement efforts that mobilize additional values-aligned capital. Together, this work allows us to amplify our influence beyond direct grantmaking and contribute to stronger, more effective approaches to economic mobility across the sector.

The GitLab Foundation is an independent private foundation affiliated with GitLab Inc. We currently operate in Kenya, Colombia, and the United States, partnering with organizations that share our commitment to expanding opportunity at scale. You can learn more about the GitLab Foundation by visiting our website and reviewing our public Handbook.

The Team

The GitLab Foundation is a high-performing, fully remote team that moves quickly, values curiosity, and is deeply results-oriented. We bring together diverse experience across philanthropy, nonprofit leadership, and the private sector — leveraging a range of perspectives to act with rigor, empathy, and strategic clarity. Our culture is grounded in our CREDIT values and shaped by respect, humility, open debate, and a strong bias for action. This is a hands-on environment where priorities evolve, decisions move quickly, and team members are expected to take initiative without waiting for perfect clarity. We hold ourselves to high standards, operate with transparency and ownership, and are comfortable navigating ambiguity as we iterate, learn, and improve. Above all, we are united by a shared commitment to delivering meaningful, measurable impact in the lives of those we serve.

About this Role

The Director leads the strategy and execution of donor stewardship and engagement to drive sustained philanthropic investment and deepen long-term partnerships. This role builds meaningful relationships with high-net-worth individuals, institutional funders, and strategic partners to advance the Foundation's mission. Reporting to the Entrepreneur-in-Residence and working closely with the Chief Programs and Partnerships Officer, this role combines two critical elements: building a donor engagement system from the ground up and delivering highly personalized, high-touch relationship management across a small, high-priority portfolio.

The Director translates strategy into execution by managing donor relationships, supporting the mobilization of additional values-aligned capital, and delivering thoughtful, high-quality donor experiences. This includes designing and executing engagement opportunities—such as convenings, briefings, and curated in-person and virtual experiences—that strengthen alignment with the Foundation’s work.

The ideal candidate is a seasoned relationship steward who understands that donors at this level are cultivated through trust, insight, and consistency. They move fluidly between program impact and donor perspective, are highly organized without being transactional, and bring a strong attention to detail to every interaction. They are comfortable operating in a small, fast-moving organization, exercise sound judgment, and maintain discretion in high-trust, high-stakes relationships.

Key Responsibilities

Stewardship Strategy & Execution

• Serve as the primary day-to-day relationship manager for donors, executing on a relationship strategy set by senior leadership and coordinating their engagement at key moments

• Manage and steward a portfolio of major donors, ensuring consistent, high-quality engagement across all relationships

• Design and lead a comprehensive stewardship program across all major donor segments — individual high-net-worth donors, corporate funders, and institutional foundations — ensuring each relationship reflects the donor's unique preferences, communication style, and engagement appetite

• Build and maintain individualized stewardship profiles for each major donor, documenting preferences for reporting depth, event participation, personal touch frequency, and recognition style

• Establish annual stewardship calendars for all active major donors and partner with senior leadership to ensure warm hand-offs from cultivation to post-gift engagement

Donor Communications & Reporting

• Develop a tiered reporting framework that accommodates the full spectrum of donor preferences — from detailed, data-rich reports to high-level narrative summaries — ensuring every funder receives the right information in the right format

• Translate complex programmatic and financial data into accessible, emotionally resonant donor-facing content in partnership with program and finance teams

• Track and analyze donor engagement, retention, and renewal metrics using CRM systems and data insights to inform continuous improvement.

• Ensure consistency and quality across all donor communications, aligning messaging with individual donor preferences and the Foundation’s broader narrative

• Design and lead the development of a portfolio-level reporting framework and tools, partnering with internal and external stakeholders to deliver clear, tailored insights to donors

• Write and produce compelling stewardship communications including personalized thank-you letters, impact stories, portfolio updates

Donor Experiences & Events

• Design and deliver bespoke donor engagement experiences — including intimate dinners, site visits, learning cohorts, and curated field trips — that deepen donors' emotional connection to the Foundation's mission

• Manage all logistics, briefings, and follow-up for donor-facing events, ensuring flawless execution and a distinct "GitLab Foundation feel" that reflects the organization's culture and values

• Design and manage a thoughtful, personalized gifting program that reflects individual donor preferences and meaningful moments in the relationship

• Integrate donor insights and preferences into event design to ensure experiences are highly personalized and aligned with relationship goals

Donor Intelligence & Personalization

• Serve as the internal expert on the preferences, priorities, and relationship history of each major donor, maintaining detailed records in the CRM and briefing senior leadership before any donor interaction

• Proactively identify opportunities to surprise and delight donors — anticipating moments that merit recognition, outreach, or a special touch before they are asked for

• Conduct regular relationship health check-ins, flagging early signals of disengagement or shifting interests to leadership

• Synthesize donor insights and relationship context to inform broader engagement, cultivation, and partnership strategies

Renewal & Retention

• Build stewardship timelines and touchpoint strategies specifically oriented toward multi-year renewal, ensuring donors are continuously reminded of their impact well before any formal re-engagement or ask

• Partner with the senior leaders to develop renewal narratives and impact documentation that support the re-solicitation process

• Track stewardship metrics and produce regular reports on engagement activity, renewal indicators, and donor satisfaction

• Proactively identify opportunities to deepen donor engagement and expand partnerships in advance of formal renewal cycles

• Contribute to the growth of donor commitments by strengthening renewal pathways and deepening long-term partnerships aligned with the Foundation’s funding priorities

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with program staff to gather impact data, stories, and learning that can be translated into compelling donor-facing content

• Collaborate with finance and grants management on compliance reporting timelines and funder-specific requirements

• Serve as a thought partner to senior leadership on how donor experience strategy reflects and reinforces the Foundation's brand and values

• Collaborate with senior leadership to align donor interests with funding opportunities and strategic initiatives across the Foundation

• Translate donor stewardship strategy into coordinated actions across teams to ensure alignment and effective execution

• Represent the Foundation in donor, philanthropic, and partner engagements, as appropriate, to strengthen relationships and increase visibility

Desired Knowledge, Skills, Experience, and Personal Attributes

• 10+ years of experience in philanthropy, partnerships, or donor engagement, including work with high-net-worth individuals and/or institutional funders

• Major donor stewardship experience at the $1M+ gift level, ideally across multiple donor types (individual, corporate, and foundation)

• Event design and execution for intimate, high-touch experiences — small dinners, site visits, learning convenings — with impeccable attention to detail and tone

• Exceptional writing ability, particularly in crafting personalized, warm, and credible donor communications that don't read as templated

• CRM fluency and a habit of rigorous documentation — this individual keeps records that make the whole organization smarter about each relationship

• Comfort with impact data and reporting, including the ability to work with program and finance colleagues to produce funder reports that are both accurate and compelling

• High emotional intelligence and social range — equally effective with a tech billionaire, a family foundation program officer, and a corporate giving lead with a bureaucratic approval process

• Discretion and professionalism in handling sensitive relationship dynamics, confidential donor information, and high-stakes interactions

• Self-directed and systems-minded — able to design and manage a complex stewardship calendar across a diverse portfolio without dropping threads

• Genuine curiosity about the Foundation's mission, with enough intellectual engagement with economic mobility, workforce development, or related fields to hold substantive conversations with donors who are deeply invested in the work

• Low ego, high standards — someone who takes great pride in craft and relationship quality but is content to be the person behind the scenes making leaders look exceptional in front of donors

• Thrives in a fast-paced environment and takes the initiative on tasks and challenges when presented 

U.S. Compensation and Benefits

• Location: Fully remote. Must be based in the U.S. (GitLab Foundation does not offer visa sponsorship.)

• Base Salary Range: $125,000-$140,000 depending on responsibilities, candidate experience, and location. 

  • The approximate total compensation package, including comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan, and other benefits, ranges from $160,000 to $200,000.Learn more about compensation at the Foundation. 

• Benefits 

  • Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage (full premium coverage for team members, spouses, and dependents).

  • 401(k) contribution: GitLab Foundation contributes 10% of salary (no employee contribution required).

  • Unlimited vacation, sick time, and other paid time off.

  • Additional team member benefits.

• Travel: Approximately 25%, including both domestic and international travel. Travel will primarily be for team meetings, as well as donor events, convenings, and relevant conferences.

How to Apply

Please submit a cover letter, resume and brief writing sample (1-3 pages) focused on communicating impact to donors (e.g., updates, reports, or storytelling). Submit all three documents in one PDF, Google Doc or Word document to info@gitlabfoundation.org by EOD May 7.

GitLab Foundation is an equal opportunity employer committed to a diverse, inclusive team and a work environment rooted in our CREDIT values. We strive to cultivate a culture that is inclusive, respectful, and empowering for all.