Summary Description

As a member of the Advancement Division’s senior staff, the Director of Annual Giving is responsible for leading all areas of a comprehensive annual giving program for Colorado College. This dynamic leader will be responsible for creating, implementing, and evaluating a fundraising program whose purpose is to build a long-term base of support for the college. The Director will help determine strategies to identify, cultivate, solicit, and acknowledge annual giving donors and prospects to include alumni, parents, students, faculty, and staff. Aspects of the program include direct mail, digital communications, student calling program, reunion giving, the Tiger Pride Fund, leadership annual giving, crowdfunding, and the senior class gift.

Responsibilities:

• Overall management and leadership responsibility for the college’s annual giving program including planning and executing a multi-channel strategy utilizing direct mail, email, calling, texting, web, social media, and additional channels as identified.
• Lead development of the annual operating plan, including setting goals for all areas of annual giving.
• Develop and implement annual giving strategies to upgrade and encourage loyalty among existing donors, acquire new and recapture lapsed donors, and work with Associate Director of Annual Giving to identify and qualify donors for the major gifts pipeline.
• Using data, create segmented appeal structure and communication plan to target donors by giving behavior and constituency. Analyze results and use data to inform short-term and long-term tactics and strategies.
• Closely collaborate with college and advancement communications to develop and maintain consistency of annual giving messaging used in solicitations, stewardship, volunteer work, and events. Ensure alignment with college brand and Building on Originality campaign standards.
• Work closely with Stewardship team to ensure gifts are acknowledged and stewarded appropriately – including the development of impact reporting.
• Collaborate with the Associate Director of Annual Giving to develop solicitation, communication, and stewardship strategies for leadership annual giving donors, including President’s Circle and 1874 Society members.
• Collaborate with the Assistant Vice President for Volunteer Leadership and Director of Alumni and Parents Relations to further build relationships with alumni, parents, and friends to foster a culture of annual giving.
• Identify and leverage College-wide opportunities to increase overall giving and participation among alumni, parents and friends.
• Support Advancement Services in its efforts to maintain the integrity of the database system, and provide appropriate reports, records, and other data as requested.
• Recruit, hire, train, supervise, and provide problem-solving assistance for a team of five who work directly with reunion giving, athletics annual giving, leadership annual giving, the calling program, crowdfunding, mail and email marketing, and senior class gift.
• Oversee all budgets related to Annual Giving.
• Demonstrate a commitment to best practices and current innovations in annual giving. Provide leadership to the advancement team for evolving fundraising innovations.
• Serve as a member of the Advancement senior staff.

Additional Responsibilities:

• Support and actively contribute to the goal of achieving greater diversity, inclusion and equity at Colorado College and work effectively with all members of the campus community.
• Promote a culture of safety and environmental protection by working in a safe manner; immediately reporting unsafe situations and accidents; following college procedures; and participating in appropriate safety training.
• Demonstrate environmental sustainability by using college resources wisely and supporting the college’s sustainability initiatives and innovation.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree plus a minimum of five years of experience in the advancement field or related experience including supervisory experience; strategic leader with demonstrated expertise and knowledge of annual giving fundraising strategies and tactics; highly organized with ability to interpret and communicate complex data sets and utilize analytic techniques and platforms, and data visualization tools; superb listening and interpersonal skills; a commitment to high performance and teamwork; strong initiative and the ability to work collaboratively in a complex environment with deadlines. The successful candidate with have an extraordinary attention to detail and ability to manage multiple competing priorities with minimal supervision.

Preferred Qualifications: Advanced degree. An alumna/alumnus of Colorado College.