Essential Job Duties

North Carolina State University is searching for a Director of Principal Gifts to join the University Advancement Principal Gifts team to provide strategic management for the University’s principal gifts program, which seeks to secure transformational gifts for University and college/unit priorities.

The Director of Principal Gifts partners with the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Principal Gifts (AVC), Vice Chancellor for University Advancement (VC), and Executive Director and Chief of Staff for University Advancement to Identify, Discover, and solicit principal gift prospects. This position will work with campus partners to develop strategies appropriate assignments for principal gifts prospects across the University. The Director will lead efforts to build a donor pipeline and help manage the effective identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of the University’s principal gift-level prospects. He/she will oversee holistic engagement and solicitation strategies for implementation by University and Advancement leadership, chief development officers, and unit-based major gifts officers for University and/or targeted priorities.

The Director of Principal Gifts partners closely with the Vice Chancellor of University Advancement to support campaign planning around principal gift prospects, leadership volunteer groups, and University and college/unit fundraising priorities. The position will play a key role along with other with VC staff to support the Chancellor’s Office on development activity, with emphasis on individual principal prospect priorities. The Director collaborates with development units across the University for principal prospect identification, strategy development, and strategic coordination for multi-interest and single interest principal prospects, and for prospect visibility for University Leadership.

This individual partners with a team to oversee donor and prospect proposals and other communications, concierge-level donor recognition and stewardship, and research to identify new prospects and to advance the University’s overall principal gifts efforts.

Primary duties of the Director of Principal Gifts include, but are not limited to the following:

Principal Gifts Fundraising & Program Management

• Developing a comprehensive system for tracking and monitoring $5M+ principal gift prospects across the University, including the Chancellor’s and Vice Chancellor’s prospects, multi-interest prospects, and single interest prospects.
• In partnership with the AVC for Principal Gifts, leading strategy meetings with senior University leadership, chief development officers, and front-line major gifts officers; leading in the development of focused and coordinated fundraising strategies to facilitate the process of building relationships with prospects and donors who provide the foundation for the University’s ongoing fundraising efforts.
• Collaborating with university leadership, college and unit leadership, and development colleagues to develop programs that align donor interests with university priorities/needs.
• In partnership with VC staff and AVC for Principal Gifts, managing the planning and implementation of development trips/meetings for the Chancellor including identifying prospects, collaborating with gift officers around strategies for these prospects, contacting donors and prospects, preparing and overseeing briefings and related materials outlining the strategy, and working with principal gifts staff to prepare details for the trip. The Director will also participate in these meetings as needed.
• Collaborating with AVC of Principal Gifts, university senior leadership, academic leadership, college and unit leadership to develop new giving opportunities that will advance the university and enhance the student experience; leading the process to articulate these visions for the university’s principal gift donors and support the drafting of proposals.
• Managing the development of new strategies for mining principal gift prospects from donor databases and other sources to support fundraising goals and objectives.
• Implementing and managing a University-wide review of all $5M+ proposals to ensure coordination and the highest quality of proposal submissions.
• Developing holistic principle gifts stewardship protocol in partnership with the Development Communications and Stewardship team that focuses on impactful and personalized approaches.
• Developing and maintaining a master list of naming opportunities at $5M+.

Staff Development and Coordination

• Leading a principal gifts services team dedicated to equipping University Advancement Leadership, Chief Development Officers, and frontline fundraisers with the strategy, information and supporting materials necessary to accelerate and focus externally on the cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of principal gift prospects.
• Collaborating with high-performing and service-oriented team members (initially defined as a senior writer, donor relations manager, and a researcher/data analyst) to provide customized proposals, briefings, and other communications; concierge-level donor recognition and stewardship for principal gift prospects and donors; and research to identify new prospects and to advance the University’s overall principal gifts efforts.
• Analyzing short-term and long-term resource needs and make recommendations for future staffing and resources.
• Ensuring completion of deliverables and adherence to timelines, track milestones and timelines across projects, and institute necessary workflow, personnel, and financial resource allocations.
• Participating in CRM discussions as they relate to principal gifts needed for tracking and management.

Minimum Education/Experience

Requires a relevant post-Baccalaureate degree with a minimum of three (3) years or greater experience in institutional advancement, or relevant undergraduate degree from an accredited college or university with five (5) or more years of experience in institutional advancement.

Departmental Required Skills

• Deep understanding of and appreciation for the philanthropic process including the fundraising stages of identification, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship
• High-level project management experience; capable of managing competing priorities and multiple deadlines, and seeing projects through from beginning to end
• A commitment to NC State’s mission
• Ability to synthesize relevant and complex information about principal gift donors and prospects and to aid in the development of targeted strategies to secure transformational gifts
• Highly proficient research and analysis capabilities; ability to bridge the gap between data-driven and human approaches to principal gift prospect identification and actionable strategic guidance for development leadership and officers.
• Ability to develop and engender trust-based, effective and collaborative relationships with faculty, administrators, volunteers, and colleagues as part of a team in a large, complex, decentralized research university
• High level of creativity, initiative, and motivation
• Excellent technical and database skills, particularly in research, analysis, and reporting
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; high emotional intelligence.
• Exceptional reasoning, problem-solving, and analytical skills
• Unrelenting commitment to confidentiality around highly sensitive information
• Optimism, perseverance and a positive attitude

Preferred Skills, Training & Education

• Master’s degree
• Comprehensive campaign experience
• Experience negotiating and closing major gifts
• An understanding of the land grant, research Tier One university environment
• Familiarity with NC State University