Position Highlights: 

The Leadership Giving Officer is responsible for soliciting and stewarding annual leadership-level gifts, currently defined as $2,500-$24,999, to generate current-use revenue for scholarships, faculty research, campus programs, and other university programs. This position will also grow the university’s community of supporters in The President’s Club. Additionally, the Leadership Giving Officer will assist with stewardship and donor services functions for the Leadership Giving team.

Outstanding UA benefits include health, dental, and vision insurance plans; life insurance and disability programs; paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays; UA/ASU/NAU tuition reduction for the employee and qualified family members; state and optional retirement plans; access to UA recreation and cultural activities; and more!

Duties & Responsibilities:

Approximately 80% of the Leadership Gift Officer’s time will be spent on fundraising tasks and 20% of their time spent assisting with stewardship and operational functions of the Leadership Giving team.

• Manage a portfolio of 1,000-1,500 leadership giving donors and prospects.
• Achieve agreed upon performance metrics including but not limited to number of contacts, number of opportunities/asks delivered, number of opportunities/asks secured, dollars raised, and percent of portfolio retained.
• Conduct a high volume of daily outreach attempts daily to cultivate, solicit and steward leadership level gifts through phone calls, virtual meetings, emails/digital tools, direct mail and events. A majority of contacts will be conducted using digital tools or phone, but strategic face-to-face meetings may be required to advance select relationships. Such interactions may include introductory and thank you calls, conversations to discover affinity and inclination to give, and solicitations.
• Develop personalized communications, proposals, reports and other material to further relationships
  Collaborate with internal partners to strategically leverage personalized outreach to complement mass solicitation and stewardship activities.
• In collaboration with the Director of Leadership Giving, develop and implement new strategies to acquire, retain and upgrade leadership giving donors.
• Learn about campus programs and projects and effectively communicate the university’s mission to constituents
  Engage with constituents at events.
• Input donor interactions in Blackbaud CRM database; log contact reports, gift opportunities and prospect plans.
• Stay informed of fundraising best practices related to fundraising in higher education and leadership giving.
• Contribute to a culture of collegiality and collaboration with development team members across campus, providing positive and effective customer service that supports and enhances campus-wide leadership giving.
• Collaborate with major gift officers and discovery officers by referring major gift prospects and accepting leadership giving referrals.
• Utilize The President’s Club & 1885 Society donor recognition programs to provide stewardship, engagement and solicitation touchpoints throughout the year to encourage leadership giving.
• Provide customer service to donors.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Job Scope: 

The Leadership Gift Officer will regularly work with minimal supervision and will regularly exercise independent judgment. While the Leadership Gift Officer is expected to follow all UAF and UA organizational policies (accounting, personnel, contracts, etc.), he/she will have the authority to recommend procedure changes regarding programmatic issues.

Interpersonal Contacts: 

Interpersonal contacts are frequent and varied and include, but are not limited to, University/Foundation donors and prospects, university administrators and campus leadership, faculty, staff, students and vendors. Many communications are confidential.

Desired Skills & Abilities: 

•  Ability to build relationships and relate with individuals from various backgrounds.
• Adept at building rapport over the phone and using virtual tools.
• Proven success in personally soliciting philanthropic gifts or generating revenue for a given program.
• Ability to meet deadlines and handle multiple projects simultaneously.
• Ability to prioritize assignments effectively.
• Ability to work effectively with both in-person and virtual teams.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to understand, help manage, and work within budgetary procedures, policies, and restrictions.
• Exceptional attention to detail and ability to develop and follow processes for ensuring accuracy in work product.
• Recognizes and respects different perspectives. Open to the ideas and views of others and can effectively work in a highly collaborative working environment.
• Adaptable to changing processes and environments.
• Adept at handling personal and confidential information with tact and discretion.
• Ability to provide sound judgment and offer solutions that align with UADP guiding principles and ethical standards of the development profession.
• Demonstrated commitment to exceptional customer service with the ability to translate the UADP guiding principle of donor-centricity into programmatic practices.
• Knowledge of leadership giving and donor recognition programs.
• Skill in operating PC-based software such as MS Office products.
• Demonstrated skill and knowledge of, or ability to learn quickly, the internal workings of the UADP as well as the technology tools available, including Blackbaud CRM (fundraising and donor management software) and Marketo (email marketing automation tool).
• Ability to travel on occasional basis and work evening and/or weekends as necessary.
• Ability to provide on-site support for Leadership Giving team including assisting with administrative duties such as checking the mail, printing/mailing letters as needed.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects, prioritize work to maximize productivity, and respond effectively to change.
• Ability to work effectively with a wide variety of individuals, including donors, development officers, deans, and faculty.

Minimum Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent advanced learning attained through professional level experience required.
• Minimum of 3 years of relevant work experience required.

At the University of Arizona, we value our inclusive climate because we know that diversity in experiences and perspectives is vital to advancing innovation, critical thinking, solving complex problems, and creating an inclusive academic community. As an Hispanic-serving institution, we translate these values into action by seeking individuals who have experience and expertise working with diverse students, colleagues, and constituencies. Because we seek a workforce with a wide range of perspectives and experiences, we provide equal employment opportunities to applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or genetic information. As an Employer of National Service, we also welcome alumni of AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, and other national service programs and others who will help us advance our Inclusive Excellence initiative aimed at creating a university that values student, staff and faculty engagement in addressing issues of diversity and inclusiveness.