Reporting to the Director of Leadership Giving and Annual Initiatives and working under the guidance of an EverTrue Advancement Program Manager, the Donor Experience Officer (DXO) is an energetic, passionate, entrepreneurial, digital-first fundraiser that leverages modern communication tools to engage and grow the next generation of supporters of the university. The DXO will identify, qualify, engage, solicit, and steward individual prospects capable of making leadership gifts of $1,000 or more annually. This program will secure and retain leadership annual gifts of $1,000-$24,999 in support of the major gifts program and pipeline development. The DXO will provide a first-class philanthropic experience for donors by leveraging digital and in-person engagement to build relationships with alumni, parents, friends, faculty and staff through video, social media, digital and in-person connections based the passions and interests of each individual donor.

This is an early career fundraising position focused on the strategic identification, qualification and engagement of current donors and highly rated non-donors with a goal of building and maintaining a new pipeline of prospects for the university at large.

Primary Responsibilities

• Implements and executes strategies for identifying, engaging, and successfully soliciting individuals for gifts to support the University with an emphasis on soliciting gifts at the leadership annual giving level.
• Manages a portfolio of approximately 1,000 prospects through an active schedule of solicitation, engagement, and stewardship calls or virtual visits to donors and new prospects.
• Builds connections with current and prospective donors and alumni to support programs and priorities.
• High volume of daily touchpoints (email, phone calls, social media) to help identify and keep engaged leadership level donors.
• Liaises with Advancement team to monitor status of the qualification, engagement, and stewardship of prospects to build a pipeline toward major gifts.
• Maintains information on selected donors and prospects including contact reports in CRM system.
• Communicates in ways that are donor-centric, while furthering the mission of UConn.
• May travel to meet with donors as needed.
• Other duties as assigned.

Key Competencies

• Values diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
• An aptitude for learning new software and technologies, such as CRMs (Blackbaud and EverTrue) and social media platforms
• Strong organizational and problem-solving skills with attention to detail, the ability to work with ambiguity, navigate a complex work environment, and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Strong written and verbal communications skills, including ability to effectively communicate University priorities to donors and prospects, and to positively represent the University and Foundation.
• Strong interpersonal skills, tact, and diplomacy. The ability to build productive, beneficial relationships with a broad range of constituencies.
• Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively to achieve goals with a commitment to delivering exceptional customer service.
• Ability to engender trust and confidence of donors and prospective donors and to maintain confidentiality of donor information; ability to represent the UConn Foundation to prospects, donors, faculty, administrators, and others.
• Must have reliable personal transportation and valid driver’s license issued from the state in which the employee resides. Employee must maintain at their expense, automotive liability insurance coverage in the minimum amount of $500,000 or a combination of umbrella and auto liability insurance coverage of $500,00. A certificate of automobile insurance must be provided to the Foundation at hire and annually thereafter.
• Ability to work the demands of the job which may exceed a 40-hour week.

The University of Connecticut Foundation is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer committed to fostering diversity in its workforce.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree
• 1+ years of experience in fundraising, cold calling marketing/sales, campaigning and/or relevant transferrable skills.
• Competence in Microsoft Office suite and donor management systems/customer relations management system (CRM) along with how to use social networking as a marketing tool.