The Senior Director of Annual Giving & Donor Relations provides strategic leadership of University Relations’ annual giving and donor relations programs. They plan, organize, implement, and evaluate mass solicitation and stewardship strategies for 14,000+ University donors. The Sr. Director is a champion for pipeline development, and they partner with gift officers and alumni relations colleagues to increase donor acquisition and retention from alumni, parents, faculty/staff, students, and friends.

Annual Giving leadership responsibilities include raising over $2M in unrestricted and annual scholarship support across all giving channels:  direct mail, phone, email, video, and social media. 

Donor Relations leadership responsibilities include overseeing a structured gift acknowledgement process, financial and impact reporting, donor recognition activities and other stewardship plans, events, and correspondence.

The Sr. Director provides direct management of the Annual Giving and Donor Relations teams and reports to the Assistant Vice President, Operations & Strategic Initiatives.

Education & Work Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in business, marketing, communications, or related field. Master’s Degree preferred.
• 7-10+ years professional experience working for a non-profit or higher education institution in annual giving, development, donor relations, or related field.
• 5 years of progressive management Experience in a leadership role
• Experience working with a CRM. Working knowledge of Ellucian’s Advance Web a plus.
• Experience developing and managing programmatic and/or event budgets.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities & Other Characteristics

• Knowledge of development/fundraising concepts and corresponding mass solicitation and donor stewardship techniques 
• Must have knowledge of and ability to create, execute and support comprehensive annual giving and donor relations plans
• Knowledge of direct mail and direct marketing program management 
• Knowledge of phonathon or telemarketing program management 
• Strong interpersonal/human relations skills 
• Strong verbal and professional written communication skills 
• Demonstrated analytical skills regarding program performance 
• Proficient software skills in Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and donor database software programs  
• Must be detail-oriented, goal-oriented, and have a high level of initiative