The Office of Annual Giving is focused on meeting and growing our annual donor goal of 4,000 alumni donors contributing $2.75M towards the school’s annual operating budget through The Whitman Fund and W Club. The Assistant Director of Annual Giving is a key member of the team focused on student philanthropy, young alumni and the use of phone and digital technology to acquire donors. The Office of Annual Giving is part of the Development and Alumni Relations department.

The Assistant Director of Annual Giving will report directly to the Director of Annual Giving, and is a key member of the Annual Giving Team involved in all of the cyclical giving campaigns of the school. This position will oversee our student phonathon program, a group of student employees engaged in calling/texting, and digital engagement of alumni and parents.  The Assistant Director will work closely with the Director of Annual Giving to plan the day to day operations of these programs. 

This position has a work schedule of either:

• A four-day work week
  • Monday-Thursday 9AM-8PM  

OR

• A five-day work week
  • Monday 9AM-6PM
  • Tuesday 9AM-6PM
  • Wednesday 9AM-8PM
  • Thursday 9AM-8PM
  • Friday 9AM-1PM or 1PM-5PM.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Manage all aspects of the phonathon program.
  • Supervise daily and nightly work of student workers.
  • Recruit, interview, train, and provide performance assessments to a team of student employees. 
  • Motivate and inspire students to achieve individual goals.
  • Develop phonathon pools using segmentation methods.
  • Send regular reminders from phonathon pledges.
  • Assist in the timely preparation of thank you notes. 
  • Educate students on important school updates to develop timely talking points. 
  • Develop texting pools, email language, and other digital engagement strategies used by students to acquire and steward donors. 
  • Maintain regular reports on student outreach to evaluate the efficacy of the program.
• Supervise student philanthropy program.
  • Recruit, interview and train student volunteers or employees focused on senior class gift. 
  • Work with students to develop goals and priorities.
  • Develop and execute events and activities focused on increasing philanthropy education on campus.
  • Maintain reports on student fundraising to evaluate the efficacy of the program.
• Oversee young alumni philanthropy.
  • Recruit and train class representative volunteers from the most recent decade.
  • Manage class representative outreach.
  • Work with volunteers to develop and support class gift goals with a focus on the 5th and 10th reunions. 
  • In collaboration with alumni relations colleagues, develop and support meaningful engagement opportunities for young alumni.
  • Take on roles for giving days, digital outreach, and other marketing and stewardship activities as part of the Annual Giving Team.

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES

Must be able to explain and/or demonstrate possession of the knowledge, skills, and abilities to safely perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodation. Specifically,

• Ability to work evenings and weekends on a regular schedule. 
• Desire to actively and positively contribute to Whitman’s core values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the Development and Alumni Relations Department’s values of integrity, trust, respect, collaboration, accountability and inclusion.

• Demonstrated ability to effectively manage, train, coach and motivate student employees and volunteers.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office products, especially Excel.
• Ability and willingness to learn new technology and software. 
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to interface professionally with alumni, parents, administration, faculty and students, and have the ability to effectively communicate and train others to communicate the vision of the College.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a team environment—with a mix of student, alumni and staff/faculty colleagues.
• Highly motivated self-starter with adherence to timelines. 
• Ability to be flexible in working in an environment with numerous deadlines and competing priorities.
• Demonstrated history of collaboration with colleagues with an ability to execute independently.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree OR 4 or more years of professional experience in an administrative capacity.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience in personally soliciting gifts and/or cold-calling.
• Experience in fundraising. 
• Experience working with automated calling/texting software.
• Familiarity with Annual Giving best practices in higher education.
• Supervisory experience.