Reporting to the Director of Annual Giving, the Sr. Associate Director of Leadership Annual Giving is a front-facing gift officer who will work to capture, renew, and increase support of current use funds for The Catholic University of America. They will strategically launch and grow the annual giving leadership society which aims to cultivate, steward, and move donors through the pipeline to the highest levels of annual giving. Main areas of focus will include portfolio management and gift solicitation, qualification and disqualification in addition to major gift opportunity identification and hand off, event development and execution, as well as the development and fulfillment of leadership society benefits.

Knowledge of data model evaluation is preferred as a successful candidate will be able to prioritize outreach based on modeling scores and past behavior. The Sr. Associate Director of Leadership Annual Giving will manage a portfolio of approximately 75-100 prospects and be evaluated on visits and gift generation but will also be responsible for developing and managing a strategy to qualify/disqualify a pool of approximately 2,000 highly rated prospects.

In addition to portfolio work, s/he will oversee the strategy of the leadership annual giving society (1887 Society) including the acknowledgement process, stewardship, benefits, communications and outreach, broader acquisition marketing, events, and renewal strategies.

As the Sr. Associate Director, this individual will oversee the central leadership annual gift team, which includes up to five junior gift officers and a coordinator. The central leadership annual gift officer team will be responsible for portfolio management, relationship development, pipeline building, and bolstering the 1887 Society for the University. The leadership annual giving coordinator will support the team and assist with the administration of the 1887 Society. Additionally, the Sr. Associate Director will have a dotted line relationship to the school-based leadership annual gift officers. These gift officers will be integrated into the larger annual giving team, seeking guidance from this position and looking to the expertise of this individual to model their portfolio work and donor/prospect engagement.

Travel will be required 30% of the time and event execution may be outside the immediate DC region.

In collaboration with the Director of Annual Giving, the Sr. Associate Director will liaison with regional gift officers as well as school based development officers to provide collateral and other annual giving leadership society materials and talking points. S/he will meet with partners to review current and potential members to increase membership.

S/he will need to give a high level of attention to detail to all those who qualify for membership and be able devise the best stewardship plan in partnership with the advancement stewardship team and with consideration for overlapping prospect populations and VIP donors.

It is critical that this candidate be comfortable soliciting donors and friends of Catholic University for annual fund gifts. S/he must have practiced high attention to detail, organization, and the ability to handle multiple high priority relationships.

Responsibilities

• Portfolio management to generate current use monies, mainly in support of the Fund for Catholic University.
• Manages the leadership annual giving society and is the main point of contact for all records, data, results/reporting, collateral, and cultivation plans related to this society.
• Supervises the central leadership annual giving team, which includes up to five junior gift officers and a coordinator.
• Manages dotted-line reporting relationships with school based leadership annual gift officers. Providing coaching and portfolio guidance for leadership annual gift work. Is partly accountable for the success of all LAG officers.\
• Utilizes University Advancement’s database to document call reports and other relevant information about donor and prospect moves management.
• Cultivates relationships with a variety of prospects, not tied to one constituency, age, demographic, or location. S/he will need to be comfortable talking about the importance of support for the Fund for Catholic University and what the associated benefits are for leadership annual giving.
• Efficiently and effectively combs through a larger list of highly modeled prospects to qualify and disqualify them for larger philanthropic engagement.
• Works with the Director of Annual Giving to ensure proper marketing throughout the annual calendar and inclusion of LAG specific topics when necessary. Helps to coordinate and execute leadership annual giving focused marketing plans.
• Works in partnership with advancement colleagues to market the leadership annual giving society, arming all parties with information to embed in their philanthropic discussions.
• Move donors through the pipeline and donor life cycle, as appropriate based on donor’s interests and capacity, to ensure relationships are retained
• Works with Catholic University Annual Fund office and other members of the Division of University Advancement to meet annual fund goals.
• Develop and maintain an excellent knowledge and understanding of the higher education fundraising climate and be constantly looking to identify and implement innovative and creative fundraising techniques, both in terms of engagement and advancement activities in general. Attends Cardinal Weekend and other university events as needed.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree with a minimum of three (3) years of fundraising experience and portfolio management required. Management experience required. Experience working in a higher education fundraising office is preferred, experience with event planning and stewardship preferred. Proven experience as a fundraiser will be evaluated. Experience within Raisers Edge or another database CRM is preferred but not required.

Working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications and ability to learn new software programs and functions including donor database and online community. Must demonstrate a high level of organization, initiative, professionalism, flexibility. Ability to accept and process feedback and a collaborative working style are essential.

Must have excellent communications, organizational, and inter-personal skills. Attention to detail and ability to follow through on projects from conception and planning to implementation and evaluation is necessary.

Possession of current and valid U.S. driver’s license appropriate to the type of university vehicle and an acceptable Motor Vehicle Driving Record (MVR) as stipulated in the Vehicle Guidelines and Procedures Manual administered through the office of Environmental Health and Safety. Annual clearance of MVR check through the Office of Environmental Health and Safety.