Assistant Director of Donor Relations, Social Sciences Division (7547U) #89571

About the role

The Assistant Director of Donor Relations serves as a frontline fundraising professional responsible for identifying, qualifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding leadership-level prospects within the Division of Social Sciences. This position independently manages a fundraising portfolio of approximately $500,000–$1,000,000 and works with Prospect Research, development colleagues, and current donors to identify and develop new prospects through the Division's pipeline program, the Dean's Circle, and leadership-giving opportunities, with particular emphasis on increasing annual and special gift support and unrestricted giving.

The Division of Social Sciences in the College of Letters & Science is the largest academic division on campus, with an annual budget of approximately $160M, 276 permanent faculty FTE, and undergraduate enrollment averaging approximately 30,000 per semester. Its academic departments include African American Studies, Anthropology, Demography, Economics, Ethnic Studies, Geography, Gender and Women's Studies, History, Linguistics, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology, as well as interdisciplinary programs and research units such as Social Science Matrix and D-Lab.

Responsibilities

• Independently manages a dynamic fundraising portfolio of approximately $500,000–$1,000,000, consisting of 120–200 leadership giving prospects.
• Conducts approximately 120 substantive donor contacts annually through in-person meetings, Zoom, and telephone engagement.
• Identifies, qualifies, cultivates, solicits, and stewards prospects and donors to increase annual and special gift support.
• Partners with the Director of Annual Programs and Assistant Dean of Development to expand membership in the Dean's Circle and 1903 Society and supports key fundraising initiatives, including Big Give, through solicitation of challenge gifts and donor participation.
• Collaborates with Major Gift Officers, Annual Giving Officers, Gift Administration, Stewardship, Institutes/Centers, University Relations, and campus development colleagues to ensure prospects are appropriately engaged, solicited, and stewarded.
• Directly or indirectly secures $500,000–$1,000,000 in unrestricted support annually and increases giving among personally and jointly managed prospects by 10–30%.

• Supports annual and long-term strategies to increase the number of donors at leadership giving levels.
• Uses knowledge of the donor and prospect base to inform outreach, appeals, and department-specific fundraising messaging.
• Participates in short- and long-range strategic planning to achieve fundraising goals and align philanthropic opportunities with donor interests.

• Coordinates donor stewardship efforts, including donor meetings, ongoing engagement, and written and verbal communications.
• Develops and contributes to persuasive fundraising and stewardship materials communicating the strengths and priorities of Leadership Giving programs, including the Dean's Circle and 1903 Society.
• Engages donors as appropriate for profiles and other communications and tracks donor interactions with faculty and students to inform stewardship activities.

• Independently analyzes donor giving reports to identify trends, opportunities, and potential areas of donor attrition.
• Uses donor data and engagement information to strengthen the leadership giving pipeline, identify prospects for increased giving, and inform cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies.

• Organizes, manages, and leads donor cultivation, stewardship, and fundraising events in support of divisional fundraising objectives.
• Coordinates donor outreach and follow-up and works with divisional colleagues and other campus partners to use events as opportunities to cultivate prospects, strengthen donor relationships, and advance fundraising engagement.

Qualifications

• Thorough working knowledge and understanding of fundraising, donor relations, and development concepts, principles, techniques, procedures, and practices.
• Working knowledge of the campus, its vision, mission, goals, objectives, achievements, and infrastructure, or comparable institutional knowledge.
• Thorough written, oral, and interpersonal communication skills, including political acumen, to build and maintain effective working relationships throughout the organization and with donors and other external constituencies.
• Strong organizational, analytical, and critical-thinking skills, including effective decision-making, problem identification and resolution, and project management.
• Ability to independently develop and implement donor identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies in support of established fundraising goals.
• Ability to analyze donor and prospect information to identify fundraising opportunities, strengthen the donor pipeline, and inform engagement strategies.
• Ability to articulate a compelling case for annual and leadership-level philanthropic support for higher education.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and fundraising initiatives