Associate Vice President for Development

About the Role

The Associate Vice President for Development serves as a strategic partner to the Executive Vice President (EVP) for Advancement in leading the university's comprehensive fundraising program. This role provides strategic and operational leadership for the Development division while fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, innovation, and donor-centered philanthropy. The position leads fundraising strategy, campaign execution, stewardship, operational excellence, talent development, and cross-campus partnerships while maintaining a select portfolio of leadership-level prospects and advancing institutional priorities.

Responsibilities

• Provides visionary leadership to the development team by building a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and donor-centered fundraising.
• Oversees overall development and philanthropic efforts, including prospect research, gift services, donor relations, donor communications, grants, gifts-in-kind, foundation and corporate relations, major gifts, planned gifts, campaign activities, and donor-supported scholarships.
• Monitors goals across all areas and the overall fiscal year fundraising goal.
• Establishes clear expectations, measurable goals, dashboards, and key performance indicators (KPIs) for every functional area, measuring both fundraising outcomes and leading indicators of success.
• Develops team members as leaders and performers through coaching, mentoring, and regular accountability meetings.
• Evaluates and advances organizational effectiveness, continuously improving systems, workflows, and fundraising strategies.
• Partners across academic and administrative units to align philanthropic priorities with institutional priorities.
• Builds strong relationships and maintains regular communication with the Provost and Deans.
• Monitors fundraising performance, strategic plan KPIs, accreditation reporting, budgets, and operational effectiveness; advises team members on report development for EVP and other leadership.
• Engages donors in cultivation and stewardship activities and promotes meaningful donor experiences.
• Leads giving society strategies and collaborates on ideation and execution of strategies.
• Manages relationships with scholarship-centric donors, ensuring proper accounting of scholarship funds, including regular reporting and stewardship.
• Maintains a portfolio of approximately 25–35 leadership-level prospects, consistently moving relationships toward meaningful, proactive solicitation and hitting target fundraising goals.
• Supports the EVP and President in principal and transformational gift strategies.
• Leads stewardship and engagement strategies for leadership giving societies.
• Ensures donor strategies and moves management are documented and executed consistently by team members.
• Partners closely with the EVP to execute God-Sized Dreams Campaign initiatives, translating institutional priorities into measurable fundraising strategies.
• Provides strategic leadership for campaign planning, execution, naming opportunities, reporting, and communications.
• Oversees the production of proposals and donor agreements for top-tier campaign donors, ensuring accurate tracking in the donor CRM.
• Oversees campaign prospect research for use by the campaign leadership committee, EVP, and other leadership.
• Partners with marketing to execute messaging, communications, and storytelling to support the campaign.
• Leverages fundraising data and emerging philanthropic trends to strengthen campaign and large gift strategies.
• Coordinates with cross-campus departments to resolve operational issues and ensure alignment on Advancement initiatives, events, and communications.
• Provides strategic leadership and oversight of the PBA Alumni Association Board of Directors.
• Oversees all alumni board meetings, presents university updates, and reports key information to the EVP of Advancement.
• Interfaces with Alumni Board members to provide opportunities for engagement with the alumni community.
• Partners with the Events team to plan and execute alumni meetings, programs, and events.
• Coordinates with internal departments to facilitate alumni data requests and list pulls.
• Collaborates with the marketing team on collateral and communication pieces for alumni-related events and initiatives.
• Assembles and submits annual accreditation reports for alumni-related benchmarks.
• Interfaces with the Parent’s Council leadership for ongoing engagement.
• Collaborates with the events team for on- and off-campus parent events.
• Evaluates and identifies PBA parents for potential caseload cultivation.
• Assembles and submits annual accreditation reports for parent-related benchmarks.