Leadership Annual Gift Officer

Responsibilities

• Builds meaningful relationships with alumni, parents, family members, and friends who seek to grow their connection and engagement as donors, volunteers, and contributors in the Skidmore community.
• Provides outreach, information, and invitations that increase engagement with Skidmore, solicits annual gifts, and reports back to help demonstrate the impact of giving.
• Utilizes a broad spectrum of communications channels (in-person meetings, email, social, video conferencing, phone) to facilitate discussion.
• Creates a donor engagement process that qualifies, cultivates, and solicits Skidmore constituents capable of making leadership annual and capital gifts to the College while managing and maintaining a significant travel schedule.
• Directly solicits gifts to fund College priorities in an effort to meet or exceed annual goals.
• Develops and implements retention strategies to upgrade donors.
• Recognizes disinterested donors and devises strategies to redirect their interests.
• Participates in execution of events/programs in support of development activities.
• Provides support to gift initiatives within reunion classes, forging collaborative partnerships among Major Gifts, Skidmore Fund, Alumni Engagement colleagues, as well as class volunteers.
• Acts as a poised ambassador, regularly attending high-level programmatic meetings, adeptly representing the organization's vision, initiatives, and impact to inspire donor engagement and volunteerism.
• Fosters robust connections and collaboration with college administrators, faculty members, influential alumni, supportive parents, passionate friends, and trustees to cultivate a vibrant culture of philanthropy.
• Embraces a collaborative and inclusive approach, seamlessly integrating with cross-functional teams while maintaining accurate recordkeeping in database to ensure seamless coordination and a comprehensive understanding of donor interactions.

Requirements

• The position requires significant travel and outreach, as well as the ability to effectively communicate the college's mission, needs, and priorities to match prospective donors' interests.
• Strong communications skills and the capacity to interact is crucial.
• Timely and accurate recordkeeping and working collaboratively with colleagues and volunteers is essential.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree required.
• Experience: Minimum of 2-3 years of fund raising or an equivalent combination of education and related experience.
• Active listening and successful track record of interacting with donors, volunteers, colleagues, and philanthropic stakeholders.
• Mature interpersonal relationships and a positive attitude with a sense of humor.
• Commitment to an inclusive workplace and engaging with diverse audiences.
• Driven, autonomous contributor with a resourceful and data-driven work ethic.
• Demonstrated ability to follow through on commitments and take personal responsibility for outcomes.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Handles confidential material responsibly.
• Experience with email, social media, Google, etc., and familiarity with Raiser’s Edge or similar CRMs.