Senior Director of Development, ASU Health-Foundations

About the role

The Senior Director of Development is a senior fundraising professional focused on securing transformational philanthropic support from institutional and family foundations for ASU Health. This role designs and executes strategies to identify, qualify, cultivate, solicit, and steward foundation donors for cross-unit initiatives and high-priority programs.

Responsibilities

• Designs and leads a coordinated cross-unit foundation fundraising program for ASU Health, setting strategy in partnership with the Executive Director of Development for ASU Health and the six unit deans and development leads;
• Identifies cross-cutting funding priorities and opportunities where foundation support can accelerate institutional impact;
• Manages a foundation prospect portfolio with a primary focus on securing gifts at or above $500,000, an annual fundraising goal of $3M to $8M, and a pipeline that includes two to three active seven- or eight-figure transformational opportunities per year;
• Applies a business-development mindset to identify and cultivate foundation prospects not currently engaged with ASU Health, at the local, national, and global level;
• Convenes faculty, institute/center directors, and unit-based development officers across ASU Health to build joint proposals aligned to foundation RFPs and funder interests; provides connective tissue between units so that faculty expertise in one college can be readily combined with complementary work in others to meet the scale and scope that large foundations expect;
• Guides the development of cases for support, concept notes, proposals, budgets, and related materials for foundation prospects, with emphasis on six- and seven-figure and above investments;
• Ensures the proper stewardship and recognition of donors in portfolio;
• Manages projects with moderate oversight; depending on area(s) of responsibility, may serve as a project manager for some complex, multilayered, university-wide proposals aimed at raising the higher gifts for a university campaign;
• Ensures compliance with prospect management guidelines for tracking and maintenance of contact and progress reporting;
• Maintains up to date knowledge on key alumni and high-level donors, and/or oversees continuous research, development and up-to-date knowledge on prospects and works with other areas to coordinate contacts;
• Sustains and elevates working relationships with deans, chairs, directors, and faculty members within area(s) of responsibility;
• Raises the national philanthropic profile of ASU Health and its faculty by identifying conferences, convenings, panels, and other venues where faculty experts can be featured in front of foundation audiences; coordinates with communications and marketing partners to surface thought leadership;
• Promotes and supports the strategic initiatives of ASU Health and the ASU Foundation.

Requirements

• Exceptional interpersonal skills and the ability to interact effectively with academic leadership, faculty, prospects, donors, and/or volunteers in a wide range of roles;
• Complex problem-solving skills coupled with the ability to conduct research, gather data, analyze information, and prepare effective, accurate, and timely reports and other documents to support development objectives;
• Strong knowledge and understanding of database management;
• The ability to inquire about and understand organizational interests and needs, and determine how to persuade or market to that organization with compelling benefits;
• The ability to exercise good judgment to demonstrate an understanding of ethics related to development activities, and to use discretion in interactions with donors, prospects, volunteers, and others;
• The ability to foster effective working relationships in a matrixed environment, including partnering with multiple deans and development teams simultaneously without a single reporting line to any one unit; brings collaborative instincts and a “shared credit” orientation to joint work with colleagues;
• Community relations skills and the ability to communicate and work effectively within a diverse community;
• Strong discernment and prioritization; able to evaluate a high volume of ideas, prospects, and opportunities and focus attention on the ones most likely to yield transformational gifts;
• A builder and entrepreneurial mindset; comfort operating in a startup-like environment where pipeline, systems, and connective tissue are still being designed; able to see and articulate ideas that have not yet been formed into proposals;
• A systems and process orientation; able to design workflows for cross-unit engagement with deans, faculty, and foundation officers so that effort is coordinated rather than duplicative;
• A high comfort with AI tools and a continuous-improvement mindset; willing to adopt, test, and refine technology and workflows that increase efficiency in a resource-constrained environment;
• The ability to juggle high volume and high complexity; manages many concurrent prospects, proposals, and faculty/dean interactions without losing focus on priority transformational opportunities;
• The ability to maintain a high degree of confidentiality and responsibility regarding information related to Foundation and University business and confidential prospect information;
• The ability to develop knowledge of, respect for, and skills to engage with those of other cultures and backgrounds;
• The ability to represent the institution well and possess an advocate’s belief in the vision of ASU as the New American University;
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and comfortable working in donor/prospect computer database systems;
• Relevant Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree, Seven (7) years of years of successful professional development and/or fundraising experience, or any equivalent combination of education and experience from which comparable knowledge, skills and abilities have been achieved.

Qualifications

• Advanced degree;
• Direct experience working in or adjacent to the health sector (academic medicine, health systems, public health, or health-focused research institutions) and demonstrated knowledge of how national health funders operate;
• Experience working in Salesforce and Workday;
• Established relationships with, or demonstrated ability to open doors to, national health-focused foundations (e.g., Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Gates Foundation, Commonwealth Fund, and peer institutional funders);
• Demonstrated ability in securing six- and seven-figure grants from institutional foundations, family foundations, and other private funding sources;
• Familiarity with current themes shaping health philanthropy, including healthcare delivery and access, social determinants of health, health equity, telehealth, and the application of technology and AI to health.