Stewardship and Recognition Director

About the role

The Stewardship and Recognition Director provides strategic leadership for benefactor relations strategies to advance Mayo Clinic’s fundraising priorities, administers complex gifts, and deepens key relationships. This role leads and oversees the stewardship and recognition lifecycle for large and transformational gifts within their portfolios, ensuring an exceptional, innovative, high-touch customized benefactor experience while honoring benefactor intent and advancing institutional priorities.

Responsibilities

• Provides strategic leadership for benefactor relations strategies to advance Mayo Clinic’s fundraising priorities.
• Administers complex gifts and deepens key relationships.
• Leads and oversees the stewardship and recognition lifecycle for large and transformational gifts within their portfolios.
• Ensures all stewardship and recognition strategies are grounded in a cultivation mindset, intentionally designed to strengthen relationships, deepen engagement, and support long-term philanthropic partnerships.
• Develops benefactor-specific pre-gift and post-gift stewardship and recognition strategies; operationalizes new large and/or complex gifts in partnership with funding area stakeholders; ensures accountability, allocation oversight and timely impact reporting in alignment with benefactor intent.
• Partners closely with Development staff, including gift officers, to proactively plan and manage benefactor relationships, align expectations, and support solicitation and stewardship strategies throughout the gift lifecycle.
• Acquires and maintains knowledge and fluency of Mayo Clinic’s business strategy, fundraising strategy and top fundraising priorities, and translates this knowledge into informed stewardship and recognition recommendations for department and executive leadership.
• Contributes to solicitation strategies for complex gifts and reviews gift agreements.
• Leads through influence and convenes interdisciplinary teams, including campaign administration, events, communications, creative, digital, data and technology services, finance and facilities to implement creative and innovative ideas that advance excellence, improve operational practices, and enhance the benefactor experience.
• Leads problem solving and decision-making activities; develops documentation for stewardship and recognition best practices, processes and procedures; and delivers training to colleagues.
• Maintains and promotes an enterprise perspective in all activities.

Qualifications

• Minimum Education and/or Experience Required:
• Bachelor's degree in business, communications, marketing or related field required plus five to seven years of experience in donor relations, communications, marketing, events, healthcare administration or finance, including at least one to three years of Development experience.
• Demonstrated knowledge of fundraising required.
• Additional Experience and/or Qualifications:
• Master's degree preferred.
• Excellent oral and written communications skills, financial analysis and reporting skills and the ability to work in a complex environment with multi-dimensional points of view.
• Leadership and project management skills.
• Legal agreement development and interpretation.
• Strong digital mindset, including the ability to leverage technology, data, and emerging tools to improve processes, inform decision-making and drive innovation within the benefactor experience.
• Ability to function effectively in a consensus-style operation that expects and promotes teamwork.
• Comfortable with ambiguity.
• Required creativity in innovative messaging.
• Ability to inspire trust and confidence and communicate effectively with internal and external audiences, including Mayo benefactors at the highest levels.
• Professionalism and confidentiality.
• Proficiency in the use of information technology and management of database systems.
• Time management and flexibility to work around tight timelines, which may require work outside of standard business hours.

Pay

$107,452 - $150,425 / year

Schedule

Full Time