Associate Director for Development

Associate Director for Development

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree and a minimum of two years of increasingly responsible experience in major gifts fundraising or related fields.
• Experience in developing a strategic development plan for soliciting and securing gifts from private sources.
• Experience in establishing strategies for identifying, qualifying, and cultivating prospective donors.
• Experience in developing and presenting gift proposals to prospective donors. Experience supporting senior administrators, faculty, and fellow gift officers.
• Excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically and creatively, work well under pressure, and manage details of several concurrent projects.
• Proven project management skills.
• Proven and measurable record of successful face-to-face interactions with prospective donors.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a team-oriented environment.
• Capable of working independently, with integrity and professionalism.

Responsibilities

• Proactively manage a portfolio of 75-100 or more individual major gift prospects and donors (with an emphasis on gifts of 100,000 dollars and more), determining the frequency of contact needed.
• Build rapport with the CAEE department chair and staff to ensure understanding of their needs and areas of focus. Travel with the CAEE department chair 1-3 times a year.
• Identify, assess, analyze, and design appropriate strategies for approaching prospects and donors and making the vitally important match between donors’ philanthropic interests and the Cockrell School’s programmatic and curricular needs.
• Manages a portfolio of prospects with updated strategy and proposal tracking. Cultivates relationships by articulating the Cockrell School’s compelling vision/mission and by assessing specific areas of donor interest and level of potential engagement.
• Identifies prospective donors by working with the development specialist to identify prospects, analyzing constituent databases, conducting prospect review, and making personal visits to prospects. Maintains a travel schedule of 30 to 50 percent time, including some evenings and weekends.
• Develops giving strategies that are appropriate and meaningful. Works with development team members to assist with strategic planning for the entire individual giving process.
• In consultation with the supervisor, sets and achieves performance goals through monthly and annual strategies.
• Establishes relationships with faculty and administrative staff of the Cockrell School in order to facilitate relationships with and serve as a point of coordination with potential donors.
• Develops reports, letters, proposals, and gift agreements based on conversations or points of agreement with donors.

Preferred Qualifications

• Three or more years of increasingly responsible experience in individual major gifts fundraising with a record of consistently closing numerous major gifts in excess of one million dollars annually.
• Experience working in a large-scale technical environment and research university.
• Experience with prospect management systems, e.g. VIP, Raiser’s Edge, etc.