Overview
Founded in 1819, Centre College is a premier liberal arts college that serves approximately 1,400 students, preparing them for lives of learning, leadership, and service. Located just 30 miles south of Lexington in Danville, Kentucky, the picturesque 150-acre campus showcases the beauty of central Kentucky. Both U.S. News & World Report and Forbes continuously rank Centre among the nation’s top liberal arts colleges.
As an institution, Centre College values and embraces students, faculty, and staff from all ethnic, racial, religious, and political backgrounds, gender identities, and sexual orientations. In order to successfully support those within the campus community, a set of goals guide Centre’s actions and lead the College towards a more inclusive, empathetic, and knowledgeable community. Find out more about Centre’s commitment to diversity.
Job Skills / Requirements
Centre College seeks a dynamic leader who enjoys building relationships to lead annual giving efforts in a fun and energetic environment. If you enjoy collaborating with others and want your work to make a difference in the lives of talented young people, this is a great opportunity to join a lively and growing team.
We are looking for a strategic leader to work with our Annual Giving Team to execute a comprehensive, multi-channel annual giving campaign. The Executive Director of Annual Giving and Donor Experience balances high level strategy and organizational leadership with tactical efforts to create and execute fundraising solicitations. This position requires strong strategic thinking skills with the ability to envision solicitations to campus constituents to include, alumni, current and past parents along with friends of the college.
To be successful, the Executive Director of Annual Giving and Donor Experience needs to be a thoughtful and confident leader who can manage others while also working alongside them to create and execute a plan. This position requires the ability to analyze data to develop insights that will determine annual campaign strategies. Excellent communication skills and an ability to convey complex ideas to a variety of audiences is required. Bring your sense of humor and creativity to join a team that appreciates both fun and hard work. Reports to the Associate Vice President for Development and Alumni Engagement.
About Centre College
Essential Job Functions:
Execute a comprehensive multi-channel annual giving campaign;
High level strategy and organizational leadership;
Tactical efforts to create and execute fundraising solicitations;
Analyze data and develop insights. Utilize data to develop and deploy fundraising strategies to optimize fundraising results. Use data to drive segmentations of fundraising campaigns and engagement from a multitude of audiences;
Develop and closely monitor a comprehensive set of metrics to achieve annual giving fundraising goals that include total giving, alumni donor participation, donor retention and fundraising by appeal, segment and channel;
Create dashboards to track annual giving performance and drive donor engagement and solicitation strategy;
Develop strong and strategic relationships across the College campus and within key constituencies;
Execute a comprehensive Annual Giving Program that includes but not limited to; direct mail, email, texting, social media, crowdfunding, video and any other communication channel available;
Write and design solicitations;
Demonstrates an appreciation of and commitment to further an inclusive culture for those of diverse backgrounds such as ability, age, class, ethnicity, faith background, gender expression, gender identity, geographic region, national origin, neurodiversity, race, and sexual orientation that comprise individual and group expressions of identity.
Coordinate & manage with Director of Advancement Communications a comprehensive solicitation calendar that will interface with an overall communication strategy;
Create and steward donor pipeline. Design and execute strategies to maximize donor retention and move entry-level annual giving donors from first gift to leadership giving levels;
Develop and maintain an annual giving budget to accomplish strategic initiatives;
Oversee Reunion Giving – recruit volunteers and oversee solicitations of class members
Redesign in conjunction with industry standards a young alumnus giving program. Program will drive dollars, engagement and participation;
Redesign giving levels and work with the Director of Stewardship to reimagine giving societies. Use societies to drive giving and a sense of belong to engage alumni and enhance gifts;
Create and implement a strategy to drive growth in the Associates giving program and increase alumni engagement in leadership giving societies;
Collaborate effectively with partners across the College to identify and support annual giving opportunities. Approve, coordinate and collaborate on all annual giving fundraising campaigns on campus;
Develop and manage a budget to accomplish identified strategic initiatives;
Manage Annual Giving Team. Appropriately assign and distribute responsibilities. Manage personnel actions including hiring, performance appraisals and other administrative actions for the Annual Giving Team.
Marginal Job Functions:
Strong Oral and Written Communication skills
Experience effectively managing a team and supervising employees
Sound judgement including discretion, confidentiality and a strong sense of integrity.
Strong organizational, prioritization and time management skills.
Other responsibilities as assigned by the Vice President of Development and Alumni Engagement.
Education and Experience:
Bachelor’s degree required. Should have a minimum of five years of fundraising experience within higher education or a non-profit setting.
Physical Requirements:
Limited pushing, pulling, lifting. Lifting would not typically exceed 20 pounds.
Mobility on campus and to visit prospective donors is necessary.
Education Requirements (Any)
Bachelor's degree required with 3-5 years of progressive experience in admission or a related higher education field.
Additional Information / Benefits
Benefits: Medical Insurance, Life Insurance, Dental Insurance, Vision Insurance, Paid Holidays, Long Term Disability, 401K/403b Plan