SUMMARY
In support of the university's mission and objectives, the Associate Vice President for Development serves as a strategic partner to the Executive Vice President (EVP) for Advancement in leading the university's comprehensive fundraising program. This role provides strategic and operational leadership for the Development division while fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, innovation, and donor-centered philanthropy. This position leads fundraising strategy, campaign execution, stewardship, operational excellence, talent development, and cross-campus partnerships while maintaining a select portfolio of leadership-level prospects and advancing institutional priorities.
Strategic Leadership, Operations & Team Performance
- Provides visionary leadership to the development team by building a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and donor-centered fundraising.
- Oversees overall development and philanthropic efforts at PBA including prospect research, gift services, donor relations, donor communications, grants, gifts-in-kind, foundation and corporate relations, major gifts, planned gifts, campaign activities, and donor-supported scholarships.
- Monitors goals across all areas and the overall fiscal year fundraising goal.
- Establishes clear expectations, measurable goals, dashboards, and key performance indicators (KPIs) for every functional area measuring both fundraising outcomes and leading indicators of success.
- Develops team members as leaders and performers through coaching, mentoring, and regular accountability meetings, including by guiding them to meet established goals within their roles and departments.
- Evaluates and advances organizational effectiveness regularly and continuously improves systems, workflows, and fundraising strategies.
- Identifies areas where goals are not met to develop improvement plans within systems and departments.
- Partners across academic and administrative units aligning philanthropic priorities with institutional priorities.
- Builds strong relationships and maintains regular communication with the Provost and Deans.
- Monitors fundraising performance, strategic plan KPIs, accreditation reporting, budgets, and operational effectiveness; advises team members on the development of reports for EVP and other leadership.
- Engages donors in cultivation and stewardship activities and promotes the curation of meaningful donor experiences to be executed by the team.
- Leads giving society strategies and collaborates with the team on ideation and execution of strategies.
- Manages relationships with scholarship-centric donors ensuring proper accounting of scholarship funds including regular reporting and stewardship.
Leadership Portfolio & Lead Gift Partnership
- Maintains a portfolio of approximately 25-35 leadership-level prospects, consistently moving relationships to a meaningful, proactive solicitation and hitting target fundraising goals for leadership prospects within the portfolio.
- Supports the EVP and President in principal and transformational gift strategies.
- Leads stewardship and engagement strategies for leadership giving societies.
- Ensures donor strategies and moves management are documented and executed consistently by team members.
God-Sized Dreams Campaign Execution & Institutional Initiatives
- Partners closely with the EVP to execute God-Sized Dreams Campaign initiatives, translating institutional priorities into measurable fundraising strategies.
- Provides strategic leadership in coordination with EVP and campaign consultants for campaign planning, execution, naming opportunities, reporting, and campaign communications.
- Ensures campaign reports are regularly updated to track success against goals.
- Oversees the production of proposals and donor agreements for top-tier campaign donors, ensuring that all activities are accurately reflected and tracked in the donor CRM.
- Oversees campaign prospect research for use by campaign leadership committee, EVP, and other leadership.
- Partners closely with marketing to execute on messaging, communications, and storytelling to support the campaign.
- Leverages fundraising data and emerging philanthropic trends to strengthen the campaign and large gift strategies.
- Provides leadership to the fundraising team in building relationships and making proactive solicitations for university priorities.
- Coordinates with cross-campus departments (academic units, business office, President's office) to resolve operational issues and ensure alignment on Advancement initiatives, events, and communications.
Alumni and Parent Strategy
Alumni:
- Provides strategic leadership and oversight of the PBA Alumni Association Board of Directors.
- Oversees all alumni board meetings; presents university updates and reports back key information to the EVP of Advancement.
- Interfaces with members of the Alumni Board providing opportunities to connect with the alumni community.
- Partners with the Events team to plan and execute alumni meetings, programs, and events.
- Coordinates with internal departments to facilitate alumni data requests and list pulls.
- Collaborates with the marketing team on any necessary collateral and communication pieces needed for alumni-related events and initiatives.
- Assembles and submits annual accreditation reports for alumni-related benchmarks.
Parents:
- Interfaces with the Parent's Council leadership for ongoing engagement.
- Collaborates with the events team for on and off-campus parent events.
- Evaluates and identifies PBA parents for potential caseload cultivation.
- Assembles and submits annual accreditation reports for parent-related benchmarks.
EDUCATION
Bachelor's degree in business, marketing, communications, public relations, or related field, required; Master's degree preferred, or equivalent experience.
PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION
Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) certification, preferred.
EXPERIENCE
5+ years of experience working in wide-ranging development capacities, preferably through a fundraising campaign, preferably at an educational institution.
- Experience developing and implementing strategic plans for development activities, aligned with the organization's overall mission and goals.
- Experience in building and maintaining relationships with individual donors, corporate sponsors, and foundation representatives to secure funding and support.
- Proven track record of successful fundraising initiatives and campaigns, including major gifts, annual funds, and capital campaigns.
- Experience coaching and mentoring staff in development skills and best practices to build a high-performing team.
ESSENTIAL COMPETENCIES (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities)
- Customer Service Orientation - Keeps internal and/or external key stakeholder(s), students, parents, faculty, staff and community partners in mind at all times.
- Professionalism - Displays a high level of professionalism, e.g. timeliness, reliability, communication, and work ethic.
- Christ-first Faith - Provides spiritual support to community members, including students, on their Christian faith journey.
- Adaptable/Flexibility - Ability to change or adjust to change.
- Analytical Thinking & Decision Making - Identifies and understands trends and/or issues, connects data points through analysis and logical conclusions/actionable strategies.
- Attention to Detail - Ability to efficiently and accurately focus on a specific task or number of tasks. Reviews details with a critical eye.
- Business & Financial/Budget Acumen - Demonstrates knowledge and understanding of financial concepts, accounting, marketing and organizational functions.
- Change Management - Ability to drive and implement change both internally and externally.
- Confidentiality - Maintains the necessary confidentiality and discretion required for the position.
- Conflict Management - Functions professionally and wisely during difficult conversations, while under stress, and while managing challenging situations.
- Continuous Improvement - Implement or brainstorm ways to optimize a process.
- Develops Others - Ability to promote continuous improvement within teams and/or individuals.
- Effective Communication - Expresses ideas and information in a clear and concise manner both verbally and in writing to convey clear, well-articulated messaging across a wide variety of audiences.
- Establishes Trust - Gains the confidence of others by actions and words that promote being honest, forthcoming, and vulnerable.
- Leadership/Influence - Ability to motivate, coach and develop others, as well as influence a group of people to achieve common goals, and implement university strategies. Strong supervisory skills.
- Problem-solving - Anticipates, evaluates, diagnoses, and resolves problems in a systematic and fact-based manner.
- Project and Time Management - Effective planning and priority setting. Ability to manage several complex projects simultaneously while working under pressure to meet deadlines.
- Results Orientation & Accountability - Takes accountability and identifies, executes and drives actions to consistently achieve desired results.
- Self-development - Grow one's self-awareness, abilities, skills, and/or talent.
- Strategic Mindset - Ability to step out of the everyday details, view the situation from above and provide an objective perspective
- Teamwork & Collaboration - Creates a climate that fosters commitment to a common vision and shared values that promote cooperation and working together through trust and support of others both departmentally and cross-functionally.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
- Ability to operate a PBA vehicle, equipment, or transport groups of students, including operating a van, car, golf cart, utility vehicle.
- Must possess a valid U.S. driver's license.
- Must have the ability to travel locally using a personal vehicle.
- Travels up to 20% of the time.
- Ability to work non-routine hours during certain times of the year.
- Ability to sit for prolonged periods of time.
- Ability to traverse campus and stairs.
- Ability to lift/move objects up to 25 pounds.