Senior Associate Director, Leadership Annual Giving

Function of Department
The Division of University Advancement provides leadership in two significant ways that supports the university in fulfilling her mission, aims and goals. The first and primary focus is the engagement of her alumni, parents, students and friends, while the second focus is raising philanthropic support from these constituents. Both foci are necessary, critical and interdependent. The result then is a stronger university that is positioned to fulfill her annual and on-going priorities.

Position Summary
Reporting to the Director of Annual Giving, the Sr. Associate Director of Leadership Annual Giving is a front-facing gift officer who will work to capture, renew, and increase support of current use funds for The Catholic University of America. They will strategically launch and grow the annual giving leadership society which aims to cultivate, steward, and move donors through the pipeline to the highest levels of annual giving. Main areas of focus will include portfolio management and gift solicitation, qualification and disqualification in addition to major gift opportunity identification and hand off, event development and execution, as well as the development and fulfillment of leadership society benefits.
Knowledge of data model evaluation is preferred as a successful candidate will be able to prioritize outreach based on modeling scores and past behavior. The Sr. Associate Director of Leadership Annual Giving will manage a portfolio of approximately 75-100 prospects and be evaluated on visits and gift generation but will also be responsible for developing and managing a strategy to qualify/disqualify a pool of approximately 2,000 highly rated prospects.
In addition to portfolio work, s/he will oversee the strategy of the leadership annual giving society (1887 Society) including the acknowledgement process, stewardship, benefits, communications and outreach, broader acquisition marketing, events, and renewal strategies.

Principal Responsibilities

• Portfolio management to generate current use monies, mainly in support of the Fund for Catholic University.
• Manages the leadership annual giving society and is the main point of contact for all records, data, results/reporting, collateral, and cultivation plans related to this society.
• Supervises the central leadership annual giving team, which includes up to five junior gift officers and a coordinator.
• Manages dotted-line reporting relationships with school-based leadership annual gift officers. Providing coaching and portfolio guidance for leadership annual gift work. Is partly accountable for the success of all LAG officers.
• Utilizes University Advancement's database to document call reports and other relevant information about donor and prospect moves management.
• Cultivates relationships with a variety of prospects, not tied to one constituency, age, demographic, or location. S/he will need to be comfortable talking about the importance of support for the Fund for Catholic University and what the associated benefits are for leadership annual giving.
• Efficiently and effectively combs through a larger list of highly modeled prospects to qualify and disqualify them for larger philanthropic engagement.
• Works with the Director of Annual Giving to ensure proper marketing throughout the annual calendar and inclusion of LAG specific topics when necessary. Helps to coordinate and execute leadership annual giving focused marketing plans.
• Works in partnership with advancement colleagues to market the leadership annual giving society, arming all parties with information to embed in their philanthropic discussions.
• Move donors through the pipeline and donor life cycle, as appropriate based on donor's interests and capacity, to ensure relationships are retained.
• Works with Catholic University Annual Fund office and other members of the Division of University Advancement to meet annual fund goals.
• Develop and maintain an excellent knowledge and understanding of the higher education fundraising climate and be constantly looking to identify and implement innovative and creative fundraising techniques, both in terms of engagement and advancement activities in general. Attends Cardinal Weekend and other university events as needed.
• Takes on new projects as assigned. Job related projects as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree
• 3+ years fundraising experience and portfolio management experience
• Management experience
• Experience working in a higher education fundraising office is preferred
• Experience with event planning and stewardship preferred
• Experience within Raisers Edge or another database CRM is preferred but not required.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications and ability to learn new software programs and functions including donor database and online community. Must demonstrate a high level of organization, initiative, professionalism, flexibility. Ability to accept and process feedback and a collaborative working style are essential.
• Must have excellent communications, organizational, and interpersonal skills. Attention to detail and ability to follow through on projects from conception and planning to implementation and evaluation is necessary.
• Possession of current and valid U.S. driver's license appropriate to the type of university vehicle and an acceptable Motor Vehicle Driving Record (MVR) as stipulated in the Vehicle Guidelines and Procedures Manual administered through the office of Environmental Health and Safety. Annual clearance of MVR check through the Office of Environmental Health and Safety.
• Must be supportive of the mission and vision of The Catholic University of America. Catholic University was founded in the name of the Catholic Church and maintains a unique relationship with it. The University's operations, policies, and activities reflect this foundation and relationship and are conducted in accordance with its stated mission.

Regardless of their religious affiliation or denominational affiliation, all employees are expected to conduct and support the University's mission in the fulfillment of their responsibilities and obligations appropriate to their appointment.
The Catholic University of America is a smoke, alcohol, and drug free workplace