Associate Director Stewardship Donor Relations

Minimum Education
Bachelor's Degree (Required)

Minimum Work Experience
6 years progressive experience (Required)

Required Skills/Knowledge
Outstanding verbal and writing skills to effectively communicate with donors, colleagues, institutional leadership, faculty, and staff.
A high level of initiative, compassion, creativity, and enthusiasm coupled with an ability to earn the confidence of a wide range of internal and external constituents.
Proficiency with donor database software and project management is desired, with a focus on recognition and reporting preferred.

Functional Accountabilities
Stewardship Execution

• Enhances donor relations by providing a high level of service to internal and external constituent groups to strategize, incorporate, and execute stewardship activities including acknowledgement letters, impact and endowed fund reporting, physical and marketing recognition, event stewardship, etc.

• Assist with proposal and/or stewardship plan development to ensure activities proactively and proportionately steward and recognize constituencies

• Partner, develop and implement strategies to increase engagement through donor recognition societies

• Assist with managing donor recognition and naming opportunities within our recognition database

• Manage the Foundation's Gift Closet, including tracking inventory and replenishing items; provide consultation for teams seeking custom gifts for donors

Program Development

• Strategize and lead broader implementation of the Foundation's digital impact reporting platform for donors across major, corporate, annual and events; includes partnership with Foundation leadership, gift officers, editorial and design teams

• Proactively partner with internal stakeholders to assist in the development and execution of stewardship strategies for recognition societies including our $1M+ cumulative donors

• Evaluate and lead process for donor acknowledgement to ensure timely, accurate and proportional stewardship based on benchmarking and best practices

• Evaluate and implement donor recognition policies and processes to assist gift officers with donor management, cultivation and engagement in the pursuit of additional philanthropic gifts

Innovations and Improvements

• Proactively employ best practices to produce highly accurate, high quality work products and the continued improvement of integrated stewardship and donor relations.

• Offer guidance to improve and streamline stewardship execution; ensure stewardship, cultivation and special projects are executed at the highest level.

• Partner with internal stakeholders to develop relationships, gather feedback and metrics, and implement process-improvements.

Organizational Accountabilities
Organizational Accountabilities (Leader)
Deliver

• Set and clearly communicate team goals and priorities in alignment with departmental goals and budgets

• Develop the budget and assign resources to meet the team goals

• Provide the resources and guidance required for employees to perform effectively

• Develop procedures to ensure high safety and quality, and course-correct as needed

• Identify customers' needs and ensure service excellence in meeting those needs

Engage

• Be the link between the department and the team in defining the strategies to meet team goals

• Provide prompt and clear feedback to staff and support their performance

• Ensure team adherence to organizational regulations

• Manage the working environment to promote productivity and motivation

• Represent the team in clearing obstacles to high performance

• Hire staff and develop their capabilities

• Monitor and promote strong employee engagement

Grow

• Encourage and share new ways of making the right work easier to do

• Recognize and share incremental improvements in operations

• Promote the success of organizational and department initiatives by clearly aligning programs to the mission