Director, Annual Giving

Mount St. Joseph University•Cincinnati, OH

About The Position

Mount St. Joseph University seeks an innovative, strategic, and relationship-focused fundraising professional to lead its comprehensive annual giving program. Reporting to the Senior Director of Institutional Advancement, the Director develops and executes a multi-channel program to increase donor participation, revenue, retention, and long-term philanthropic engagement among alumni, parents, friends, faculty, staff, and other University constituents. The role leads campaigns and appeals across direct mail, email, digital and social media, crowdfunding, giving days, recurring giving, employee giving, and other appropriate channels. The Director strengthens the donor pipeline by creating opportunities for annual donors to deepen their engagement and increase their giving. The position manages a portfolio of approximately 75–100 mid-level donors and prospects, primarily in the $1,000–$15,000 range, and develops individualized cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies. The Director collaborates across Institutional Advancement and with campus partners to identify, cultivate, retain, upgrade, and transition donors through the fundraising pipeline. The role uses donor data and analytics to understand giving behavior, identify opportunities, segment constituents, personalize solicitations, and improve retention. It also provides strategic leadership for annual giving societies and recognition programs, supports the University’s capital campaign, manages the annual giving budget and vendors, and supervises assigned staff, student workers, or other resources as applicable. The Director helps build a sustainable program that generates current-year revenue and fosters lasting relationships with the Mount.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution.
Three or more years of progressively responsible experience in annual giving, fundraising, advancement, development, nonprofit fundraising, or a related field.
Demonstrated success developing and implementing annual giving or other fundraising strategies.
Experience managing a personal donor or prospect portfolio and securing gifts through personal solicitation.
Experience developing multi-channel fundraising campaigns.
Demonstrated ability to analyze donor data and use it to inform fundraising strategies.
Strong written, verbal, interpersonal, and presentation skills.
Demonstrated ability to build and maintain effective donor relationships.
Strong project management, organizational, and follow-through skills.
Ability to work collaboratively across departments and with individuals at all levels of an organization.
Strong computer skills, including Microsoft Office and Excel.

Nice To Haves

Experience in higher education advancement.
Experience with Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT or a comparable advancement CRM.
Experience with annual giving, mid-level giving, leadership annual giving, or direct response fundraising.
Experience with giving days, crowdfunding, digital fundraising, or peer-to-peer campaigns.
Experience with donor segmentation, analytics, and predictive modeling.
Experience developing donor pipelines and transitioning prospects to major gift portfolios.
Experience with email marketing platforms and digital fundraising tools.
Familiarity with capital campaign fundraising.
Experience working with alumni constituencies.

Responsibilities

Develop, implement, and evaluate an annual giving strategy aligned with the University's Strategic Plan 2030, Institutional Advancement priorities, and fundraising goals.
Establish annual giving objectives, revenue and participation targets, performance measures, calendars, workflows, and procedures.
Lead multi-channel campaigns and appeals, including Back-to-School, Giving Tuesday, end-of-year appeals, Day of Giving, fiscal year-end appeals, and other special initiatives.
Develop strategies to acquire, retain, renew, upgrade, and re-engage donors, and to increase participation, average gift size, recurring giving, and multi-year commitments.
Manage a portfolio of approximately 75–100 mid-level donors and prospects, primarily in the $1,000–$15,000 range, and personally solicit gifts through appropriate channels.
Develop individualized cultivation, solicitation, renewal, upgrade, and stewardship strategies for portfolio donors.
Identify donors with increased capacity or engagement and coordinate their transition to Development portfolios while supporting appropriate ongoing relationships.
Develop targeted approaches for alumni, parents, friends, faculty, staff, students, young alumni, and other constituent groups.
Lead mid-level and leadership annual giving programs, including identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, and donor pipeline development.
Provide strategic direction for the 1920 Society and other giving societies and donor recognition programs; monitor membership, retention, upgrades, and revenue.
Coordinate with Development staff to identify prospects for major gift portfolios and provide program updates on donor movement and emerging prospects.
Plan and evaluate campaigns using integrated channels, matching gifts, challenges, giving incentives, and peer-to-peer fundraising as appropriate.
Set campaign audiences, goals, messaging priorities, timelines, segmentation strategies, and performance measures in collaboration with the Senior Director of Institutional Advancement.
Collaborate with Alumni Engagement, Marketing and Communications, Advancement Communications, Advancement Services, Development Officers, and campus partners on fundraising and donor communications.
Develop donor-centered cases for support and coordinate solicitation calendars, appeals, and engagement opportunities.
Use Raiser’s Edge NXT and other advancement systems to analyze donor behavior, giving trends, capacity, affinity, engagement, and campaign results.
Partner with Prospect Research and Advancement Services on prospect identification, data integrity, coding, reporting, segmentation, and accurate lists.
Develop and monitor dashboards, reports, and metrics; analyze campaign performance and return on investment; and adjust strategies based on results.
Develop and implement stewardship, acknowledgement, recognition, and engagement strategies for annual and mid-level donors and giving society members.
Participate in University, alumni, donor, stewardship, and community events and represent the University's mission, students, programs, and priorities.
Build relationships with academic schools, Athletics, Student Affairs, Mission & Belonging, and other campus partners to identify and develop giving opportunities.
Align annual giving with capital campaign and other comprehensive fundraising goals, and report on annual giving participation and performance related to campaign objectives.
Develop and manage the annual giving budget; monitor expenses, vendors, printing, postage, digital marketing, and other program costs.
Manage external vendors and service providers supporting fundraising campaigns and platforms; evaluate cost per dollar raised and channel return on investment.
Maintain timely and accurate records of donor contacts, strategies, solicitations, outcomes, campaign results, and program performance.
Prepare budget projections, program updates, and operational reports for the Senior Director of Institutional Advancement and University leadership.
Supervise assigned staff, student workers, or other resources as applicable.