Executive Director for Development for Endowment Services and Gift Operations

University of Texas at Austin

4d•Onsite

About The Position

The University of Texas at Austin is a globally recognized institution with a strong commitment to academic excellence and innovation. Texas Development is a rapidly growing fundraising program within the university, aiming to achieve top-tier status in public higher education fundraising. This dynamic community of over 500 professionals is dedicated to creating impactful donor experiences and driving the university's mission forward. The Executive Director for Development for Endowment Services and Gift Operations will play a crucial role in managing and overseeing the daily operations of the Endowment Services and Gift Compliance team, ensuring the effective and compliant management of endowed funds and gifts.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience.
Successful leadership and supervisory experience, including responsibility for developing staff, managing performance, allocating resources, and leading through organizational change.
Collaborative leadership style that reinforces and further develops the skills and autonomy of reporting team members.
At least seven years of progressively responsible experience in advancement services, endowment administration, gift compliance, gift accounting, financial administration, donor relations, or a closely related field, including significant experience in a complex higher education or nonprofit environment.
Demonstrated expertise in endowment establishment, gift acceptance, expenditure monitoring, compliance reviews, and financial reporting.
Working knowledge of the legal, regulatory, accounting, ethical, and fiduciary principles governing charitable gifts and endowment funds, including donor intent, institutional policy, philanthropic naming standards, and applicable state and federal requirements.
Demonstrated ability to interpret complex gift instruments and translate donor restrictions, institutional policies, and regulatory requirements into clear operational business practices.
Experience designing, implementing, and evaluating complex programs.
Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively and diplomatically with institutional colleagues and external partners on sensitive and complex matters, while exercising sound judgment, discretion, and respect for differing perspectives.
Resilience and flexibility in navigating a large and changing institution.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills.
The ability to build trusted relationships with diverse constituencies.
Experience with advancement, financial, document-management, or compliance systems.
Proven ability to manage multiple high-priority initiatives, meet deadlines, and maintain accuracy and service quality in a complex organization.
Unquestioned integrity, discretion, and commitment to ethical stewardship, institutional accountability, donor intent, and the mission of higher education.

Nice To Haves

Ten or more years of progressively responsible experience in endowment services, gift compliance, advancement services, or philanthropic financial administration at a four-year public research university, academic medical center, university system, or large affiliated foundation.
At least ten years of successful leadership and supervisory experience, including responsibility for developing staff, managing performance, allocating resources, and leading through organizational change.
Executive-level experience leading multidisciplinary teams responsible for endowment administration, gift agreements, fund compliance, gift processing, stewardship reporting, or related advancement operations.
An understanding of how information technology and artificial intelligence can improve and enhance operations, strengthen decision-making, automate appropriate processes, and enable the team to scale.
Demonstrated success identifying opportunities for change, modernizing business processes, implementing technology, improving data governance, and applying automation, analytics, or artificial intelligence to strengthen compliance, service, operational efficiency, and organizational capacity.
Demonstrated record of building collaborative, service-oriented partnerships while maintaining appropriate independence, consistency, and accountability in compliance decisions.

Responsibilities

Supervise Endowment Services and Gift Compliance staff; plan, oversee, and approve their various duties and projects; and provide training and expertise as needed. Working with the team directors (as their direct supervisor), review overall team responsibilities, staffing, and staff performance over time, to assure continued effective team operations.
Advise Deans, CSU finance teams, and gift officers on endowment compliance and usage, providing strategies and best practices for efficient and effective use of endowed funds.
Participate in the ongoing implementation and further development of new SPUR CRM, as needed for various workstreams, including Endowments and Prospect Management, and the ongoing change management after full CRM implementation.
Identify, analyze and implement technological tools to increase scalability, deepen analysis, and increase administrative workflows and automations.
Maintain policies and procedures related to naming facilities and programs and review requests prepared by the Director for approval by the Assistant Vice President, Vice President, President, UT System and Board of Regents, as appropriate; oversee further development and maintenance of naming sections of SPUR CRM. Manage the review of all naming requests from across campus, and guide them through review, routing, approval, notification, and documentation.
Maintain policies and procedures related to the establishment, compliance and stewardship of endowed funds and oversee information on endowed policies and procedures provided in DevConnect.
Maintain policies and procedures related to certain non-endowed gift agreements and, working with the Assistant VP of Advancement Operations, develop a program for non-endowed gift compliance. Look for opportunities to utilize SPUR or AI tools to aid in non-endowed gift compliance.
Oversee the development of training materials and activities for staff regarding endowments, including use of SPUR endowment database; oversee improvements to SPUR endowment database and assist in developing features for use in compliance monitoring and reporting projects.
Oversee endowment establishment process as a whole, acting as liaison with UT Austin Offices of Accounting, Provost, Academic Affairs, Legal Affairs and UT System External Relations and General Counsel.
Oversee endowment amendment, cy pres, and equitable deviation processes for endowed and non-endowed gifts as a whole, acting as liaison with UT Austin Offices of Accounting, Provost, Academic Affairs, Legal Affairs and UT System External Relations and General Counsel.
Oversee the preparation of various scheduled reports to endowment donors, i.e. faculty endowment holder letters, UTIMCO financial mailing, customized reports to specified donors and additional reports/projects as needed.
Prepare and oversee endowed gift agreements, naming agreements, and non-endowed gift agreements that meet a determined threshold. Act as primary University contact and resource related to gift agreements. Advise and assist CSUs in drafting and review of complex gift agreements, utilizing knowledge of related laws and policies. Work with VP Legal Affairs as needed to finalize agreements.
Participate in donor calls when complex endowment questions or negotiations exceed gift officer knowledge.
Prepare and oversee the preparation of the President’s recommendations to UT System on endowments, estates, trusts, and major gifts in coordination with colleagues in the University Development Office, colleges/schools/units, President’s Office, UT System External Relations, and VP Legal Affairs.
Under guidance of the UT System, UTIMCO, University Compliance Services, Office of Accounting, Gift Processing, Chief Development Officers, financial officers, scholarship officers and Deans to enhance campus endowment compliance and usage.
Additional duties as assigned.