Senior Director of Stewardship - MUSC Foundation

Medical University of South Carolina•Charleston, SC

About The Position

The Senior Director of Stewardship provides strategy and leadership for the MUSC Foundation's comprehensive donor stewardship program, ensuring an exceptional donor experience that strengthens donor retention and engagement, inspires transformational philanthropy, and advances the Foundation's fundraising priorities. This position is responsible for designing, implementing, and continuously improving a comprehensive stewardship program that spans annual giving through principal gifts. The Senior Director is expected to develop comprehensive knowledge of MUSC's philanthropic landscape — its donors, its funds, and the recognition, reporting, and restricted-gift obligations the Foundation owes them — and to serve as the Foundation's subject matter expert on donor stewardship. Drawing on that knowledge, the Senior Director creates standardized processes and engagement strategies while leading a proactive partnership model with gift officers across the enterprise. The Senior Director uses data-driven reasoning to shape stewardship strategy, setting and tracking metrics that connect stewardship activity to retention and giving outcomes. This leader will build and oversee a scalable stewardship infrastructure that integrates data, technology, communications, finance, advancement services, and fundraising teams to ensure donors receive timely, personalized, and meaningful engagement throughout their philanthropic journey.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent.
Seven (7) years of progressive experience including four (4) years in management/leadership roles or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree or equivalent advanced experience demonstrating expertise in principle gift stewardship, donor policy development, donor recognition, and named space management.
Eight (8) to ten (10) years of progressive experience in donor relations, stewardship, advancement services, fundraising strategy, or institutional advancement.
Five (5) or more years of leadership and staff management experience.
Experience building stewardship programs within higher education, healthcare, or complex nonprofit organizations.
Experience supporting comprehensive or capital campaigns of $100M+ preferred.
Demonstrated expertise in donor recognition, impact reporting, endowment stewardship, and donor engagement strategy.
Strong understanding of CRM systems, stewardship analytics, and advancement technologies.

Responsibilities

Develop and implement the Foundation's comprehensive donor stewardship philosophy, standards, and operating model.
Recruit, manage, and mentor a small, but high-performing team.
Foster a culture of innovation, accountability, collaboration, and donor-centered service.
Set annual goals, evaluate performance, and support professional development.
Define and maintain stewardship policies, service standards, and enterprise-wide procedures.
Establish stewardship metrics, KPIs, and dashboards focused on donor retention, donor upgrades, stewardship completion rates, pledge fulfillment, and donor engagement.
Evaluate and enhance strategies based on donor feedback and performance analytics.
Create, maintain, and update a multi-year stewardship roadmap aligned with Foundation fundraising priorities.
Provide strategic oversight for team members executing: Major gift stewardship, Acknowledgment process, impact and endowment reporting, Planned giving stewardship, Donor societies and recognition programs, First-time donor, loyalty, and milestone giving programs, Annual stewardship calendar and touchpoint strategy.
Design and lead stewardship strategy for all comprehensive and capital campaigns as well as other identified institutional priorities.
Develop campaign-specific donor experiences, milestone communications/ construction updates, recognition opportunities, and engagement events.
Partner with campaign leadership and gift officers to create individualized stewardship plans for transformational donors.
Ensure all stewardship commitments outlined in gift agreements are documented and fulfilled.
Create and maintain the Foundation's comprehensive donor recognition strategy.
Establish and oversee a centralized inventory of naming opportunities, naming agreements, recognition obligations, and expiration schedules.
Develop annual review processes to ensure compliance with donor agreements.
Partner with Facilities, Marketing, and Advancement Services to ensure timely implementation and maintenance of donor recognition.
Serve as business owner for stewardship functionality within Raiser's Edge and related systems.
Develop stewardship workflows, automations, dashboards, and business rules.
Improve stewardship data governance and reporting capabilities.
Implement stewardship tracking for acknowledgments, touchpoints, recognition, and donor engagement plans.
Establish, lead, and own gift stewardship working group in partnership with Finance to ensure fund compliance and timely reporting.
Establish, lead, and own regular stewardship planning meetings with development officers and leadership.