Vice President for University Advancement and Alumni Engagement

Carlow University•Pittsburgh, PA

4d•Onsite

About The Position

Carlow University, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, seeks an accomplished Vice President for University Advancement & Alumni Engagement to provide strategic leadership at a consequential moment in the University's history. Reporting directly to President Kathy W. Humphrey, PhD, and serving as Carlow's Chief Advancement Officer and a member of the President's Cabinet, the Vice President will lead an enterprise whose impact reaches across the University and extends into the lives of the individuals, families, organizations, and communities Carlow serves. Philanthropic investment helps make possible the programs, partnerships, student opportunities, and community initiatives through which Carlow creates an impact disproportionate to its size – advancing social mobility, responding to consequential community needs, and extending its Mercy mission well beyond the boundaries of campus. Carlow enters the search with genuine institutional and philanthropic momentum. Enrollment has grown 19.5% since Fall 2020; academic and community partnerships are expanding; and innovative programs responsive to workforce and community needs have strengthened the University's reach and relevance. Intentional work to clarify Carlow's identity and expand external engagement has also increased awareness of who Carlow is, whom it serves, and the impact of its work. Carlow has demonstrated that compelling ideas rooted in mission and responsive to human need can attract significant investment from individuals, foundations, corporations, government, and community partners. Its philanthropic case therefore extends well beyond a traditional alumni-centered fundraising model. Carlow has already demonstrated its philanthropic potential. The next Vice President will build the Advancement enterprise needed to bring greater strategy, discipline, scale, and sustainability to that work. Current vacancies provide meaningful latitude to assess organizational design, align talent and responsibilities with the capabilities Carlow needs, recruit strategically, and strengthen the systems and infrastructure required for increasingly sophisticated fundraising. Importantly, this work must occur while maintaining momentum in relationships, solicitations, campaign priorities, and philanthropic opportunities. The President and Board of Trustees recognize that Carlow's ambitions require corresponding investment and are committed to strengthening the people, technology, and resources necessary to support this work. Central to the role will be a close strategic partnership with President Humphrey, an energetic, externally engaged, and respected leader who is prepared to be an active partner in advancing Carlow's philanthropic priorities. The Vice President will serve as the University's senior Advancement strategist: establishing priorities, determining where presidential, and other leadership, engagement can have the greatest impact, preparing the President for important donor and partner interactions, and driving cultivation and solicitation strategies forward. The Vice President will also engage trustees, academic leaders, and colleagues throughout Carlow, helping evaluate, prioritize, and translate the University's abundance of ideas and aspirations into focused and compelling opportunities for investment. Pittsburgh provides a particularly fertile environment for this work. The region's longstanding culture of philanthropy and its concentration of foundations, healthcare organizations, financial institutions, corporations, nonprofit organizations, civic leaders, entrepreneurs, and other partners create a broad landscape for relationship development. Carlow already has meaningful connections across many of these sectors. Its more than 19,000 living alumni remain an important constituency, particularly in the Pittsburgh region, while representing one part of a much broader universe of prospective supporters and partners. Success will require a leader with both fundraising depth and organizational range: an accomplished fundraiser personally comfortable cultivating, soliciting, and closing gifts at the million-dollar level and above; a strategist capable of establishing priorities within an innovative and entrepreneurial institution; a builder who can create a stronger, more sustainable Advancement enterprise and develop the people within it; and a hands-on, action-oriented executive who can translate strategy into action. Higher education experience may be valuable, but Carlow is equally interested in accomplished nonprofit and mission-driven fundraising leaders who know how to inspire significant investment around purpose and impact. At Carlow, the work feels consequential because it is consequential. Its results are visible in the opportunities created for students, families, professionals, organizations, and communities. This role offers the opportunity to do more than raise money or complete a campaign. The next Vice President will have unusual agency to build something enduring: an Advancement enterprise capable of expanding the resources available to Carlow and, through Carlow, extending the University's impact well into its second century.

Requirements

Accomplished Vice President for University Advancement & Alumni Engagement.
Strategic leadership skills.
Experience as a Chief Advancement Officer.
Experience as a member of a President's Cabinet.
Ability to build an Advancement enterprise with strategy, discipline, scale, and sustainability.
Experience assessing organizational design, aligning talent, recruiting strategically, and strengthening systems and infrastructure for fundraising.
Ability to maintain momentum in relationships, solicitations, campaign priorities, and philanthropic opportunities.
Experience establishing priorities and determining leadership engagement impact.
Experience preparing leaders for donor and partner interactions.
Experience driving cultivation and solicitation strategies.
Experience engaging trustees, academic leaders, and colleagues.
Experience evaluating, prioritizing, and translating ideas into investment opportunities.
Experience developing relationships across a philanthropic landscape.
Accomplished fundraiser personally comfortable cultivating, soliciting, and closing gifts at the million-dollar level and above.
Strategist capable of establishing priorities within an innovative and entrepreneurial institution.
Builder who can create a stronger, more sustainable Advancement enterprise and develop people.
Hands-on, action-oriented executive who can translate strategy into action.
Accomplished nonprofit and mission-driven fundraising leaders who know how to inspire significant investment around purpose and impact.
Commitment to the highest standards of ethical conduct, integrity, respect, dignity, careful stewardship of resources, avoiding conflicts of interest, maintaining confidentiality, and complying with legal and professional obligations.

Nice To Haves

Higher education experience may be valuable.

Responsibilities

Provide strategic leadership for University Advancement & Alumni Engagement.
Serve as Carlow's Chief Advancement Officer and a member of the President's Cabinet.
Lead an enterprise whose impact reaches across the University and into the lives of individuals, families, organizations, and communities.
Build the Advancement enterprise needed to bring greater strategy, discipline, scale, and sustainability to philanthropic work.
Assess organizational design, align talent and responsibilities, recruit strategically, and strengthen systems and infrastructure for fundraising.
Maintain momentum in relationships, solicitations, campaign priorities, and philanthropic opportunities.
Establish priorities and determine where presidential and other leadership engagement can have the greatest impact.
Prepare the President for important donor and partner interactions.
Drive cultivation and solicitation strategies forward.
Engage trustees, academic leaders, and colleagues to evaluate, prioritize, and translate ideas into compelling investment opportunities.
Develop relationships across Pittsburgh's philanthropic landscape, including foundations, healthcare organizations, financial institutions, corporations, nonprofit organizations, civic leaders, and entrepreneurs.
Cultivate, solicit, and close gifts at the million-dollar level and above.
Establish priorities within an innovative and entrepreneurial institution.
Create a stronger, more sustainable Advancement enterprise and develop the people within it.
Translate strategy into action.
Inspire significant investment around purpose and impact.
Build an enduring Advancement enterprise capable of expanding resources and extending the University's impact.