Job Purpose: 

The Assistant Vice President Development is a key executive leader for advancement programs at Pomona College and charged with generating new revenue from principal, major gifts, leadership annual giving, foundation and corporate relations to meet the division’s annual goals. This position expands the College’s donor base, strengthens the opportunities for securing major gifts, manages a significant portfolio of major and principal gift prospects and shares a leadership role in running major annual and multi-year campaigns. The Assistant Vice President for Development, in consultation with the Vice President for Advancement, advises and supports the Board of Trustees Advancement Committee and the College’s senior leadership in launching development initiatives and achieving fundraising goals and objectives. Reporting to the Vice President for Advancement, this position is responsible for the direction and executive oversight of approximately 15 employees and all of the activities and services provided by Major Gifts, Parent and Family Giving, Leadership Annual Giving, and Foundation and Corporate Relations.

The Assistant Vice President will provide vision and leadership of a comprehensive and well-integrated fundraising program for Pomona College as part of its annual fundraising, and in preparation for the most aspirational, comprehensive capital campaign in the history of the College, while also raising the sustainable level of giving beyond the campaign. Leading four essential teams – Major Gifts, Parent and Family Giving, Leadership Annual Giving and Foundation and Corporate Relations – to create and sustain a customer-service oriented and successful donor-centric model of sustained fundraising. The position requires significant management experience and the ability to facilitate a healthy team-environment, to supervise and inspire employees toward excellence, and to lead by example.

The Assistant Vice President works closely with the Vice President and Advancement Senior Leadership Team, to establish and communicate the organizational vision and goals (both multi-2 year and annual). This position supports the Vice President, Board of Trustees Advancement Committee and the College’s senior leadership in launching development initiatives.

The Assistant Vice President for Development must demonstrate familiarity with a variety of the field’s concepts and demonstrate a command of industry standards and procedures. The position requires judgment and ability to act independently to plan and accomplish goals.

The successful candidate will be an inspiring leader and an effective advocate for the value of the liberal arts with all constituents.

Essential Functions: 

Reporting directly to the Vice President for Advancement, the Assistant Vice President for Development works independently and collaboratively to perform the following essential duties and responsibilities:

• Lead and supervise the Advancement Development staff in Major Gifts, Parent and Family Giving, Corporate and Foundation Relations, and Leadership Annual Giving to achieve overall success for the College.
• Lead by example, the Assistant Vice President will maintain a portfolio of principal and major gift prospects, setting a personal example of frontline fundraising success for the development team. Personally identify, qualify, cultivate, solicit, and steward a select portfolio of high-level donors and prospects. Achieve personal annual fundraising goals.
• Advise and collaborate with the Vice President, Dean, and other senior leadership to establish strategic direction for the College’s advancement efforts, develop comprehensive annual plans, and set aspirational goals for direct reports.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to the vice president, the president, the dean, department chairs, faculty, and other senior staff.
• Collaborate with colleagues across Pomona to identify and explore ways to enhance individual and institutional gift fundraising efforts at the College and beyond, including: formulating creative cultivation plans, successful solicitation strategies, and effective stewardship efforts to maximize the lifetime engagement and support of the College’s supporters and ensure that they feel actively and meaningfully engaged in the life of the College.
• Collaborate with senior campus leaders to understand, interpret, and fund the College’s academic priorities.
• Provide leadership for the ongoing execution of Pomona’s annual and pending comprehensive fundraising campaign; clearly articulate the College’s fundraising priorities internally and externally; and work closely with the President, Dean, VP, Executive Staff and Advancement to develop strategies, approaches, and programs to ensure the success of the campaign and alignment of academic initiatives and priorities with College’s fundraising strategies.
• Manage a portfolio of major and principal gift prospects through identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship cycles.
• Forge relationships with a diverse population that will lead to transformational gifts.
• Build strong personal and professional relationships with the entire Pomona College community, including alumni, faculty, staff, and volunteers. Proactively work to understand and maintain an in-depth knowledge of Pomona programs, key faculty, research, notable alumni, and student initiatives; serve as a resource, advocate, and spokesperson for the Pomona Advancement Office and programs.
• Oversee the preparation of funding proposals, talking points and strategies, assessments of potential support, briefings for senior officers and trustees, and stewardship reports for all assigned prospects.
• Manage major gifts, parent and family giving, foundation and corporate relations, and leadership annual giving staff, as well as administrative assistants. Provide oversight and direction for the School’s parents programs. Develop a strong sense of teamwork, and an environment of mentoring and support.
• Develop and implement performance metrics and assessment tools for the Advancement Office both individually and overall; devise and implement strategies to provide professional development for staff and to encourage their highest level of performance.
• Establishes necessary metrics and annual goal and monitors the performance of advancement officers based on metrics and accountability.
• Rely on past experience in the field and remain current with evolving trends in philanthropy.
• Provide leadership and strategic fundraising direction within Pomona Advancement and with campus constituents to expand Pomona’s donor base, both geographically and beyond traditional pools of support, and increase financial commitments in all fundraising programs.
• Develop strong data-informed methods for decision making and the timely evaluation of program performance and forecasting.
• Through strategic partnership with the College’s senior officers, department chairs, and fellow Advancement and campus leaders, inspire full engagement and effective participation of volunteer councils, boards, alumni, and support groups.
• Develop strategies to increase gift revenue, maintain and strengthen relationships with key volunteers, enhance volunteer engagement, and ensure that volunteer resources and tools are robust and effective. Lead efforts to identify and cultivate new donors and volunteers.
• Foster a culture of personal accountability, innovation, creativity, and growth in philanthropy in a highly engaged intellectual community, including the Pomona Board of Trustees.
• Work in partnership with alumni and parent engagement to identify key prospects to participate in alumni events and serve in volunteer leadership roles.
• Lead a team that understands and respects Pomona’s unique culture and priorities.
• Set clear direction for a staff of 18 fundraising professionals (five direct reports) and administrative support personnel.
• Promote excellence and an environment of achievement by placing staff members’ work within the context of Pomona’s mission and strategic priorities.
• Work with each staff member to set mutually agreed upon, well-defined, and measurable goals.
• Ensure that individuals have a sense of responsibility and ownership for the successful outcome of the organization.
• Maintain a leadership style that is open and fluid, and capable of inspiring, empowering, and motivating staff.
• Foster a work environment that recognizes and rewards performance, supports new ideas and risk-taking, builds confidence, encourages interaction and teamwork, and promotes diversity.
• Serve as an advocate for staff, representing their needs and concerns.
• Oversee all personnel activities for the office, including the recruitment, hiring, training, and retention of staff; as well as defining the job responsibilities and performance review process for each staff member.
• Able to work both independently and as a collaborative executive member of the College in support of the College’s strategic vision and the division’s annual goals with a high standard of integrity and ethics.

Qualifications: 

Education:

Bachelor’s degree in communications, marketing, journalism, business administration, a liberal arts field, or equivalent combination of education and experience is required. Master’s degree in marketing, fundraising, or business or a related field is preferred.

Experience:

A minimum of 10 years of demonstrable leadership experience with progressively responsible fundraising, including at least five years of supervisory experience, and a record of successfully soliciting and closing major gifts is required. Experience in an academic setting is strongly preferred, as is work in a campaign environment.

Required Knowledge and Critical Skills: 

This position must possess the knowledge, skills and abilities to be able to successfully perform the essential functions of the job or must be able to demonstrate how the essential functions will be performed (with or without reasonable accommodation) using other knowledge, skills and abilities not listed below.

• Expert depth of knowledge of best practices in all key areas of advancement.
• Significant experience leading a comprehensive and large-scale capital campaign in a higher education setting.
• A proven track record of success in personally qualifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding gifts of seven and eight figures or more from individuals, foundations, and corporations.
• A high level of comfort and effectiveness working with high-net-worth individuals and corporate business leaders, domestically and internationally.
• Strong record of accomplishment soliciting major and principal gifts ($1 million and above) from individual donors and directing major gifts.
• Direct knowledge of top-tier development programs.
• Direct knowledge of successful fundraising practices.
• Excellent management skills; the ability to set objectives and performance standards, provide constructive feedback, and achieve established program goals. Must have a history of recruiting and developing talented people.
• Thorough knowledge of all phases of fundraising, including principal gifts, constituency-based fundraising, major gifts, parent and family, corporate and foundation relations, regional, and international fundraising programs. Success in increasing the effectiveness of an advancement program and its staff through established objectives and performance standards.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a complex institutional setting and develop and sustain productive and effective relationships with donors, faculty, colleagues, and departmental senior management.
• Intellectual curiosity and commitment to the goals of a liberal arts education essential as is the ability to articulate the case for support.
• Other important skills/attributes including: comfort with ambiguity and change; demonstrated tact, sensitivity, maturity, and good judgment; a proven record of professionalism, entrepreneurialism, organizational, and creativity.
• A high-level of energy, self-confidence, optimism, personal resilience, and the ability to function at peak levels in a high expectation environment.
• Exemplary interpersonal and listening skills; impeccable attention to detail; superb commitment and follow-through; strong personal integrity, charisma, and work ethic coupled with a humble approach, sense of humor, and perspective. A commitment to the highest standards of professionalism.
• Superior written and oral communication skills; clarity, crispness, and elegance in writing and speaking. Ability to succinctly communicate a clear vision and process, utilizing data and metrics as appropriate.
• Must communicate effectively with, and harness energies from a broad base of people, such as trustees, faculty, staff, public officials, business executives, students, alumni and parents, each representing varied ethnic, cultural, social, political and economic backgrounds.
• Handle all activities and highly confidential information with patience, discretion, good judgment, courtesy and tact while working with people from a wide variety of backgrounds.
• Use exceptional organizational and time management skills to complete work with accuracy and keen attention to detail.