The Director of Annual Giving (the Director) provides leadership for creating, executing, and evaluating a year-round comprehensive annual giving program. This position is responsible for driving participation goals, with a strong focus on giving from undergraduate alumni, as well as building a culture of philanthropy amongst graduate alumni, students, parents, and friends of Stevens. Increasing the average gift size through strategic solicitations that drive gift upgrades will be pivotal to supporting key revenue goals. The Director will meld data-driven decision making and industry best practices with an understanding of Stevens’ rich tradition and history to create a compelling and effective strategy.

Responsibilities:

• Build and lead, under the direction of the AVP for Annual Giving and Alumni Engagement, an appropriately diverse and segmented approach to the university’s annual giving program that maximizes Stevens’ ability to drive giving participation percentages from undergraduate alumni specifically, and dollars committed by both undergraduate and graduate alumni as targeted objectives. Additional constituencies will include students, parents, and faculty/staff.
• Develop and align plans and strategies to fulfill established annual giving fundraising targets through the effective implementation and integration of all available solicitation channels, including direct mail, e-mail, web-based/crowdfunding, phone, and personal appeals. The Director will be responsible for identifying and deploying new tools and strategies to solicit and engender philanthropic support currently not in use at Stevens.
• Operate as a full and collaborative partner to the Director of Alumni Engagement, creating an integrated approach to strengthening connectivity to Stevens’ 50,000 alumni worldwide. The Director will be responsible for setting, in collaboration with the Director of Alumni Engagement, the annual giving priorities for the three Assistant Directors.
• Maximize the philanthropic potential of the leadership annual giving program by overseeing a comprehensive segmentation, acquisition, upgrade, and recognition strategy for this pivotal pipeline.
• Manage a growing annual giving team that includes oversight of the Director of Leadership Annual Giving and a Coordinator.
• Leverage volunteer leadership through fundraising programs focused on increasing undergraduate alumni giving participation and dollars contributed by alumni in reunion and non-reunion classes, fraternities and sororities, and other alumni affinity groups. Enhancing the approach to alumni associated with undergraduate classes and from within affinity groups celebrating anniversaries will represent particularly high priorities.
• Define and execute the strategies, processes, and procedures for delivering results-driven crowdfunding campaigns and an annual day of giving in coordination with key Development and Alumni Engagement colleagues, volunteers, campus partners, and student leaders.
• Lead an effort to build a culture of digital philanthropy by understanding and deploying best practices in social media, web-based target marketing, interactive appeals, and other emergent digital trends.
• Envision, in alignment with Development Services colleagues, a dynamic and evergreen data set that provides predictive modeling for annual giving behavior. A growing demand will be placed on the Director and Development Services to partner on reporting, and management of a real-time dashboard that highlights trends and key performance indicators through easy to interpret interfaces.
• Establish and grow a set of return-on-investment metrics that provide Divisional insight into annual giving solicitation performance, informing programmatic decision making.
• Collaborate with the Stevens Alumni Association, key volunteers, Divisions, and other campus colleagues to create and maintain synergies for involving alumni in support for the Institute.
• Assist with the planning and successful execution of relevant alumni events.

 Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree.
• A minimum of five years of progressive experience in metrics-driven annual giving/fundraising and with a strategic understanding of volunteer management, preferably in a higher education setting. Experience with both quantitative and qualitative measures of engagement preferred.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication, analytic, and organizational skills, as well as a demonstrated commitment to succeed in this highly externally facing position.
• Ability to manage and prioritize multiple people, projects, and programs effectively as well as to sustain rigor in the anticipation and implementation of weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual assignments and responsibilities.
• Ability to exude a professional presence, especially with high-level campus leaders and institutional volunteers.
• Ability to work evenings and weekends and to travel, as required.

General Submission Guidelines:

In order to be considered a candidate for any job at Stevens, you must submit an online application. Please attach a cover letter and resume with each application. Other requirements for consideration may depend on the job.

EEO Statement: 

Stevens Institute of Technology is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Accordingly, Stevens adheres to an employment policy that prohibits discriminatory practices or harassment against candidates or employees based on legally impermissible factor(s) including, but not necessarily limited to, race, color, religion, creed, sex, national origin, nationality, citizenship status, age, ancestry, marital or domestic partnership or civil union status, familial status, affectional or sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, atypical cellular or blood trait, genetic information, pregnancy or pregnancy-related medical conditions, disability, or any protected military or veteran status. Stevens is building a diverse faculty, staff and student body and strongly encourages applications from female and minority candidates as well as veterans and individuals with disabilities. Stevens is a federal contractor under the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as well as other federal statutes.