Position Summary

The Associate Vice President for Annual Giving will provide the strategic direction for the newly formed Annual Giving team by developing and implementing a long-range plan that will emphasize building a best-in-class annual giving program that is focused on aggressive metrics related to increasing dollars raised, donor growth, and overall annual giving program health. The AVP of Annual Giving will build essential relationships and work with leaders and colleagues across the Foundation, University, UCONN Health to provide strategy, support, best practices, and recommendations to ensure a comprehensive solicitation approach to their donors through a variety of solicitation methods. The AVP for Annual Giving will monitor industry best practices, trends, and new technologies to propose innovative strategies and tactics to advance foundation and university priorities.

The AVP for Annual Giving will focus on transform\sing annual giving and work to truly weave annual giving into the fabric of the foundation. The person will report directly to the Vice President of Alumni Relations, Marketing & Communications, and Annual Giving and will provide oversight for the following areas which serve as the university’s central annual giving and special campaigns resource: digital fundraising, faculty and staff giving, leadership annual giving, the Oak Grove Society, Loyal Jonathan Society, omnichannel solicitation (i.e. direct mail, e-solicitation, text, phone, etc.) and the UConn Foundation’s call center.

Primary Responsibilities

• Provide innovative and creative strategies, with a focus on sophisticated data analysis, for annual fundraising to acquire and retain new donors, increase alumni participation rates and increase total dollars.
• Evaluate and enhance ongoing annual giving efforts including but not limited to Student Philanthropy, Giving Tuesday, UConn Gives, and Phonathon.
• Oversee a team who runs the day-to-day annual giving operations, including leadership giving development officers, strategic solicitations, and project management.
• Develop compelling messaging to targeted audiences; this includes all solicitation strategies – direct mail, digital solicitations, and personal solicitations. Utilizing the Marketing Communication team’s knowledge and their expertise to assist in development and execution.
• Build reporting processes for annual giving and special campaigns. Partner with Business Intelligence to utilize their expertise and knowledge to be able to leverage the information and systems.
• Collaborate with the Stewardship and Donor Relations team on strategies for annual giving.
• Manages key relationships with donors and solicits gifts up to $25,000.
• Manage partners and vendor relationships to maximize revenue and provide UConn’s donors and prospects an optimal philanthropic experience.
• Promote a culture of high performance and continuous improvement that values learning and a commitment to quality.
• Mentor and develop staff using a supportive and collaborative approach on a consistent basis.
• Establish and monitor staff performance and development goals, assign accountabilities, foster collaboration, set objectives, establish priorities, manage performance.
• Oversee budget and successfully allocate resources for maximum impact.
• Foster the Foundation’s role as a proactive, collaborative, and progressive partner internally and among campus partners.
• Other duties as assigned.

Key Competencies

• Strategic thinking to develop and execute innovative solutions.
• Demonstrated experience using data analytics to build strategy.
• Superb interpersonal skills and ability to build productive, beneficial relationships with a broad range of constituencies, excellent tact and diplomacy.
• Exceptional communication through strong verbal, written, and listening skills.
• Ability to perform multiple tasks, to track details, and to set priorities for complex projects in a fast-paced professional environment with positive attitude.
• Extensive knowledge and expertise in annual giving and direct marketing principles.
• Experience working with vendors and partners that support annual giving and special campaigns.
• Must have reliable personal transportation and valid driver’s license issued from the state in which the employee resides. Employee must maintain, at his or her expense, automotive liability insurance coverage in the minimum amount of $500,000. Evidence of this coverage, in the form of a certificate of automobile insurance must be provided to the Foundation at hire and annually thereafter.
• Ability to work the demands of the job which may exceed a 40-hour week and work some evenings and weekends to manage/monitor events.

The University of Connecticut Foundation is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer committed to fostering diversity in its workforce.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s preferred.
• 8 – 10 years of experience in annual giving and experience with leadership giving, preferably in higher education.
• Previous experience supervising and leading a team.
• Proficiency in an enterprise CRM; Blackbaud preferred.