The Associate Vice President for Development and Alumni Engagement (AVP) will create, implement and lead the comprehensive development strategy for DePauw. Reporting to and working in close collaboration with the Vice President for Development and Alumni Engagement (VPDAE), the AVP has the primary responsibility to provide leadership and management for directing the annual and major gift activities, including partnerships with the alumni engagement team and stewardship team to plan and execute campaign activities. The AVP will also serve as the senior major gifts officer and will manage a discrete portfolio of high-capacity prospective donors. The AVP will support the mission of DePauw University and work closely with the VPDAE and other senior leaders to strengthen the University’s position as a top-tier, national liberal arts institution. The successful AVP of Development will be a hands-on leader, implementing effective team-building skills throughout the entire division promoting collaboration amongst university constituents.

Essential Functions: 

Development:

• Serve as the Chief Operating Officer for the annual giving, strategic giving, and major gifts teams.
• Establish and implement consistent themes across all teams in the division.
• Coordinate consistent annual giving messaging, alumni engagement programmatic messaging, and stewardship messaging to support acquisition, retention, and upgrades of donors to the Fund for DePauw.
• Manage a discrete portfolio of high-capacity prospective donors to maximize gifts from alumni and stakeholders of the university.
• Prepare development proposals.
• Develop appropriate prospect management and research tools.
• Review, refine and revise commonly used forms and documents.

Strategic Implementation:

• Recruit, motivate and retain a strong team.
• Manage and direct the development and alumni engagement staff, including strategic planning and management of existing planned gifts and performance measurements.
• Serve as a senior staff member to counsel and advise the vice president and president.
• Direct the day-to-day work of the team to successfully grow attainment on an annual basis.

Other Duties:

• Participate in university initiatives.
• Other duties as assigned.

Position Qualifications: 

• Accountability – Ability to accept responsibility and account for his/her actions.
• Accuracy – Ability to perform work accurately and thoroughly.
• Active Listening — Ability to actively attend to, convey, and understand the comments and questions of others.
• Adaptability — Ability to adapt to change in the workplace.
• Analytical Skills – The ability of the individual to gather raw data and to process that data into a meaningful form.
• Coaching and Development – Ability to provide guidance and feedback to help others strengthen specific knowledge/skill areas.
• Communication, Oral – Ability to communicate effectively with others using the spoken word.
• Communication, Written – Ability to communicate in writing clearly and concisely.
• Consensus Building – Ability to bring about group solidarity to achieve a goal.
• Detail Oriented – Ability to pay attention to the minute details of a project or task.
• Diligent-Ability to commit to the university, division, and priority projects.
• Diversity Oriented – Commitment to valuing a variety of different experiences, encouraging input and collaboration from campus stakeholders, including being mindful of experiences related, but not limited to: age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic status, LGBTQ, and/or job type.
• Innovative-Ability to champion new initiatives.
• Interpersonal – Ability to get along well with a variety of personalities and individuals.
• Leadership — Ability to lead complex teams.
• Organized – Possessing the trait of being organized or following a systematic method of performing a task.
• Project Management – Ability to organize and direct a project to completion.
• Relationship Building – Ability to establish and maintain a good rapport and cooperative relationship with customers and co-workers.
• Self-Motivated – Ability of the individual to reach a goal or perform a task with little supervision or direction.
• Time Management-Ability to utilize the available time to organize and complete work within given deadlines.
• Team Oriented — Ability to build and maintain cohesive collective working relationships.
• Training – Ability to develop a particular skill in others to bring them up to a predetermined standard of work performance.

Requirements: 

Education: Bachelor’s degree (B. A.) from four-year college or university required. Master’s degree preferred.

Experience: Must have at least ten years of current, relative professional fundraising experience and strategic development and a proven track record of closing major/principal gifts and planned giving. Professional experience in higher education is highly desirable; however, experience in multi-unit organizations or corporations will also be considered.

Communication/Language: Intermediate: Ability to read and interpret documents. Ability to write routine reports and correspondence. Ability to speak effectively before groups of customers or employees of organization.

Math Ability: Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals.

Computer Skills: Proficiency in common business applications (Microsoft Office, Google Applications, cloud storage applications, etc.) and the ability to learn new programs quickly.

Other Requirements:

• Knowledge of development and higher education regulations.
• Ability to develop and deliver presentations.
• Ability to coordinate the work of complex teams.
• Skill in budget preparation and fiscal management.

DePauw University is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer: Women, members of underrepresented groups, and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

All employees of DePauw University must be vaccinated against COVID-19 and flu or request a religious, medical, or philosophical exemption.