Senior Director of Annual Giving

Title:                           Senior Director of Annual Giving
Reports to:                 President & CEO, Kean University Foundation
FLSA Status:             Full Time, Exempt
Location:                    Union, New Jersey
Salary Range:            $100,000 - $130,000

Summary

The Senior Director of Annual Giving will be a strategic and results-driven leader responsible for the design, execution, and oversight of a comprehensive annual giving program for the Kean University Foundation. Reporting to the President & CEO, this position is crucial for cultivating and soliciting a broad base of donors to secure both unrestricted and restricted gifts. The Senior Director will leverage multi-channel strategies, data-driven insights, and best practices in philanthropy to build a strong, sustainable pipeline of support and foster a culture of giving among all university constituencies.

Responsibilities

Develop and Execute Comprehensive Annual Giving Strategy: Design, implement, and manage a strategic annual giving program focused on acquiring, retaining, and upgrading donors. This includes setting ambitious fundraising goals and developing multi-channel campaigns (e.g., direct mail, email, social media, crowdfunding, phonathon, etc.) to engage alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and friends.
Manage Annual Campaigns and Activities: Oversee the full lifecycle of all annual giving campaigns, implementing strategies to increase the number of donors, improve donor retention rates, and grow average gift sizes. This includes creating compelling messaging, and developing and executing effective strategies for segmentation, timelines, and solicitations.
Implement Data-Driven Approaches: Utilize data analytics to inform strategy, segment audiences, track campaign performance, and identify trends. Work closely with the Data Management & Analytics team to analyze results and optimize future campaigns for maximum effectiveness and return on investment.
Manage Portfolio: Personally manage a portfolio of leadership annual giving prospects to maximize their annual giving potential. Identify major gift potential and drive these donors to the major gift pipeline.
Lead a High-Performing Team: Provide direct supervision, mentorship, and performance management to the Assistant Director of Annual Giving. This includes setting clear performance goals, conducting regular check-ins and performance reviews, and supporting their professional development to ensure the successful execution of annual giving strategies and campaigns.
Collaborate with Foundation and University Teams: Coordinate efforts with Foundation marketing, events, and donor relations to ensure integrated and consistent messaging. Work cross-functionally with the Philanthropy team to identify and transition major gift prospects. Collaborate with university partners to identify and promote giving opportunities, and to create and manage the promotional and solicitation components of the annual giving program.
Set Goals, Analyze and Report: Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) and provide regular reports to the President & CEO on program progress, annual campaign results, and performance against goals.
Manage Annual Giving Budget: Develop, manage, and monitor the annual giving budget, ensuring resources are allocated efficiently to support campaign goals and initiatives.
Other Duties as Assigned

Education and Credentials

Required:

Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution.

Preferred:

Master's degree in a relevant field.

Experience

Required:

Minimum 8 years of progressive experience in annual giving or a related fundraising role in a complex nonprofit environment.
Proven track record of designing, implementing, and managing successful multi-channel annual giving campaigns.
Demonstrated experience using data and analytics to inform and optimize fundraising strategies.

Preferred:

Experience working in a higher education fundraising environment.
Experience supervising staff.
Experience with digital fundraising tools and crowdfunding platforms.

Skills

Required:

Strategic thinking and planning abilities, with a strong understanding of best practices in annual giving.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a talent for crafting persuasive and compelling fundraising messages.
Analytical skills to interpret data, measure campaign effectiveness, and make data-driven decisions.
Strong project management and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple campaigns and deadlines simultaneously.
Excellent interpersonal skills and a collaborative mindset for working with diverse teams.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office and donor CRM systems (Raiser's Edge NXT).
High level of discretion, integrity, and ethical conduct.

Preferred:

Ability to work evenings/weekends and travel as required for donor meetings and events.
Knowledge of email marketing, social media advertising, and web analytics.
Experience in budget management.

Candidates: Ardú Advisors is assisting the Kean University Foundation with this search. Interested and qualified candidates should send a cover letter and resume to SrDirectorAnnualGiving@ArduAdvisors.com

Social Media Community Guidelines

The Kean University Foundation manages several social media channels. Through these channels, we aim to facilitate supportive conversations and share informative, engaging content. But please note—if you post to one of our social media channels, send us messages, reply to our tweets or comment on any of our posts, you are agreeing to follow and adhere to these Social Media Community Guidelines.

Additionally, please remember that the comments and responses you read on our channels from other community members come from them, not us. The content of other peoples’ comments, opinions and statements, even if they’re posted on our channels, do not necessarily reflect our views—they are the responsibility of the members of the public who choose to post them.

In order to help us keep our Kean University Foundation and Kean Alumni social media channels as supportive places to discuss shared topics of interest, please abide by the following Social Media Community Guidelines:

Be Respectful
1. Respect is a core part of being a Kean Cougar. Although we welcome your comments and feedback, you must take the responsibility to share both in a way that is respectful to Kean University, our team members and our overall community.
2. We will not tolerate comments, replies, messages or posts that are inappropriate, harassing in nature, or otherwise abusive.
3. We do not welcome comments, replies, messages or posts that are promoting or soliciting a third-party site. This includes third-party products and initiatives.
4. Social media is not the proper forum to send us feedback about our services. Please email kuf@keanfoundation.org for help with those topics.
5. We reserve the right to remove comments/replies/message that do not adhere to our policies, or any content that we believe does not comply.
6. We reserve the right to block or ban anyone who violates our policies.

Comment Moderation and Responses
1. We monitor our social media channels on weekdays, during normal business hours. We try to respond as soon as we are able.
2. Although we are moderating our social media channels to ensure that those commenting are complying with our guidelines, we are not responsible for anything posted by members of the public.

Your Posts May Become Our Future Content
1. When tagging us on social media platforms, please keep in mind that you are consenting to us potentially resharing your content in the future as User Generated Content. By posting on our channels and tagging us in your content, you agree that your posts may be freely used by us on our social media channels, and possibly on our website or in our newsletter.
  1. Knowing this, please do not post any information that you prefer to keep confidential.
  2. Do not share any information from which you expect to receive compensation.
2. When you post on or interact with any of our social media channels, remember that your name, likeness and social media handle will be visible to us and associated with your post/reply/message. If we reshare or use your post/reply/message elsewhere, we may display your name, likeness and social media handle when we do so.

May 2021

-->

Careers