The Director, Development will contribute significantly to Scholarship America’s culture of philanthropy, encouraging giving among current donors, potential supporters and more broadly for the benefit of society. By cultivating a deep understanding of Scholarship America’s donors, this position will advocate for their interests and help fulfill their philanthropic goals in alignment with Scholarship America’s mission, strategic goals and vision of the VP, Development. The Director is responsible for growing contributed revenue to meet or exceed individual and overall goals as part of a high performance fundraising team, management of the operations and fundraising teams. This position will lead the design and delivery of all aspects of a donor-centered fundraising program, with a focus on maximizing gift potential, as well as department operations and staff development.
Essential Job Functions:
• Plan and execute a donor communication and solicitation plan with an emphasis on stewardship, accountability and creating a rewarding experience for donors at all levels.
• Develop and maintain current fundraising programs that broaden support across generations, socio-economic sectors, races, religions and giving ability. Experiment with new approaches to increase and diversify philanthropic support.
• Manage a portfolio of high impact individual donors.
• Analyze fundraising performance and identify opportunities to grow revenue. Regularly report on results, focusing on trends in areas that support long-term sustainable growth.
• Ensure a high level of service for all donors, including timely and accurate gift acknowledgment.
• Create systems to support effective relationship management to help leadership staff, Board and volunteers solicit gifts.
• Incorporate ongoing prospect research and identification into regular operations and oversee the fulfillment of research requests to support major gifts.
• Contribute to the success of annual Dreams to Success fundraising dinner by ensuring event sponsors and individual donors are stewarded appropriately, promoting attendance, and supporting logistics as needed.
• Oversee continuous process improvement to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of overall fundraising program.
• Ensure that data is managed responsibly, that donor privacy is protected, and that activity and gifts are recorded accurately and efficiently.
• Lead the development services and fundraising teams. Develop staff by providing coaching and support to encourage professional growth.
• Represent the interests of donors to ensure their perspective is known and understood within the organization.
• Be a champion for the mission, goals and programs of Scholarship America both internally and externally.
• Analyze donor trends to support the creation of reliable future revenue growth forecasts.
Accountabilities & Performance Measures:
• Meet overall annual revenue goals for Philanthropy and support growth of major gifts.
• Meet or exceed goals for growth of key metrics including donor acquisition, retention, loyalty, and giving.
• Management and development of operations and fundraising staff.
• Development and implementation of fundraising plan to grow support of current donors and acquisitions of new donors.
Minimum Requirements:
• Proven record of success implementing donor-centered strategies and cultivating sustainable revenue growth over time.
• Familiarity with a range of giving vehicles including annual giving, fundraising events, major, capital and planned gifts, sponsorship and marketing partnerships.
• Highly organized, strong attention to detail in order to produce the highest quality work, including follow up and follow through with process improvement philosophy.
• Able to lead and inspire others.
• Demonstrates genuine interest in people and exhibits superior interpersonal skills while cultivating empathy.
• Work or life experience with diverse communities.
• Able to take risks and challenge the status quo.
• Strong analytical skills: able to interpret and compare data to form meaningful insights.
• Results-oriented, motivated to meet or exceed individual and shared goals by carefully monitoring progress and demonstrating accountability through problem/resolution approach.
• Strong command of the English language, with the ability to communicate both verbally and in writing, including grammar, spelling and punctuation.
• Occasional travel for donor visits (approximately 20-30% of work schedule).
• Five (5) or more years of experience in professional fund raising and team management.
• Bachelor’s degree from accredited college or university.
• Demonstrated commitment to continued personal and professional development.
Preferred Requirements:
• Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) credentials.
• Higher Education industry knowledge.
• Donor database management systems experience.
• Proficient with Excel functionality.
Scholarship America helps students fulfill their college dreams. Since it was founded in 1958, Scholarship America has distributed $4.2 billion to more than 2.5 million students, making it the nation’s largest private scholarship provider. The organization runs its own national and community-based scholarship programs, and works with partners wishing to establish scholarship and support programs to lower barriers to a college education and give students the support needed to succeed.
Named a Top 150 Workplace in Minnesota, Scholarship America has offices in St. Peter & Bloomington, MN plus Washington, D.C. Scholarship America offers employees a robust total rewards package focused on supporting the health and well-being of employees now and in the future. We offer comprehensive choices in areas such as insurance (medical, dental, vision, basic life), disability (short-term & long-term), flexible spending accounts (medical & dependent care), and a 403(b) retirement fund with a 3% company match. Due to our commitment to excellence to support work/life balance, we offer flexible work schedules which vary dependent upon position, paid time away from work (vacation, sick, personal, fifteen designated & floating holidays annually), plus employee & dependent educational reimbursement programs which support our overall mission. We also provide a robust learning and development program for our employees to maintain knowledge of our industry and its practices as well as professional development.
Details on our company values and mission can be found at www.scholarshipamerica.org.
EOE. Veterans/Disabled
Reports to: VP, Development
Department: Development
Application deadline: February 9, 2020
Submit resume and application online: https://workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/default/mdf/recruitment/recruitment.html?cid=4803858b-974e-40a2-8884-98e0a7f94c36&ccId=19000101_000001&jobId=282584&source=CC3&lang=en_US