Assistant Director of Leadership Giving , University Development and Alumni Relations

Assistant Director of Leadership Giving (7547U), University Development and Alumni Relations #88979

At the University of California, Berkeley , we are dedicated to fostering a community where everyone feels welcome and can thrive. Our culture of openness, freedom, and belonging makes it a special place for students, faculty, and staff, who are among the most talented and accomplished anywhere, including Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, and Mac Arthur Fellows. Since our founding in 1868, we have been an engine for innovation - driving intellectual, economic, and social progress that benefits California, the U.S., and beyond.

Together, we change the world.

At Berkeley, the best careers are built on a foundation of continuous learning and growth . We actively support professional development by providing all full-time staff employees with at least 80 hours of paid time per year and provide space for supportive colleague communities via numerous employee resource groups.

University Development and Alumni Relations (UDAR), increases support for and enhances knowledge of UC Berkeley through communications, public outreach, and fundraising. UDAR is responsible for fundraising and donor engagement, and works to strengthen unit development offices by consulting and partnering with campus fundraisers. UDAR also handles a range of central activities and services encompassing events, communications, stewardship, prospect development, gift management, database management, and more.

The Office of Annual Programs within UDAR, is the university’s largest fundraising department and is responsible for engaging thousands of alumni, parents, and students as donors and volunteers each year. The goals of this department are to:
1) increase the number of annual donors,
2) significantly raise the amount of discretionary funds for the Chancellor, the deans and program directors, and
3) identify campaign/major donors for the campus. Programs include the Parent and Family Philanthropy program, Pipeline Development, and Direct Response Marketing. The department is made up of 25+ employees and raises $13-$15 million in private contributions from 40% of campus donors each year.

The Office of Pipeline Development provides philanthropic opportunities for alumni, parents, and friends of UC Berkeley in the $1k- $100k level. Situated within the University Development & Alumni Relations division, and the department of Annual Programs, Pipeline Development solicits leadership gifts from UC Berkeley constituents, manages the digital philanthropy program, pipeline growth program and provides strategic leadership for campus units in scalable qualification and pipeline health.

The Assistant Director of Leadership Giving works with the Pipeline Development team to discover and qualify new leadership gift prospects, solicit new donors, and upgrade existing leadership gift donors to build the pipeline of major gift donors. This position partners with schools/colleges and departments on pipeline activities leveraging existing cultivation opportunities throughout campus. The Assistant Director leverages foundational aspects of existing stewardship programs, The Charter Hill Society & Benjamin Ide Wheeler Society, to cultivate and solicit leadership annual donors.

This role uses skills as a seasoned, experienced fundraising professional, demonstrates good judgment, and independently manages a portfolio of 200+ prospects annually. The Assistant Director coordinates with campus colleagues in a large, decentralized fundraising environment and is expected to raise gift dollar amounts and meet monthly contact targets as established in annual campaign plans and standards of performance.

The First Review Date for this job is:
October 3, 2026. For full consideration, please apply on or before the first review date.

• Manage a portfolio of 175-200+ prospects, mainly top leadership prospects who have the capacity to make four or five-figure gifts or a planned gift.
• Attempt to personally contact all tracked prospects 3-6 times within the fiscal year.
• Work with Pipeline Growth staff to coordinate new prospects through various Discovery Journeys, i.e. giving days, crowdfunding campaigns, LYBUNT prospect populations, etc.
• Collaborate with Development Analysts to analyze reports to establish effective annual solicitation strategies.

Prospect Management - 20%

• Prepare background information and research on prospects to ensure…