Associate Director of Gift Planning

Associate Director of Gift Planning

Employment Type:

Full-time, 35 hours per week

Salary Range: $90,000 - $100,000

The Associate Director of Gift Planning is a frontline fundraising professional responsible for cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding planned and blended gifts that support The College of New Jersey’s philanthropic priorities. Reporting to the Senior Director of Gift Planning, the Associate Director leads the continued growth and success of the College’s gift planning program.

• Manage a portfolio of approximately 100 planned giving prospects and donors, executing strategies to cultivate, solicit, and steward legacy commitments.
• Conduct roughly 100 donor visits annually to advance prospects through the pipeline and achieve annual goals, including $1.5 M in solicitations and $500,000 in planned and blended gift commitments focused on gifts of $25,000 or more.
• Serve as a resource to donors and colleagues on charitable gift planning strategies, including bequests, beneficiary designations, and life‑income vehicles; assist in structuring planned and blended gifts through illustrations, proposals, and documentation.
• Support the growth and stewardship of the College’s planned giving recognition society through donor engagement, communications, and membership welcome activities, and implement strategies to expand the planned giving pipeline and increase society membership by adding approximately 10 new members annually.
• Partner with frontline fundraisers and advancement colleagues to identify and pursue planned gift opportunities through joint visits, strategy discussions, and training.
• Maintain accurate records of donor interactions, planned gift commitments, and prospect activity in the advancement database; collaborate with advancement services to track prospects, evaluate donor trends, and prioritize leads; assist in refining workflows related to planned giving inquiries, pipeline movement, and reporting.

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• 4‑7 years of experience in higher education advancement or nonprofit fundraising.
• Familiarity with charitable gift planning vehicles such as bequests, beneficiary designations, charitable gift annuities, or other life‑income gifts.
• Experience with donor databases and advancement systems (e.g., Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT) and using donor data to inform prospect identification and pipeline development.
• Exposure to planned giving tools or resources such as gift illustration software (e.g., PGCalc) or similar platforms.
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with demonstrated success in relationship‑building, donor engagement, and ability to work effectively with alumni, parents, professional advisors, faculty, staff, and senior leadership.
• Strong strategic thinking and problem‑solving abilities, sound judgment, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to navigate complex or sensitive conversations with tact, diplomacy, and emotional intelligence.
• Highly organized with strong project management skills, including managing multiple priorities, meeting deadlines, and maintaining exceptional attention to detail in reviewing technical materials such as gift illustrations, proposals, and agreements.
• Ability to learn and apply charitable gift planning concepts and interest in developing deeper expertise in philanthropic planning strategies.
• Professionalism and discretion, including handling sensitive and confidential information, and willingness to travel for donor visits, alumni events, and advancement activities as needed.

Persons with disabilities may request reasonable accommodations to perform the essential functions of the position. If the requested accommodations cannot be provided without undue hardship, the applicant may not be eligible for the position.

Employment at The College of New Jersey is contingent upon successful completion of an applicable background check, reference checks, and verification of identity and authorization to work in the United States (Form I‑9).

• Comprehensive benefit plans covering medical, dental, and prescription plans.
• Generous leave…