Director of Development, Campaign Initiatives

Director of Development, Campaign Initiatives

Job Summary

The Director of Development for Campaign Initiatives is a front-line fundraising professional responsible for developing and executing strategies to secure philanthropic support for select campaign priorities, multi-disciplinary projects, and non-college specific initiatives across San José State University. Reporting to the Associate Vice President for Development, the Director will provide strategic direction and vision for key fundraising priorities, develop prospect pipelines, and craft compelling cases for support for a variety of fundraising projects and programs.

Campaign initiatives for which the incumbent will have primary fundraising responsibility include, but are not limited to, the preservation of Tower Hall, Speed City Legacy Track, Artificial Intelligence, and campaign initiatives from the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library.

The role includes identifying, qualifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding individuals capable of making major and principal gifts to the University. In support of these efforts, the Director maintains and strengthens close working relationships with key academic leaders, campus administrators, various stakeholders and University Advancement colleagues to build consensus around complex funding opportunities.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage an assigned portfolio of key prospects and individuals whose capacity and interests align with university-wide strategic initiatives and campaign priorities
• Coordinate with Advancement Research and Prospect Research to proactively build and qualify a robust prospect pipeline
• Develop and execute complex strategies to identify, cultivate, solicit and steward major gift prospects/donors, including joint solicitations on multi-unit projects
• Present and regularly review top prospect strategies with immediate supervisor and other key team members as appropriate
• Work collaboratively with university administrators, academic leadership and other stakeholders to gain counsel and offer expertise on donor-centric cultivation and solicitation strategy
• Work collaboratively with peers across all development units (Major Gifts, Annual Giving, Planned Giving, Corporate & Foundation Relations) and serve as a key horizontal partner on multi-unit projects
• Work with volunteer leadership of university boards, councils and committees to maximize cultivation and solicitation efforts
• Focus on securing funding for designated priorities including but not limited to academic programs, endowed chairs and professorships, scholarships, unrestricted support, facility renovations, new facilities and other specified priorities
• Collaborate with donor relations colleagues with stewardship efforts to promote a culture of gratitude among internal and external constituents
• Develop comprehensive, persuasive proposals for complex, multi-unit funding opportunities, gathering data and buy-in from various campus stakeholder
• Effectively utilize campus data management systems and enter prospect/donor contact reports and their relevant data in a timely fashion
• Participate in staff, functional and strategy meetings including prospect review sessions, and attend conferences, seminars and other development training as feasible and appropriate

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Ability to identify donors and close gifts of six and seven figures
• Ability to navigate the complexity of a large, dynamic university and establish consensus among varied stakeholders to make the appropriate match for donor interests
• Skilled in networking, high-level prospect discovery and opening doors among new donor segments, coupled with the ability to design and implement sophisticated, donor‑centric cultivation and solicitation strategies
• Superior ability to successfully manage multiple, large‑scale projects with evolving priorities on tight deadlines and under pressure in a dynamic, politically complex and open environment
• Exceptional skill in defining problems, gathering and synthesizing complex data, establishing facts and drawing valid conclusions
• Exceptional verbal communication and persuasive writing skills
• High level of initiative, attention to…