Director of Alumni Relations and Initiatives

We are looking for a highly motivated, skilled, and responsible Director of Alumni Relations and Career Opportunity Initiatives to join our team to help us expand opportunities for low-income, first-generation students. The Director is responsible for leading and coordinating COE’s alumni relations and career initiatives, including the development and execution of strategic engagement efforts that provide tangible value to alumni of TRIO college success programs.

In this role, the Director will work closely with internal teams as well as industry partners to design and implement career pathways programming that responds to the unique needs of low-income, first-generation college students and graduates seeking upward economic mobility.

The Director will also advance alumni development efforts by creating meaningful opportunities for alumni to give back to their communities through professional engagement, mentorship, advocacy, and philanthropic support aligned with their current capacities as leaders and donors. Collectively, these efforts will strengthen alumni engagement and dedication to COE’s student programs while reinforcing the TRIO community’s long-term impact on economic mobility.

• Provide vision, leadership, and oversight to the Office of Alumni Relations, the National TRIO Alumni Association (NTAA) and execute the goals of the TRIO Alumni Committee of the COE board of directors.
• Engage alumni in purposeful service to TRIO students, including advocacy, volunteerism and effective networking with peers through consistent and positive communication using electronic, print, and social media, excellent customer relations, and creative events.
• Build deep relationships with member college success program administrators to develop life-long connections with alumni and facilitate their continued engagement and support for COE and TRIO programs.
• Develop and execute plans and activities for alumni affinity groups (professional affiliations, mentoring, civic engagement, special interest, etc.), identify and cultivate volunteer leadership, develop strategies for the success of each group, and support their events and activities.
• Collaborate closely with development colleagues in increasing support from alumni, routinely identify and qualify alumni prospects for gifts; periodic attendance at prospect management meetings; raise funds for select special projects and events in collaboration with development colleagues.
• Identify and launch loyalty programs providing a benefit or service to alumni to cultivate volunteers and generate income for alumni association programming.
• Oversee the alumni achievement award nomination and selection process.
• Manage funds by planning, developing and managing authorized expenditures in the Office of Alumni Relations.
• Develop and manage an effective volunteer management system that supports the objective of engaging alumni in meaningful volunteer opportunities and serving as a source for alumni talent and resources for students, college success faculty, and COE staff.

• Work with technology and research partners to build out a career pathway programming that addresses the unique needs of low-income, first-generation students seeking upward economic mobility by providing targeted, intentional mentoring/coaching and opportunities to acquire and hone skills employers prioritize.
• Work with research partners to curate existing and develop new training guides that embed career readiness mentoring and are aimed at increasing workforce readiness, skills, and access to professional networks.
• Establish talent-sourcing partnerships with college access and success COE member programs.
• Develop and implement student and alumni-focused career development offerings that include webinars, information sessions, social media, and marketing materials.
• Recruit, train, and supervise volunteer mentors who will work with students through individual and group coaching sessions augmented with support from volunteer mentors.
• Establish talent-sourcing partnerships with major national and multi-national employers that will provide paid internship and employment opportunities for students and alumni. Build and maintain the infrastructure to manage employer partnerships.
• Work with research partners to develop evaluation protocols to assess how career opportunity initiatives are effectively reaching their long- and short-term goals and objectives, to evaluate how training and coaching helps students to develop the skills prioritized by employers, and how effectively the initiatives are helping students and alumni to reach their career goals.

• Prepare regular reports to forecast, track, and assess the career opportunity initiatives and alumni relations efforts; use assessment to make improvements.

• Contribute to the overall success of the Council by working on special projects and performing other duties and responsibilities as…