Executive Director for Central Development, Academics - University of Oregon
Eugene, OR
About the Job
Department: University Advancement
Appointment Type and Duration: Regular, Ongoing
Salary: $150,000 - $160,000/year
Compensation Band: OS-OA12-Fiscal Year 2024-2025
FTE: 1.0
Application Review Begins
September 27th, 2024
Special Instructions to Applicants
Please submit the following with your online application:
A cover letter in which you clearly describe how your knowledge, skills, and abilities prepare you for the job responsibilities and requirements outlined in the job announcement.
A resume of your educational and professional work experience.
Please Note: We may contact applicants who meet the minimum requirements in the job posting to request additional information for the next stage of review.
Department Summary
University Advancement (UA) supports the University of Oregon’s (UO) mission of providing exceptional teaching, discovery, and service by strategically positioning the university to create awareness, build long-term relationships, and secure resources that increase understanding and further its aims. The division consists of approximately 150 employees primarily working out of Eugene and Portland. We are committed to fostering equity and inclusion in a welcoming, safe, and respectful environment that recognizes the value of all members of our community.
The Office of Development as part of University Advancement has a mission to maximize philanthropic impact at the University of Oregon. We do this by identifying, connecting, and engaging alumni and friends around the globe with their passions to advance the vision and priorities of the university.
Position Summary
The Executive Director for Central Development, Academics (executive director) works as part of Development to promote university fundraising priorities and image to alumni, parents, and friends of the university. The executive director will be assigned to a specific unit and is responsible for identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of donors and new prospects. This position will concentrate on gifts in the major gift ($100k+) range, focusing on $500k+ and $1m+ gifts, and leading strategy on relevant leadership principal gifts ($5m+).
Reporting to the Associate Vice President for Development (AVP), this position leads institutional development strategy for academic and faculty fundraising that support central priorities, paying particular attention to the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and the University of Oregon Libraries (UO Libraries). The executive director is a strategic partner to academic administrators, to (a) maximize partnership and utilization of central development specialists; (b) managing a team of major gift fundraisers to raise money on behalf of the assigned units; and (c) prospecting and providing donor strategy at the major and leadership gift levels ($1m+) for academic and faculty donor opportunities that serve central priorities.
This position is field-oriented, requiring frequent travel and direct contact with donors and donor prospects. The executive director works collaboratively with colleagues in the assigned unit, Development, and across the university to identify new prospects and strategically cultivate alumni, parents, and friends. The executive director is responsible for developing and deploying a long-term strategy for the unit as well as setting annual fundraising goals for the team as they relate to the strategic needs of the university and the assigned unit, priority, or region. Performance as measured against these goals will be evaluated annually.
Travel within Oregon as well as to cities in other states up to 40% of the time is an essential expectation of this position.
Minimum Requirements
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of skills and experience.
• Ten years of progressively responsible major gift experience, including the successful close of more than one seven figure gift or equivalent gift of significance to an organization.
• Five years of progressively responsible management experience, including the supervision of or technical leadership of frontline fundraisers.
• Three years of experience in higher education leadership, including working directly with academic leaders (deans, vice provosts, etc.).
Professional Competencies
• Working with donors and prospects: Sophistication in prospect identification, cultivation, and solicitation with a demonstrated ability to build strong relationships with donors and prospects. Ability to regularly secure repeat major gifts from a donor, lead discussions on lifetime giving, and serve as an anchor relationship between donors and the campus. Established ability navigating seven-figure asks and complex asset management discussions.
• Portfolio management and systems: Strong ability to strategically populate portfolios in alignment with organizational priorities through identification and stewardship of donors and prospects as well as ability to facilitate and manage key research and donor identification initiatives working with leadership and Prospect Development, and Advancement Analytics and Reporting teams. Ability to identify healthy turnover of portfolio assignments.
• Professionalism and citizenship: Strong leadership skills and executive presence, including the ability to regularly mentor and steward a broader team towards success. Ability to lead task forces and organizational maturation initiatives. Inclination to regularly provide learning opportunities and resources for growing and high-potential team members.
• Institutional navigation and industry knowledge: High level of programmatic and institutional knowledge with the ability to effectively represent the university and articulate how the UO distinguishes itself from peer institutions. Ability to maintain strong partnerships with on- and off-campus partners and established as a respected resource in the industry. Aptitude to serve as a resource for benchmarking best practices and new ideas.
• Management and supervision of employees: Demonstrated ability to manage people and/or programs, including proactively seeking out new opportunities and responsibilities that contribute towards individual team members’ professional growth. Ability to define vision, set metrics, and integrate action plans into the performance review process for all employees, as well as inspire performance and engagement for the team and connect them to strategic direction and overall expectations of the program.
• Volunteer management: Demonstrated ability to manage volunteers and boards, including encouraging volunteer leaders towards ownership and involvement in development priorities. Ability to reform, build, or restructure volunteer bodies while anticipating and accommodating volunteer fatigue. Ability to build effective annual strategy and creative volunteer engagement.
• Academic leadership: Ability to maximize the strengths of academic leadership and serve as an advisor and partner to drive fundraising action items and initiatives. Ability to identify and inspire faculty participation for connecting, soliciting, and stewarding donors.
• Strategic planning: Ability to provide leadership in advancement-wide discussions of new initiatives, capital project planning, strategic staffing, and 3–5-year trends in the industry. Ability to communicate and articulate how individual initiatives, programmatic direction, and overall advancement strategy will shape the university. Leadership in aligning alumni engagement, annual philanthropy, central development, regional development, and units regarding goals, donor strategy, and communication.
• Ability to interact, communicate, and work effectively with individuals, recognizing and respecting the many and varied identities of each person.
• Commitment to promoting and enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Ability to travel.
Preferred Qualifications
• Advanced degree.
• Ten or more years of major gift experience.
• Significant experience in higher education development.
• Demonstrated experience working effectively with volunteer boards.
• Ten years of progressive management experience.
• Principal gift ($5m+) experience.
FLSA Exempt: Yes
All offers of employment are contingent upon successful completion of a background check.
The University of Oregon is proud to offer a robust benefits package to eligible employees, including health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off. For more information about benefits, visit https://hr.uoregon.edu/about-benefits.
The University of Oregon is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the ADA. The University encourages all qualified individuals to apply and does not discriminate on the basis of any protected status, including veteran and disability status. The University is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities. To request an accommodation in connection with the application process, please contact us at uocareers@uoregon.edu or 541-346-5112.
UO prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy (including pregnancy-related conditions), age, physical or mental disability, genetic information (including family medical history), ancestry, familial status, citizenship, service in the uniformed services (as defined in federal and state law), veteran status, expunged juvenile record, and/or the use of leave protected by state or federal law in all programs, activities and employment practices as required by Title IX, other applicable laws, and policies. Retaliation is prohibited by UO policy. Questions may be referred to the Office of Investigations and Civil Rights Compliance. Contact information, related policies, and complaint procedures are listed here.
In compliance with federal law, the University of Oregon prepares an annual report on campus security and fire safety programs and services. The Annual Campus Security and Fire Safety Report is available online at https://clery.uoregon.edu/annual-campus-security-and-fire-safety-report.