Assistant Director Of Stewardship, Athletics

The Rutgers University Foundation (RUF) seeks a collaborative professional to serve as its next Assistant Director of Stewardship for Athletics. The Assistant Director of Stewardship for Athletics plays a crucial role in developing and executing comprehensive stewardship strategies to enhance stewardship policies, implement creative touchpoints, and foster meaningful connections with our athletic donors. This position will be a direct liaison to several assigned departments across athletics and the Foundation, and assist with policy and procedure implementation for the R Fund team. This role involves collaborating with cross-functional teams to optimize engagement metrics and achieve organizational goals.   

Essential Functions

• Oversee the athletic scholarship program including reporting, assignments, and donor communication. 
• Identify new and enhanced areas to steward athletic donors in order to retain, and move them to their next gift
• Plan and execute stewardship efforts for athletic giving societies including Scarlet Society, travel funds, and more
• Plan and execute the annual athletics student-athlete thank-a-thon
• Collaborate with senior directors to create and execute stewardship strategies for the following areas
• Personalized stewardship for major and principal gift donors
• Post-season stewardship and experiences (Big Ten/NCAA/Bowl Games)
• Capital stewardship (naming opportunities, experiences, etc.)
• Assist in the education and allocation of R Fund membership benefits
• Manage an athletics stewardship pool providing meaningful touchpoints and connection to athletic donors
• Assist in athletic gameday and event operations 
• Provide excellent customer service including athletic emails and inbound calls 

Skills and Abilities 

Consistency 

• Execute, devise and implement an increasingly complex project portfolio
• Meet and exceed the team’s defined roles and responsibilities within the department/project/program
• Successfully execute, devise and implement increasingly complex constituent/stakeholder strategies  

Contributions 

• Set the operational goals of the department/project/program
• Sustain strong working relationships with internal and external partners
• Advance the mission of the department/Rutgers through innovative ideas
• Demonstrate an ability to create increasingly complex constituent/stakeholder strategies and work collaboratively across the organization
• Recruit and effectively manage volunteers 

Competencies 

• Demonstrate the ability to operate autonomously
• Demonstrate the ability to manage projects, sub-unit(s) or a team
• Demonstrate the ability to work on projects across the university
• Demonstrate the ability to oversee university leadership directives 

 Leadership 

• Own complex projects with senior leadership support (leadership coaches and removes roadblocks)
• Set clear direction for a project
• Provide feedback, develop staff, and colleagues
• Set clear direction for a project or sub-team of colleagues; provide feedback and develop staff 

Education/ Qualifications 

Bachelor’s degree required, and 3+ years of professional development and/or fundraising/advancement experience, preferably in higher education, project/change management, and/or non-profit experience. Preference will be given to candidates with experience in higher education/athletics advancement. 

Mental Demands 

Clarity of focus while juggling complex projects or deadlines. 

Workplace Arrangements 

This is classified as an office-centric hybrid position. Colleagues working under an office-centric hybrid arrangement have a primary workstation in a university or foundation location and are in the office between one and five days a week. The frequency with which they are present in the office depends on their role and function and the interdependency of other functions. As a leadership position, there is a need to be in the office often to facilitate personal interaction – likely 3 or more days per week. 

Working Conditions 

This position requires little physical effort. Will work evenings, weekends, or odd hours to meet resource-raising commitments. Typical working conditions with an absence of disagreeable elements. This position requires some early mornings and late evenings to accommodate meetings, travel, events, and external constituent’s schedules. 

Benefits 

• Office-centric hybrid work schedule
• Comprehensive medical
• Comprehensive no cost dental, and no cost vision insurance for employee and dependents
• 403(b) plan with matching employer contribution
• Accrual of three weeks of annual vacation time, in addition to five wellness days each year 
• Nine holidays, as well as four flex days
• Parental leave
• Significant tuition reductions
• Professional development is highly valued at the Rutgers University Foundation, where employees are encouraged to look across the organization to develop new skills and abilities for professional career progression
• $40 monthly cell phone reimbursement 

Equal Employment Opportunity 

It is Foundation policy to provide equal employment opportunity to all its employees and applicants for employment regardless of their race, creed, color, national origin, age, ancestry, nationality, marital or domestic partnership or civil union status, sex, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, disability status, liability for military service, protected veteran status, affectional or sexual orientation, atypical cellular or blood trait, genetic information (including the refusal to submit to genetic testing), or any other category protected by law. As an institution, we value diversity of background and opinion, and prohibit discrimination or harassment based on any legally protected class in the areas of hiring, recruitment, promotion, transfer, demotion, training, compensation, pay, fringe benefits, layoff, termination or any other terms and conditions of employment. 

COVID-19 

Under Presidential Executive Order 14042, Executive Order on Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors, employees must be fully vaccinated prior to beginning employment with the Rutgers University Foundation. The Foundation will consider requests for exemptions from the executive order’s vaccination requirement for medical or religious reasons. However, if you are not granted an exemption for a medical