Associate Vice President For Advancement At University Of Puget Sound

Elevate your career as the Associate Vice President for Advancement at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington! Lead dynamic engagement and volunteer management initiatives that unite alumni, parents, and friends with the essence of their university. As a central figure in the Greater, We Ascend Campaign, your strategic vision will sculpt the trajectory of their fundraising endeavors, propelling impactful annual giving, alumni relations, and parent engagement activities. This individual will lead with unparalleled energy, creativity, and visionary leadership as they embark on this exciting opportunity.

Join University of Puget Sound in inspiring lasting connections and driving transformative change within their vibrant university community.

Another Source’s client, University of Puget Sound, is recruiting an Associate Vice President for Advancementto join their team onsite in Tacoma, Washington. Your passion and leadership will be instrumental in cultivating meaningful connections and igniting inspiration among alumni, parents, and esteemed friends of the university. (This position is internally titled: Associate Vice President for Constituent Relations)

Here’s a little about University of Puget Sound and the position they are recruiting for:  

Located in a vibrant port city in the Pacific Northwest, Puget Sound is a leading national liberal arts and sciences university preparing students for success since 1888. In an ever-evolving world, we believe that the best preparation for the future is an education that exposes you to multiple perspectives, engages you in work that makes a difference in the world, and helps you discover who you are and what you have to offer. It’s an education that transcends boundaries, teaches you to adapt to changing circumstances, and prepare for careers that might not yet exist. 

Our beautiful 97-acre campus supports connections with the world it serves, from the tide flats and urban energy of the entrepreneurial city of Tacoma, Washington to nearby Seattle, the Pacific Rim and beyond. A Puget Sound education is rooted in an inspiring confluence of histories and cultures and ideas and centered on 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students who are open-minded, outward-reaching, and actively put their educations to work. 

Learn more about the University of Puget Sound here:  

https://www.pugetsound.edu/about-puget-sound-0  

To learn more about Greater, We Ascend Campaign, please visit: https://www.pugetsound.edu/greater-we-ascend  

The anticipated annual base salary range for this position is $125,000- 150,000.  

What you will be doing:   

As a member of the Division of University Relations at University of Puget Sound, this position serves as the lead strategist and sponsor for large- and small-scale engagement, at all levels, within the institution's external and internal constituencies. By way of the three reporting offices–the Offices of Alumni and Parent Relations, Annual Giving, and University Relations Information Systems–the Associate Vice President creates strategies, systems, and opportunities that ensure all constituents are engaged broadly, solicited en masse for university funding priorities, deliberately cultivated, and ultimately brought closer to the institution and in alignment with the division’s and university’s strategic and fundraising goals.  This position directly supports the university’s capital campaigns, the ongoing fundraising efforts of collaborating offices and manages their own portfolio of major gift donors. 

In addition to reporting offices and divisional partners, the Associate Vice President works closely with leaders and colleagues in enrollment, student affairs, academic affairs, general counsel, risk management, finance, administration, and virtually all members of the university community to ensure that Puget Sound’s various engagement efforts provide quality and impactful experiences for constituents and to sustain a university-wide culture of engagement and philanthropy that begins with the student experience and continues through life.  The position reports to the Vice President for University Relations. 

How you will be spending your time: 

Design and Implement Overarching Strategies for Constituent Relations 

• Create, implement, and manage engagement opportunities for university constituents that are proactive in addressing needs and reactive in addressing trends; low-barrier for mass use and high-return for specific impact; aligned with university fundraising priorities; and, reflective of Logger culture. 
• Serve as a collaborative divisional leader in conjunction with Associate Vice President for University Relations and Associate Vice President for Marketing and Communications to advance the fundraising and engagement goals for the university. 
• Partner closely with Associate Vice President and Director of Corporate and Foundations Relations to ensure all constituent engagement opportunities are created with an understanding of divisional need and resources. 
• Foster a culture of engagement and philanthropy across university departments and among university constituents. 
• Serve as a Puget Sound advocate with local leaders, business and corporate partners, seeking to build relationships across the university and community.  
• Identify, cultivate, and solicit philanthropic support by developing and maintaining relationships with individuals, including alumni, parents, and other key constituents. 

Manage Engagement at Key Levels 

• Assist the Vice President for University Relations in the setting of goals and meeting agendas, as well as development of meeting content, for the division’s standing committee of the Board of Trustees (Development and Alumni Relations Committee). 
• Ensure the division’s engagement strategies provide a connected pipeline to the Board of Trustees Committee on Trusteeship and are shaped in a manner that accounts for the committee’s goals. 
• Design, implement and manage an Advisory Board structure. 
• Oversee management of broad-based volunteer structures, like the Alumni Council Executive Committee and the Alumni Council. 

Fundraising Duties and Campaign Support 

• Partner in the cultivation of major donors by providing targeted engagement strategies that support strong, and efficient, fundraising outcomes. 
• Support the Associate Vice President for University Relations in their oversight of capital campaigns while managing the Office of Annual Giving, the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations, and the Office of University Relations Information Systems in successfully achieving their fundraising and programmatic goals within the capital campaign construct. 
• Manage individual portfolio of major gift prospects and donors while overseeing reporting contact officers in the management of their assigned prospects. 
• Collaborate in developing divisional strategy for portfolio assignment and moves-management of major gift prospects and donors.         

Supervision of Individual Offices 

• Lead and inspire the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations, Office of Annual Giving, and Office of University Relations Information Services teams to do their best work in support of the university and the strategic plan and to achieve the respective goals of their own offices. 
• Ensure that performance objectives are clearly identified, communicated and evaluated through regular observation and discussion with staff. Work with staff to establish annual plans and goals, and ensure accountability related to goal attainment.  
• Create or cultivate opportunities for growth and development of all team members, including formal and informal professional development. 
• Foster the development and maintenance of an inclusive and collaborative culture in the work units supervised, in support of divisional and institutional goals related to the work environment and culture. 
• Provide strategic oversight and management of the following budgets: alumni and parent relations, annual giving, and information services. 

Oversee the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations  
 

• Supervise the Director of Alumni and Parent Relations as they direct and manage the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations and its engagement of alumni in meaningful volunteer opportunities, programming and events, and other initiatives. 
• Coordinate with the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations team to manage and direct all aspects of the office’s volunteer corps, including the establishment and attainment of annual volunteer recruitment goals, volunteer training, and volunteer evaluation. 
• Join the Director of Alumni and Parent Relations and the Alumni Council in their work with campus partners in the Office of Admission, Office of Annual Giving, Athletics, Career and Employment Services, and Student Affairs to earnestly engage current and potential students in the alumni experience.  
• Foster a culture where the work of the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations and the team itself are deeply ingrained in the donor pipeline and understand their direct role in achieving successful donor outcomes. 

Oversee the Office of Annual Giving 

• Supervise the Director of Annual Giving as they direct and manage the Office of Annual Giving in the attainment of annual fundraising and donor goals. 
• Coordinate with the annual giving team to manage and direct all aspects of the Office of Annual Giving’s volunteer corps, including the establishment and attainment of annual volunteer recruitment goals, volunteer training, and volunteer evaluation. 
• Ensure successful and strategic solicitation and stewardship of the President’s Leadership Society and other leadership-level annual donors. 
• Inspire annual giving team to conduct fundraising programs that are both broad-based in nature and tailored to diverse segments of constituents. 
• Oversee the Office of University Relations Information Systems 
• Lead the Director of Information Services as they develop and continuously refine the university’s pipeline of alumni, parents, and friends.  
• Coordinate with Director of Information Services to establish, maintain, and improve division-wide technology solutions that advance the university’s constituent engagement and fundraising efforts. 
• Oversee the management of report creation and system analytics that increase the efficiency of division operations and the quality of experience for external constituents.  
• Support the oversight of effective and efficient gift processing and data entry and management related to giving. 

What you will bring: 

• An earned baccalaureate degree from a four-year college or university.  
• Five to seven years of experience in alumni engagement or external relations.  
• Demonstrated skills in an institutional/educational environment utilizing a customer-oriented and service-centered attitude.  
• Experience managing others, especially managing relationship managers and volunteers.  
• Experience with customer relationship management donor records database system. 
• Seven to ten years of alumni engagement / constituent relations experience at a higher education institution is preferred. 

What’s in it for you:   

University of Puget Sound offers a comprehensive compensation and benefit package.  

Learn more about their benefits: https://www.pugetsound.edu/sites/default/files/file/final_summary-of-2020-benefits-for-exempt-staff_ju_0.pdf