University of Michigan

Associate Director, Stewardship & Communications

Athletics

Working Title

: 

Associate Director, Stewardship & Communications

Posting Number

: 

59755

Job Category

: 

Stewardship

Experience Range

: 

5 to 7 Years

A cover letter is required for consideration for this position and should be attached as the first page of your resume. The cover letter should address your specific interest in the position and outline skills and experience that directly relate to this position.

To apply for this position, please submit your cover letter and resume as one document on the University of Michigan Careers at the U site.

If you are unable to apply via the U-M Jobs site, please submit your cover letter and resume to dev.careers@umich.edu. In the subject line, please type in the Job ID# for which you are applying.

For questions about the U-M application process, please refer to the FAQ page

Position Description

The Associate Director of Stewardship and Communications is responsible for designing, implementing and coordinating an innovative, creative and comprehensive donor relations and stewardship program that appropriately and consistently promotes interaction with and recognition of donors at all levels.

In addition, the position must sustain positive and mutually-rewarding relations between the Athletic Department and its donors; partner with senior administrative leadership and coaches to determine the best strategies for effective stewardship of donors; maintain ongoing and active networking with internal and external constituencies; and advise on the facilitation of recognition events and coordinate various activities.

Characteristic Duties and Responsibilities

- Create, manage and evaluate an information tracking processes for gift receipting, gift acknowledgment, donor recognition, stewardship reporting. and on-going communications and continued cultivation of past and current major donors to enhance their relationship with the athletic department and increase the likelihood of continued contributions.
- Develops and assesses policies and procedures across the department that is essential for a comprehensive donor relations program.
- Working in partnership with the Associate Director for Events, designs, documents, and implements an innovative, systematic and integrated donor relations program that encompasses donor recognition events, endowed programs, and building naming dedications.
- Responsible for devising and using consistent, accurate, and appropriate information-sharing mechanisms for stewarding prospects and donors.
- Proactively supports the stewardship responsibilities of the development staff by assisting them in establishing and coordinating individualized stewardship plans for the department?s top donors.
- Recommends and facilitates on- and off-campus publicity of major gifts and donors with, Athletic Department Communications, University Development and University Communications. Advises on and facilitates the recognition of donors in both print and Web-based publications.
- Oversee the design, development and production of donor and gift information for the Annual Role.
- Responsible for working in collaboration with the major gift officers to create a proposal template/library.
- Work in collaboration with other key athletic department teams on a variety of communications and marketing efforts that impact or overlap with development activities.
- Responsible for creating and implementing an athletic department speakers bureau program that organizes and supports all speaking request for the athletic director and coaches in a thoughtful and systematic way.
- Responsible for creating and implementing a process to manage all autograph requests, that comes into the athletic department in a thoughtful and systematic way.
- Manage the assistant director, and coordinator. This includes providing leadership, setting and evaluating individual goals, developing and sustaining appropriate training, mentoring, and monitoring of primary focus area
- Building a high functioning team, providing staff with clear roles, responsibilities, accountabilities, mentoring, and support to be successful as a team
- Participating in Athletic Development events as appropriate including, but not limited to, home and away football games activities, on and off-campus donor events, and other athletic activities as needed
- Summarizing and reporting on all stewardship activities to athletic department senior leadership
- Developing and managing the budget for the Stewardship and Communications team
- Serving as a member of the Development Leadership Team to promote a culture of growth and learning
- Performing other duties as assigned

Required Qualifications

- A bachelors degree is required with a minimum of three to five years experience, preferably in higher education (or a comparably complex organization), in development, stewardship, advancement services or related field.
- Strong organizational and analytical skills with ability to initiate, analyze, monitor, evaluate and advance strategic plans and programs that support the Athletic Department mission and contribute to the overall goals and objectives of the fundraising program.
- Knowledge and ability to create, execute and/or support, and oversee a comprehensive department wide donor acknowledgement and recognition plan, including working in partnership with the Associate Director of Events on complex and carefully orchestrated cultivation events and programs for the department wide donors. Excellent organizational, interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills are essential.
- The incumbent must be able to generate creative solutions for stewarding donors in order to advance the departments efforts to maintain and strengthen high-quality individual relationships with donors. This requires an ability think strategically about donor engagement.
- Excellent social skills, with large groups as well as with individuals, are required.
- Proven skills and ability to manage multi-phase projects from inception to completion, including the ability to build consensus among team members and balance multiple concurrent priorities. It is necessary for the incumbent to possess the ability to work independently and as part of a team. Being detail oriented, well organized, focused and goal-oriented, with a high level of initiative and energy, is essential, as well as adept at problem solving and using judgment in situations requiring independent initiative and tact
- High-level experience with social networking tools (such as Facebook, Twitter, InCircle, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.). Ability to develop and implement applications within the applications.

Additional Information

Salary commensurate with experience.

Mission Statement

The Office of University Development maximizes private support for the University of Michigan through high-quality collaboration with the development programs of schools, colleges, and units. We also provide fundraising leadership through the stimulation and facilitation of healthy, productive and life-long relationships with our colleagues, alumni, friends, foundations and corporations.

U-M EEO/AA Statement: The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.