Assistant Director of Donor Relations & Annual Giving

The Assistant Director is the lead on projects for Creighton University's Donor Relations & Annual Giving team and is responsible for the management of multi-channel fundraising campaigns, donor acknowledgement and impact communications, fundraising data reporting, and other key projects toward the goal of securing 10,000+ annual donors. The Assistant Director is directly responsible for raising upwards of $600,000 annually in support of University priorities.

This position ensures donors are recognized for their gifts through timely, accurate, and meaningful gift acknowledgements, and that deadlines and budget requirements are met for all projects within Donor Relations & Annual Giving.

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage and execute the daily, weekly, and monthly donor gift acknowledgment process.
• Monitor reports to identify issues; work with advancement services to resolve problems.
• Serve as primary contact for University Relations and campus partners for gift acknowledgments.
• Define scope, set objectives, create project plans and production schedules, and monitor progress for multiple concurrent projects, particularly multi-channel fundraising campaigns.
• Proactively address risks to project success by closely monitoring progress toward milestones and resource allocation.
• Communicate regular project updates to stakeholders across University Relations.
• Provide recommendations for process improvement with the goals of strengthening fundraising results and improving efficiency.
• Create and maintain the production calendar for Donor Relations and Annual Giving.
• Provide data, automation, and workflow support to the Donors Relations & Annual Giving team. This includes building data requirements, generating, analyzing and preparing reporting, and proofing data sets.
• Collaborate with the Annual Giving and Donor Relations team to plan and execute a comprehensive engagement and communications strategy with the goals of increasing alumni participation and donor retention while contributing to the principal and planned gift pipeline.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree required in sales, communications or related field.
• 3-5 years of experience in annual giving, donor relations, direct marketing, development, fundraising or equivalent experience.
• Experience establishing priorities, exercising initiative, working proactively, and accepting responsibility for meeting deadlines.
• Experience in direct mail marketing preferred.
• Experience working in a CRM or other relational databases such as Advance Web, Salesforce or Raiser's Edge preferred.
• Demonstrated experience in providing excellent customer service.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Able to manage multiple complex projects and competing priorities simultaneously.
• Collaborative and positive with demonstrated experience motivating others and participating in a culture of collective accountability.
• Knowledge of donor relations, fundraising, and/or communications concepts preferred.
• Flexible, critical thinker who uses sound judgement to solve problems and adapt to rapidly changing situations.
• Highly organized, strong attention to detail, and disciplined approach.
• Skill in written and interpersonal communication.
• Proficient software skills in Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.); Office 365.