Director of Annual Giving
At Pacific Lutheran University, we believe that education can change the world.
As an employee of PLU, you will have the opportunity to join a learning community committed to doing, investigating, teaching, creating, and serving. The PLU experience allows students' ambition to bloom into purpose, their abilities to sharpen into tools, and their caring to become a transformative force. We are committed to building and supporting diverse, equitable and inclusive teams, and to creating a workplace that allows members to thrive, including through generous paid time off and flexibility.
The Director of Annual Giving leads, innovates and partners on behalf of a comprehensive annual giving program and team - all in order to catalyze, diversify, grow and get to know, at scale, a community of investors who will collectively fuel positive change through PLU to make the world a better place. With attention to equity-centered practices and ongoing program evolution, the Director will leverage their fundraising and communication knowledge, interpersonal skills, and data-driven insights to set, implement and support strategies and goals across fundraising efforts, teams and audiences; to analyze program performance and audience response; to execute multiple fundraising campaigns annually; and to lead ongoing innovation in broad-based fundraising and donor engagement.
This position will report to the Executive Director of Campaigns and join the Division of University Relations during an exciting time as we reimagine how we catalyze connections that drive collective community impact. The person in this role will help (re)envision broad-based donor engagement looks like at PLU within community-centered, impact-driven fundraising campaigns.
Essential Functions & Responsibilities
- Set, document and implement broad-based fundraising strategies, goals, plans and innovations.
- Manage annual giving staff (currently 2 FTEs) and students to meet program objectives, foster a collaborative team environment, and support individual professional growth.
- Develop and document communication strategies and segmentation plans by audience.
- Design and support the execution of 4-8 multichannel fundraising and engagement campaigns each year.
- Routinely monitor, analyze and report on key program metrics and audience insights, leveraging the database and other research methods.
- Lead PLU's annual giving day, including the planning committee.
- Launch and grow a re-envisioned mid-level donor engagement program.
- Monitor the annual giving budget to ensure expenses align with strategy and performance.
- Develop individual and team partnerships to create supportive networks, opportunities to align strategy, and a culture that appreciates and leverages colleagues' unique strengths and expertise.
- Provide guidance to campus partners related to broad-based fundraising efforts.
- Manage external vendors to support and augment team efforts.
- Cultivate program practices and a team culture that support an equitable and inclusive working and learning environment.
- Stay up-to-date on relevant practices, innovations and tactics, and strategically incorporate them into team, plans and partnerships to improve effectiveness.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
Knowledge, Skills & Abilities
- Understanding of the fundraising cycle and ability to apply it to facilitate positive donor experiences.
- Experience implementing broad-based fundraising strategies and methods.
- Demonstrated ability to set goals, implement plans and achieve fundraising results.
- Demonstrated supervisory and team leadership experience.
- Comfort working with data and data-related systems to build strategy, including for audience segmentation and to evaluate performance.
- Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, and an ability to adapt messages for a range of internal and external audiences.
- Excellent organizational skills, including the ability to manage multiple tasks and projects at the same time with high quality, attention to detail and timeliness.
- Strong interpersonal skills.
- Ability to work and achieve results both independently and collaboratively with others at varying levels of seniority within and outside an organization.
- Self-starter mentality able to identify and solve problems, monitor new trends, innovate and evolve their approach.
- Knowledge of and commitment to practices that support diversity, equity and inclusion.
Required Qualifications
- Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
- Five years of experience in fundraising, donor relations, communications, audience research or a related field. Education may substitute for some experience.
- High school diploma or GED.
- Finalist applicants must satisfactorily complete pre-employment background check and declaration regarding sexual misconduct with references, subject to verification.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience working in higher education.
- Experience designing and managing performance metrics.
- Experience using a database, Raiser's Edge NXT preferred.
- One year or more of experience in staff supervision.
- A four-year college degree.
Working Conditions
Monday-Friday, typically 8 am - 5 pm PST with flexible work arrangements, hybrid or remote work possible. Occasional evening and weekend work may be required.
- Job is performed primarily via a PLU-provided computer or laptop (on-campus, home or other arrangements possible).
- On-campus office work is conducted primarily in an open office environment with noise and other potential distractions.
- Flexible arrangements, hybrid or remote work possible with approval.
Compensation & Benefits
Salary range is $28.85-$30.29 per hour with excellent benefits, including generous PTO, retirement contributions and healthcare contributions. 13 paid holidays, one week of additional summer flex PTO, and the week between Christmas and New Years. Benefit details at www.plu.edu/human-resources/benefits.
Tacoma, Washington, 98447, United States | Hybrid and remote, Flexible arrangements, hybrid or remote work possible with approval., United States