Annual Giving Officer, Athletics

Lehigh University

Lehigh University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, disability, gender, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, national or ethnic origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status. Lehigh University provides comprehensive benefits including partner benefits.

Responsible for alumni programming and fundraising for an identified set of sport-specific alumni groups and serves as the primary contact, coordinator and staff representative for assigned sports. The Annual Giving Officer, Athletics position achieves communication, event, career networking, donor participation and dollar goals of the Athletics Partnership in the incumbent's assigned area. The Lehigh community takes seriously our commitment to antiracism and The Principles of our Equitable Community.

1. Serve as the primary architect and implementer for a significant component of the overall Athletics Partnership effort.
*Development of metrics, scorekeeping, analysis, report generation and presentations
*Developing the overarching communications strategy for the Athletics Partnership effort across all mediums
*Redefining and sustaining the effort to expand the number and dollar value of unrestricted annual gifts to the Athletics Partnership fund
*Research the area and determine best practices
*Develop a concept that suits Lehigh; present to the Partnership team and obtain feedback; fine-tune the program and perhaps 'pilot'; develop an implementation plan and drive implementation

2. Develops, coordinates, implements and evaluates programs and projects to promote Alumni Relations in assigned sports.
*Develops and recommends new sport-specific Partnership programs, implementing those that are approved
*Sustains and strengthens existing fundraising and alumni relations programs; recruits new volunteers to enhance alumni boards
*Evaluates programs and establishes metrics and benchmarks for improvement
*Envisions plans and oversees the execution of special events; provides direction to other members of the Athletics Partnership staff in creating, planning and executing special events
*Collaborate with the Director to ensure that the minimum number of events are successfully conducted in accordance with the Athletics Partnership strategy

3. Manages sport-specific volunteer boards
*Develops and implements an efficient volunteer structure for sport-specific Partnership groups
*Develops, renews and sustains existing volunteer boards
*Identifies and recruits new volunteers in assigned sports
*Evaluates alumni relations programs and makes recommendations for improvement
*Plans, coordinates and conduct conference calls and occasional in-person meetings with sport-specific Partnership volunteers
*Provides clear volunteer job descriptions and expectations
*Manages the process of assigning donor prospects to volunteers
*Communicates past history, sport giving potential and current progress with volunteer leadership through direct mail, email, letters, teleconference, etc.

4. Marketing and communications of sport-specific Partnership programs.
*Develops recommendations for marketing and communications in sport-specific Partnership programs, coordinating plans with the overall marketing and communications strategy for the Athletics Partnership; assists or directly executes those plans in concert with other annual gift officers and staff

5. Meets or exceeds donor participation and dollar goals in an assigned group of sports
*Analyzes demographics, giving patterns and history to establish fiscal year goals to define strategies to increase giving
*Collaborates with Leadership Gift Officers (LGO) to plan Athletics Partnership asks for LGO-managed prospects
*Implements segmented communication systems which are donor-centered to target demographic and giving patterns to maximize fundraising results
*Develops and promotes donor recognition initiatives to increase donor retention
*Communicates with sport-specific alumni and other donor prospects through direct mail, email, letters, teleconferences, etc., through writing, editing and approving correspondence
*Responds to positive and negative constituent reaction
*Serves as Athletics Department representative at on- and off-campus events

6. Ensures successful campaigns.
*Defines a solicitation plan that supports/reflects the overall donor participation and dollar goals to encourage increased giving and participation during campaigns
*Organizes and segments non-managed prospects by affinity groups, volunteers preference and other criteria to maximize volunteer efforts and fundraising results
*Develops a schedule of donor and prospect members segmented on the basis of their giving history, giving potential and managed prospect status; coordinates the assignment of asks with the respective assigned leadership or Lehigh Fund Giving Officers, solicitation committee members and Lehigh Liners (student callers)
*Develops a chart of planned asks with help from LGOs for prospects individually identified with their respective ask amounts and the party responsible for managing the ask

Grade: 9 40

Position Number: S89430

Special Considerations

The duties of the position do not allow for a remote work option; the employee in this position will be required to work on campus where they can be fully accessible to the Lehigh community.

This position is funded by soft dollars; there is no severance associated with this position

Qualifications

Bachelor's Degree in related field or equivalent combination of education and experience

Three to five years related work experience

Supervisory experience preferred

Excellent communication, interpersonal skills and a high level of customer service required

Ability to build, foster and maintain positive professional relationships

Excellent organizational skills, time management and sound judgment

Solid analytical, decision making and problem-solving skills, ability to work independently

Excellent computer skills with experience using word processing, spreadsheet, database and presentation software

Successful completion of standard background checks including but not limited to: social security verification, education verification, national criminal background checks, motor vehicle checks, PATCH, FBI fingerprinting, Child Abuse Clearance and credit history based upon the requirements of the position

Because of increasing COVID case counts in the region and new information about the characteristics of the Delta variant, all Lehigh faculty and staff will be required to be fully vaccinated unless they receive an approved medical or religious exemption from the requirement.

Only complete applications will be considered therefore please complete the application in its entirety. Once the posting is removed from the website applications may no longer be allowed to be completed.

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