Assistant Vice President of Development

Primary Purpose

 The Assistant Vice President of Development (AVP) is a highly visible role dedicated to the service area of greater Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. The AVP will report to the Senior Vice President for External Affairs (SVP) and collaborate with the SVP to ensure strategies are effectively implemented. The AVP’s primary purpose is to obtain financial, community, alumni, and public support for the California Campus and ensure strategies are effectively implemented for the benefit of Western University of Health Sciences (WesternU). Responsibilities extend to all areas of fundraising and capital campaign development and alumni relations. Duties also include, but are not limited to, identifying, qualifying, cultivating, soliciting, and securing potential donors. This includes organizing and providing effective communication to donors and potential donors stewarding patrons and other individual prospects. This role will also supervise all fundraising efforts of the Directors of Development (DoDs) for California Campus.

Essential Job Duties:

 25% - Prospect Strategy and Management

Serves as a cultivation and solicitation partner for the President, Trustees, and the Senior Vice President for External Affairs. Leads planning processes for fundraising initiatives. Develops and proactively manages fundraising strategies in collaboration with the DoDs, deans and other campus leaders focused on philanthropy. Works with leadership to formalize strategies and annual plans for achieving the capital campaign and individual giving goals. Collaborates with the SVP and leadership team members, to review and analyze the ongoing effectiveness of fundraising programs and staff. Maintains a consistent presence with individuals and community-based organizations and represents WesternU, California campus at various community events, activities, and professional organizations, as requested. Participates in development team meetings and actively collaborates with colleagues.  

20% - Prospect Portfolio Management

In collaboration with the SVP for External Affairs, develops a portfolio of major and principal gift prospects, establishes performance metrics, and implements activity to increase philanthropic support from alumni and friends for prioritized fundraising goals. Manages a portfolio of prospective and current donors with an individual fundraising goal per year.

20% - Staff Management

Provides leadership and guidance to maximize staff productivity and increase fundraising results.

Supervises and leads the DoDs for the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific, College of Health Sciences, College of Pharmacy, College of Graduate Nursing, College of Veterinary Medicine, College of Dental Medicine, College of Optometry and College of Podiatric Medicine – California campus, to aim at enhancing transparency, sharing ideas, and building a collaborative spirit. Leads the DoDs to promote awareness, enhance relationships and generates support for WesternU. Develops a culture of goal achievement and accountability through annual action plans and performance metrics, monitoring and tracking performance progress, regularly reviewing portfolio management and activity, and supporting professional development opportunities. Provide guidance in the areas of Annual Giving and Alumni Relations by leading the teams towards creating operating plans that are proactive, comprehensive and donor-centric. Maintains adherence to moves management tracking to ensure the DoDs fundraising efforts are successful.

 20% - Reporting & Prospect Research

Provides leadership and guidance to Advancement Information Services (AIS) and Prospect Research. Collaborates with AIS to support all reporting requests from the SVP for External Affairs. Coordinates the donor research function to align more with the needs of the DoDs in addition to that of the President and SVP for External Affairs. Advises on advancement policies and procedures, especially those related to direct fundraising.

 15% - Planned Giving & Other

Develops a planned giving marketing program to deliver relevant content to prospective planned giving audiences. Trains front-line development staff on how to talk about planned giving options with prospective donors. Consults with planned giving donors on the appropriate giving vehicles for individual situations. Other duties as assigned.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Individual must possess the knowledge, as well as the following skills and abilities or be able to perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodation, using some other combination of skills and abilities.

• Proven success in closing major gifts
• Knowledge of current trends and best practices in fundraising, including understanding of the donor cycle, benchmarking, and metrics
• Supervisory experience at a management level
• Experience with CRM systems, such as Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT
• Excellent leadership, coaching, mentoring, team building and decision-making skills.
• Excellent communication skills: reflective listening, writing, verbal and relationship building; ability to thoughtfully consider the perspective of constituents and colleagues; demonstrated presentation skills
• Proven ability to think creatively and strategically to successfully work with donors, volunteers, staff and campus colleagues
• Ability to multi-task, prioritizing multiple deadlines and tight time constraints
• Detail-oriented with excellent analytical skills
• Able to travel and occasionally work evenings and weekends.

 Required Qualifications

 Education:           Bachelor’s degree

Experience:         8 years of direct development/major gift or related experience, 3 years of leadership experience, including staff supervision, coaching and/or mentoring; sales/fundraising management; and/or program/department management experience, 3 years of experience planning, launching, and implementing fundraising efforts in support of specific initiatives or overall strategic objectives