Associate Director of Donor Relations

Haverford College invites applications for our available full time, exempt (at least 37.5 hours per week) benefit eligible Associate Director of Donor Relations position. Donor Relations is a comprehensive program that proactively communicates to donors the critical importance of their philanthropy to Haverford and the difference their gifts make in the lives of students, faculty, and staff.

Donor Relations fosters and encourages the nurturing and building of lasting relationships between Haverford College and its supporters. This can be accomplished by acknowledging contributions in a timely, accurate and appropriate manner; recognizing donors in meaningful ways that faithfully adhere to any stated wishes regarding anonymity and other levels of public disclosure, and reporting to donors in a consistent, timely, and accurate manner on the use, impact and management of their financial contributions.

To be effective, stewardship outreach must be tailored to the nature of the gift and the donor's needs and desires, whether the donor is an individual, family, foundation, or corporation. In each case, we identify stewardship elements that will not only inform donors, but also convey the importance and impact of their contribution to Haverford College in as many dimensions as possible. If we are successful, donors will be pleased with their investments in Haverford College, and may also be encouraged to increase those investments in the future. When donor expectations are fulfilled, a strong message is sent to the donor that both the gift and the giver are appreciated.

This position is an integral part of the College's fundraising team, laying the groundwork for much of the day-to-day work done by relationship managers as well as directly with donors.

This position is one half of a two-person, cohesive team within Advancement Services, and is an active partner with the Director in managing donor retention programs, and seeking to streamline processes for efficiency and improvement.

Essential Functions & Primary Responsibilities :

Job areas:

Data Management Related to Donor Relations - Donor Relations is responsible for reporting on hundreds of current and endowed funds when thanking donors, another fundamental underpinning of the overall stewardship program, and a key focus for Donor Relations colleagues. The database of record for Donor Relations is Raiser's Edge and using it makes it possible for the two-person Donor Relations team to easily and effectively manage hundreds of endowed and current funds, access scholarship recipients and reports, as well as work closely with relationship managers. The Data Management work can be organized into the following areas: linking important reports to donor records; globally adding stewardship actions; and updating scholarship recipient and donor records. Skills needed for this work include: experience with customer relationship management databases.

Thanking Donors is the fundamental building block for Donor Relations - one aspect of this is producing daily thank you letters. Thank you letters take approximately an hour to two hours daily to produce. Production involves working with the Gifts and Records team and then formatting and reviewing language, creating pdfs, vetting accuracy with the Director of Donor Relations and the Vice President of Institutional Advancement Executive Assistant and then emailing the pdf thank yous directly to donors. Skills needed for this work include: the ability to learn virtually and through written instructions; excellent proofreading; ability to work independently; demonstrated experiences with Microsoft office including word and excel; ability to review and improve processes over time.

Stewardship Plans - Donor Relations is responsible for creating these highly-custom, donor-specific stewardship touches calendared over a 12-month period and repeated annually as necessary. Currently plans have been developed for donors who have given $250,000 or more over their lifetime. These plans provide a review of the ways in which individuals are thanked, as well as topics that they might be interested in, and helps relationship managers strengthen each individual's relationship with the College. Skills needed for this work include: Ability to listen carefully and actively participate in conversations with colleagues to create tailored plans; ability to ask in-depth questions and to point out potential resources; database skills include ability to select donor information, export it from the database, merge it into a document for review, and file for future use.

Donor Retention Program - There are two aspects to the role that Donor Relations plays in donor retention. One is to partner with Annual Giving colleagues as they work to identify what successful leadership societies are doing and then undertake a subset of those key recommendations. The second area is to serve as project manager to develop our consecutive year society by gathering information on successful societies at other institutions, by putting forth recommendations, and then initiating them with Annual Giving partners. The skills involved include: to understand the importance of donor retention within the larger Institutional Advancement programs; to consistently fulfill the recommendations as outlined for the leadership giving society; and the ability to manage the consecutive giving society stewardship program from inception to completion working closely with others.

Stewardship Impact Reports are sent to hundreds of donors and provide detailed information on gifts and their uses at the College. Reports are sent annually and there are several times a year when Donor Relations is particularly busy with producing and sending these reports. Skills needed: Some reports are produced using “Odder” a vendor that helps create stewardship reports so the ability to learn new software is essential; ability to query and export information from Raiser's Edge and to merge information from a worksheet to a document; attention to detail and excellent proofreading skills. A desire to make this process better over time is also good to have.

Event Support is critical to provide well executed and meaningful events. Events such as receptions, inaugural lectureships for appointed faculty chairs, dedications, and symposiums avail the College the opportunity to thank donors for their generous support. Food for events must be ordered from Catering. Room reservations secured working with the event management system. Invitations designed and produced working with College Communications. Participants must be registered in Raiser's Edge. Event attendance is usually required. Skills needed include: the ability to manage a project from inception to completion on time and within budget; to work closely with others to communicate needs in an organized and timely manner; and to cooperate with various colleagues on campus to create a successful event.

Line of Report : This position reports to the Director of Donor Relations

Education, Training, & Experience :

• Bachelor's degree required
• Demonstrated understanding of, sensitivity to, and respect for the academic, cultural and social diversity in the Haverford Community.
• Demonstrated ability to:
  • build consensus
  • work independently
  • take initiative
  • set priorities for multiple projects to bring to completion
• Previous experience with database management and configuration with a preference for Raiser's Edge and/or Workday
• Adept at working with new software programs (Odder, Thankview)
• A high level of proficiency in advanced Microsoft Office Suite products most notably excel and word including conditional formatting and mail merge
• Solid writer with excellent proofreading skills
• Excellent project management, organization, communication, and interpersonal skills required
• Familiarity with a liberal arts setting, as well as Haverford's mission and priorities is preferred
• Finding meaningful connection through virtual environments with donors and colleagues in Institutional Advancement and campus partners
• Knowledge of fundraising and annual giving preferred

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

To Apply : Interested candidates should complete an application, to include a cover letter, resume, and the names and contact information of three (3) references by visiting https://haverford.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/External/job/Haverford-Campus/Assoc-Director-of-Donor-Relations_R296-1 . The application deadline is Monday, May 17, 2021. Failure to provide the required documents may result in lack of consideration. Haverford College does not sponsor work visas.