Senior Director of University Development, Planned Giving #605656

Job Description

• To be considered, please submit complete applications which include: an NAU application; a cover letter outlining your interest in the position and how past/current experiences match the job requirements; a resume; along with contact information for five (5) professional references.
• This position, based in Phoenix, Arizona, reports to the Associate Vice President, Central Advancement
• This position requires extensive travel, with evening and weekend work included to fulfill all necessary obligations.

Position Overview

Northern Arizona University’s (“NAU”) Office of Advancement | Foundation (“A|F”) builds the institution’s excellence by raising awareness, engaging and strengthening meaningful relationships, and partnering with NAU’s alumni, parents, families, and friends who have the passion and commitment to make an impact at NAU through their estate giving. This is an exceptional opportunity for an experienced, energetic, and knowledgeable professional to serve as the lead planned giving strategist and a key visionary at one of Arizona’s best public universities.

Job Description

The Senior Director of Development, Planned Giving, reports directly to the Associate Vice President (“AVP”) of Central Advancement and is located at NAU’s North Valley Campus in Phoenix, Arizona. This leadership position is responsible for joining, sustaining, and leading in a cohesive A|F team that emphasizes inclusive excellence. The successful candidate will provide innovative resource development that enables NAU to remove barriers for students, enhance exceptional learning experiences and equitable environments at the university’s numerous campuses throughout Arizona, and conduct work and research that addresses meaningful issues that impact people’s lives around the world.

The Office of Planned Giving works collaboratively with all NAU colleges, schools, programs, and other areas to secure alumni and friends’ planned gift commitments including bequests, gifts of retirement assets and/or life insurance through a beneficiary designation, charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder trusts, and charitable lead trusts. A portfolio of donors and prospective donors is managed. This leadership position also acts as a liaison among NAU’s A|F colleagues, university leadership, as well as other members of the campus community and donors/prospective donors. Additionally, this exciting position ensures that NAU is laser-focused on engaging, as well as building meaningful and strategic life-long relationships with alumni, parents, families, and friends who have the dedication and capacity to make a meaningful impact on the university’s future through their passion, engagement, philanthropy, and legacy.

The Planned Giving team is currently comprised of an Assistant Director of Development as well as a student worker; all team members are available to assist A|F staff in identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding NAU’s planned giving prospects and donors. Planned Giving is also charged with partnering directly with (prospective) donors and their professional advisors to create plans that allow the donor to achieve their philanthropic, financial, and estate planning objectives, while also supporting NAU’s and A|F’s respective mission, vision, and values, through exceptional service to both internal and external constituents. NAU is in the silent phase of a comprehensive fundraising campaign.

Primary Responsibilities

Relationship Development and Fundraising (70%)

• Conducts face-to-face and virtual visits with prospective and current donors including strategic visits with donors’ legal and financial advisors. Manages a portfolio of diverse planned gift donors and prospective donors.
• Serves as the point of contact for all NAU and A|F team members, as well as other national institutions regarding estate and gift planning issues, questions, strategies, and national benchmarking best practices.
• Exercises a high level of independent judgment and serves as an experienced professional providing strategies that include highly complex gift discussions and interactions with donors capable of making significant investments to NAU.
• Develops and drives innovative, strategic, proactive, and personalized strategies for a select group of NAU’s most generous and impactful estate giving donors along with academic units and colleagues.
• Promotes successful, positive relations with all individuals. Facilitates and coordinates proactive communications with estate gift prospects and donors among appropriate NAU relationships. Continually identifies high-level philanthropists and formulates strategies to promote positive prospective donor/donor engagement with the university’s highest-priority needs.

Planning, Goal Setting, and Communications & Marketing (20%)

• Creates and manages the Planned Giving office’s goals, annual fundraising and marketing plans, and budget, as well as ensures appropriate alignment with the office’s fiscal-year objectives.
• Supervises the office’s team members and initiates any personnel actions required for the office.
• Provides oversight of the design and development of proposals, planned gift illustrations and agreements, all print and web-based marketing materials, as well as ensures the promotion, management, and stewardship for the 1899 Society, NAU’s estate gift recognition society.
• Designs and meets/exceeds pre-determined goals and objectives established annually with the Associate Vice President of Central Advancement. Performs additional activities as requested by the AVP of Central Advancement.

Management (10%)

• Manages the day-to-day operations of Planned Giving’s fundraising programs.
• Supervises the office’s team members and initiates any personnel actions required for the office.
• Serves as a member of A|F’s Central Advancement Team’s senior leadership team.
• Attends A|F team meetings and conducts regular continuing education presentations.
• Acts as the Office of Planned Giving’s subject matter expert and mentor; may assign work to others and monitor the work’s execution.

Minimum Qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree in relevant field AND
• 5-7 years of experience developing and managing meaningful planned giving relationships with a portfolio of individuals who can be high-level (prospective) planned gift donors AND
• 3-5 years of management experience OR
• A combination of related education, experience, and training may be used as an equivalent to the above Minimum Requirements

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree, Juris Doctor or Law degree.
• Certified Specialist in Gift Planning (“CSGP”) certification.
• Fundraising at a comprehensive research university and/or experience in the estate-planning sector with in-depth experience of planned giving vehicles.
• 8-10 years of experience developing and managing meaningful giving relationships with a portfolio of individuals who can be high-level (prospective) planned gift donors
• Comprehensive campaign experience with gift planning, gift recording, and implementation of best practices.
• Demonstrated experience empowering, supporting, and managing a high-performance AIF and Planned Giving team.
• Ability to think broadly and creatively about strategies to engage and cultivate a defined group of prospective donors to secure planned gifts that meet NAU priorities.

Please see nau.jobs for full job descriptions and details on how to apply online!  NAU is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Institution. Women, minorities, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.