Associate Director, Donor Relations and Stewardship

Position Summary

Reporting to the Senior Director, Development Operations and Alumni Engagement at Columbia Engineering the Associate Director for Donor Relations and Stewardship is responsible for leading a portfolio of donor relations and stewardship efforts for Engineering Development and Alumni Relations, including reporting, communications programs, giving societies, and events.

Responsibilities

• (65%) Lead a portfolio of Stewardship Programs, including writing and developing creative content, distribution of annual reporting, managing mass mailings, maintaining a stewardship tracking system, and managing occasional event planning.
• Lead regular donor acknowledgment programs across digital and physical platforms. Provide strategic input on best practices for acknowledging donors. Produce and distribute annual reporting on 200+ funds
• Coordinate the annual scholarship matching process in collaboration with the Office of Financial Aid. Ensure timely awarding of all scholarships. Coordinate with Department and Finance colleagues on annual fellowship awards. Ensure timely collection of all fellowship information.
• Coordinate with Department and Finance colleagues on annual internship awards. Ensure timely collection of all internship recipient information. Manage the planning of the annual Columbia Engineering Scholarship event and the annual Columbia Engineering Fellowship event partnering with the Alumni Relations team on the execution of these events.
• Collaborate closely with gift officers on the strategic planning and execution of communications, programming and events for donor recognition societies, including the Archimedes Society and Dean’s Leadership Society. This includes the annual Archimedes Society Dinner and Lecture. Collaborate on individual donor stewardship projects as the need arises. Maintain records of donor touchpoints in a timely manner.
• (15%) Support Development Communications Programs
• Support development communications initiatives for the Engineering Development and Alumni Relations team in partnership with senior leadership. Examples include campaign marketing and solicitation materials, or strategic outreach to donors in connection with milestone events throughout the year. e.g. board meetings, alumni weekend, homecoming, special events, etc.
• May occasionally collaborate with senior gift officers to write proposals for key fundraising priorities at Columbia Engineering. Support the internal approval process to establish new professorships partnering with SEAS Finance, HR and relevant fundraisers.
• May occasionally provide support for reports and individual communication to donors for specific major gifts, such as school-wide awards and prizes, stewardship reports on unique endowed gifts, and principal gifts where special reporting is required.
• (10%) Support Engineering faculty-sourced gifts
• Support the Donor Relations and Stewardship team’s work with department administrators and faculty engaged in the gifts process, including drafting gift agreements; coordinating internal review processes and in some cases, facilitating gift agreement negotiations between donors and Gift Strategy; working with colleagues within departments, Finance, and other relevant teams to ensure gifts are set-up, received, and processed as needed; providing regular updates and education on development processes and serving as a general resource for development questions from department assistants and faculty.
• (5%) Represent EDAR at appropriate University-wide donor relations, stewardship, and development communications planning and benchmarking meetings. Ensure that all development and alumni relations officers are apprised of best practices in donor relations and stewardship activity.
• Work closely and collaboratively with other members of the Donor Relations and Stewardship team to ensure team-wide knowledge of stewardship and donor relations programs. May directly supervise part-time student workers who assist with donor relations, stewardship, and development communications work.
• (5%) Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• A bachelors’ degree and a minimum of 3-5 years related experience is required.
• Exceptionally strong written communication skills, preferably with a demonstrated track record of strategic donor communications experience in the university or non-profit sectors. Effective project management skills and the ability to manage multiple project streams simultaneously. Strong verbal communication skills, editing and proofreading proficiency are required, as well as the proven ability to work independently.
• Excellent interpersonal and diplomatic skills are essential. Experience working with academic departments is preferred.
• Knowledge of fundraising and alumni relations processes, especially in the area of major gifts cultivation, is preferred. Experience with design programs such as Adobe or Canva is helpful but not required. Experience partnering laterally across teams in a major, complex organization like Columbia University is preferred.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.