Duke University:

Duke University was created in 1924 through an indenture of trust by James Buchanan Duke. Today, Duke is regarded as one of America’s leading research universities. Located in Durham, North Carolina, Duke is positioned in the heart of the Research Triangle, which is ranked annually as one of the best places in the country to work and live. Duke has more than 15,000 students who study and conduct research in its 10 undergraduate, graduate and professional schools. With about 40,000 employees, Duke is the third largest private employer in North Carolina, and it now has international programs in more than 150 countries.

The Executive Director, Annual Giving and Communications (level 16) provides strategic direction, vision and leadership for the annual giving, donor relations, and communications functions at The Fuqua School of Business. The Executive Director manages a team of direct and indirect reports and reports to the Associate Dean, Development and Alumni Relations. The Executive Director collaborates with colleagues across Fuqua and Duke to ensure that alumni and donors are engaged in the life of the school and know the impact of their philanthropic support.

Job Duties

Leadership and Management (40%)

• Provide leadership and strategic vision for Fuqua’s:
  • Annual Giving program that deploys a variety of initiatives to increase unrestricted annual support for Fuqua among alumni, parents, faculty, and staff, focusing on increased leadership giving and alumni participation in the Fuqua Annual Fund.
  • Development and Alumni Relations communications, including annual fund solicitations, proposals, donor relations and stewardship, alumni relations initiatives, and events.
  • Stewardship and donor relations initiatives, including giving societies, gift acknowledgements, donor recognition, endowment management and reporting, and events.
• Serve as a member of the Development and Alumni Relations leadership team that advises the Associate Dean on strategic and administrative matters.
• Provide guidance and direction for the budget for annual giving, communications, and donor relations activities, monitoring expenditures, seeking operating efficiencies throughout the year, and targeting effective spend of departmental dollars.
• Develop staff members, including providing professional coaching and advocating for resources for continuous learning.
• Serve on University committees and participate in business school consortiums pertaining to annual giving and donor relations.
• Communicate and benchmark with staff in similar roles at peer institutions to learn about their development and alumni relations program successes and best practices.
• Attend cross-functional meetings in place of the Associate Dean as needed at Fuqua and within the Duke development community.

Annual Giving (20%)

• Provide strategy and leadership for Fuqua’s Annual Fund program, including goal setting, messaging, audience identification and segmentation, and solicitation strategy.
• Lead the personal solicitation process for leadership donors to Fuqua’s Annual Fund, including Board of Visitors and other volunteer board members, assigning donors and prospects to frontline fundraisers, reviewing solicitation activity, and tracking progress on an ongoing basis.
• Partner with Duke Annual Fund to inform strategy and messaging around soliciting Fuqua’s alumni of various programs, outlining important themes and messaging that resonates with a unique business school audience.
• Identify opportunities for targeted solicitations to specialized segments of the Fuqua community, and oversee development of communication strategy and audience identification to maximize impact of outreach.

Communications (20%)

• Create and oversee execution of communications plan for 28,000 alumni and 6,000 donors, including audience identification, segmentation, content, and timeline of delivery of Fuqua’s development and alumni relations messaging.
• Oversee a multi-channel approach to Fuqua’s communications, incorporating print mail, electronic communication, web, and social media platforms, creating mutually reinforcing messaging that is appropriate and effective in each channel.
• Establish and maintain consistent messaging in Fuqua’s case for philanthropic support with a focus on endowed support for merit scholarships, professorships, faculty research, student programs, and physical spaces at Fuqua.
• Create endowment proposals and campaign materials, partnering with gift officers, faculty, and other Duke colleagues as necessary.
• Work with Duke Alumni Engagement and Development to ensure that communications distributed to Duke alumni widely are appropriate for and resonate with the Fuqua alumni audience.

Donor Relations (20%)

• Oversee a comprehensive stewardship plan for 6,000 donors, from small Annual Fund gifts to multi-million-dollar commitments, including communications, events, small-group meetings, and personal interactions with the Dean, faculty, and staff.
• Oversee Fuqua’s gift acknowledgement process for gifts, pledges and pledge payments, maintaining a matrix of communication types and authors for various types and levels of gifts and ensuring that donors are thanked in a timely and appropriate manner for each gift received.
• Manage stewardship programming for Fuqua’s giving societies, including recognition on donor walls and honor rolls, special events, communications, interactions with the Dean and faculty, and welcome activities for new members.
• Manage the Keller Society Leadership Circle to engage Fuqua leadership donors in advising on and creating content for targeted leadership solicitations, and serving as exemplars and influencers in the community to build Fuqua’s leadership donor base.
• In partnership with Fuqua’s administration and University Donor Relations, oversee the usage of 300 endowed funds annually, ensuring that endowment restrictions are honored, funds are used appropriately, and donors are informed of the impact that their gifts are making on an ongoing basis.

Qualifications

• Superior communication and relationship management skills.
• Exceptional strategic thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills.
• The ability to develop and sustain a high-performing team.
• Five to seven years’ experience successfully managing multiple direct and indirect reports, including performance management.
• Creativity and stamina to drive dynamic results.
• Decisiveness, self-confidence, a strong sense of purpose, a tolerance for ambiguity, and a sense of humor.
• Experience and comfort in interacting with senior level executives.
• Strong work ethic in a fast-paced, results-oriented team environment.
• A commitment to and passion for the issues and values of a business school education in a research university setting.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, sound judgment, and experience handling confidential information.
• Demonstrated successful experience in marketing, communications, or public relations.
• Excellent writing and editing skills. Ability to differentiate audiences and create targeted, audience-specific messaging using the appropriate vehicle.
• Knowledge of The Fuqua School of Business and/or Duke University preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree required; graduate degree preferred.

Note: The above job description is not to be construed as a complete listing of assignments that may be given to any employee, nor are such assignments restricted to those precisely listed in this description.

Duke is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status.

Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.

Essential Physical Job Functions: Certain jobs at Duke University and Duke University Health System may include essentialjob functions that require specific physical and/or mental abilities. Additional information and provision for requests for reasonable accommodation will be provided by each hiring department.