Assistant Director-Donor Engagement, Marketing, Communications & Stewardship, Duke Alumni Engagement & Development (AED)

Occupational Summary 

Duke Alumni Engagement and Development (AED) seeks to hire an assistant director to drive engagement and loyalty for Duke’s top donors. The assistant director will manage dynamic communications and robust recognition activities that contribute to the university’s reputation for excellence and align with fundraising priorities and goals. The successful candidate will have a strong background in building successful loyalty programs, creating memorable customer or donor experiences, and maintaining relationships.

This position reports to the executive director of stewardship and serves as one of the members of the executive director’s leadership team. This position requires the ability to work occasional evenings and weekends for events and programs.

Job Responsibilities

Recognition and Loyalty Programming

Develop and implement strategies to increase donor loyalty and retention, including recognition programs for leadership donors across Duke.

Manage the day-to-day activities associated with the overall success and growth of our top donor recognition and retention programs.

Collaborate with Principal Gifts, Major & Leadership Gifts, the Annual Fund, Gift Planning, and the schools and units to develop consistent and scaled recognition of donors at various levels.

Develop special programming for Duke’s high-level donors, the Arch & Dome Society, including opportunities for special messaging from university leaders, signature events both on campus and in key regional markets, custom recognition items, and campus benefits. Maintain a clear focus on donor support, program operations, and program growth.

Work with marketing colleagues to execute segmented and personalized communications across various touchpoints to deepen engagement and drive loyalty.

Work cross-functionally to gather necessary data to evaluate effectiveness of retention efforts and to inform program improvements.

Collaborate with the Campaign team and Principal Gifts to create a bespoke giving circle for multi-million dollar gift donors during the campaign. Create and execute a program strategy to bring these donors together for unique experiences that demonstrate the university’s progress and potential for future impact.

Assist the executive director with ensuring the campaign coding structure enables accurate and timely reports needed for donor recognition.

Partner with campaign priority area leaders to plan and implement any special acknowledgments or programming needed, including bespoke honor rolls, custom gifts, or giving circles.

Lead additional special donor recognition projects as assigned.

Supervisory

Supervise the work of the Senior Stewardship Coordinator, responsible for Major & Leadership Gifts stewardship programs and Presidential acknowledgements; and the Senior Stewardship Coordinator for Annual Fund stewardship.

Support the Senior Stewardship Coordinator for the Annual Fund when needed on broader stewardship strategy related to donor recognition.

Support the Stewardship Coordinator for Major & Leadership Gifts to launch a new recognition program for first-time major gift donors to Duke.

Conduct annual and midyear performance reviews. Encourage professional development activities and track professional growth.

Serve as a mentor to other members of the donor relations team and stewardship positions in other offices, sharing opportunities for professional growth.

Campus Partnerships

Assist the executive director in scheduling regular check in meetings with campus stewardship partners to encourage collaboration and to foster best practices across Duke University and Duke Health.

Stay apprised of trends in donor relations and stewardship, share opportunities for professional growth such as workshops, classes, and webinars.

Work with stewardship professionals across campus to ensure that we are not duplicating efforts or causing donor communication and invitation fatigue.

Preferred Skills

Experience working in a complex environment and managing situations involving numerous and competing priorities.

Ability to interact with high-level donors and senior-level executives and administrators.

Ability to establish measurable goals and objectives, and to develop and implement strategies for success.

Ability to maintain high degree of confidentiality and responsibility regarding information related to donors and the university.

Ability to perform work activities requiring negotiating, instructing, supervising, persuading, or speaking with others.

Attention to detail and the ability to prioritize and execute multiple projects under demanding deadlines. 

Experience in the field of marketing, stewardship, donor relations, development, alumni relations, or related field.

Experience working within a CRM to manage audience information and retrieve and analyze data related to donor demographics and engagement markers.

Proficiency in data analysis and report preparation, along with experience in strategic planning.

Supervisory experience and demonstrated ability and desire to mentor staff.

Ability to remain flexible and adaptable to fundraising trends, leadership direction, and donor and partner needs.

Interest in developing best practices and collaborating with colleagues to advocate for improvements across the development enterprise.

 Behavioral Skills

Candidate must:

• Be able to set schedules, prioritize work, and manage deadlines effectively.
• Be able to deal with ambiguity and shift gears comfortably when situations change.
• Effectively and clearly communicate thoughts, ideas, and facts through writing and oral presentations.
• Develop positive relationships and work collaboratively with a variety of campus partners and AED stakeholders to achieve shared objectives.
• Demonstrate an ability to influence and persuade others.
• Demonstrate a careful attention to detail.
• Share knowledge.
• Display curiosity and information seeking ability.

Minimum Qualifications

Education

Work requires communications, analytical, and organizational skills generally acquired through completion of a bachelor's degree program.

Experience

Work requires four years experience in alumni affairs, public relations, fundraising, sales and promotions, marketing, student activities or a related field in order to acquire skills necessary to coordinate a system of annual reporting to donors and to participate in special fundraising activities or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.

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.