A key member of the Advancement team, the Associate Director of Annual Giving will manage and grow the university's annual fund with a focus all increasing overall alumni giving. This position will focus on growing alumni participation rates and increasing dollars raised in support of student scholarships and other key programs. The Associate Director will implement and execute timely and effective annual fundraising appeals and solicitations including but not limited to direct mail, phone outreach, volunteer efforts, emails and social media campaigns that inspire and resonate with the Excelsior alumni community. The Associate Director will manage a small portfolio of prospects in an effort to build donor capacity and involvement and will also serve as the primary liaison to the Excelsior University Alumni Leadership Council. This position reports to the associate Vice President of Development and Alumni Engagement. This is a full-time hybrid role with a minimum of two required days at Excelsior's home office of 7 Columbia Circle, Albany, NY, with the remainder of the days worked from home. 

Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Manage annual giving print and email appeals to increase donor participation (write appeals, social media copy, and email copy and serve as the visionary for design and messaging). 
• Implement new annual giving activities to achieve increased annual fund monetary and participation goals in preparation for the launch of a capital campaign.
• Implement new strategies for continued growth of annual giving over the capital campaign duration and beyond.
• Manages a portfolio of annual giving prospects and helps qualify prospective major donors.
• Develops a schedule and for donor acquisitions and renewals including actively supporting creative concepts, writing and editing appeal content and overseeing timelines.
• Manages stewardship activities for all donors; coordinate with leadership giving to ensure responsible stewardship of all donors.
• Serve as lead staff for the Alumni Leadership Council; recruits and trains additional volunteers as needed to cultivate, solicit, and steward annual giving contributions
• Participates in developing alumni engagement strategies in collaboration with the alumni and development program specialist.
• Assist with university-wide in-person events and Commencement. 

Qualifications: to perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Bachelor's degree and/or equivalent years of experience is required. 

• Minimum of two years of direct fundraising experience in higher education or other nonprofit; advanced skills in Microsoft Office suite of products with strong ability to proficiently use full Microsoft suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint). 

• Minimum of two years of experience in development or fundraising.
• Experience managing volunteer programs, direct mail, and digital.
• Demonstrated writing and editing capabilities; strong design collaboration skills.
• Excellent computer skills and ability to learn and adapt quickly to new software.
• Strong organizational skills, ability to prioritize in a multi-tasking, fast-paced environment.
• Ability to manage multiple projects under strict time constraints and still exhibit flexibility.
• Good decision-making skills.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Ability to work independently as well as establish and maintain relations with other staff, faculty, students, alumni, volunteers, and donors.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality.
• Familiarity with prospect research.

The hiring salary range for this position is $60,000.00 - $68,000.00. The hiring salary range above represents the University's good faith estimate at the time of posting.