The Assistant Vice President for Philanthropy and Engagement is responsible for leading the university's constituent engagement and fundraising program for the university community, including alumni, families, friends, students, faculty, staff, corporations and foundations, and other friends. The AVP leads the Grambling State’s efforts to grow participation and philanthropic support of the University; educate alumni, parents, and GSU community members about opportunities to engage with and support Grambling; and implement a coordinated approach and programming that builds sustainable support from alumni and friends through the various stages of their GSU experience to establish a foundation for future major and legacy giving.

Philanthropy

• Provides leadership in planning, directing, and managing the fundraising activities in the areas of annual giving, corporate and foundations relations, major gifts, and establishing a planned giving program.
• Serve as a principal gifts officer for a number of university’s top prospects including individuals, corporations and foundations.
• Develop and implement an annual plan for increasing private support for capital, scholarship and program needs.
• Oversee an active portfolio of major and principal gift prospects; cultivate, solicit, and secure major commitments to the University.
• Utilize data and analysis to drive fundraising success.
• In coordination with the Vice President for University Advancement & Innovation, manages and leads the readiness and planning efforts to support the development and execution of a comprehensive campaign.
• Work collaboratively with Vice Presidents, Deans, and athletics to develop prospect strategy counsel and fundraising campaigns.
• Responsible for overseeing the development of a comprehensive annual giving strategy, including the planning, execution, and assessment of the full fiscal year cycle of annual giving campaigns and outreach. The cycle will include at least four major fundraising campaigns, targeting defined affinity communities and focusing on particular gift designations, as well as direct mail and email fundraising, project-focused crowdfunding initiatives, giving days, and young alumni fundraising programs.

Alumni and Constituent Programs and Engagement

• Oversee development of programming that grows and strengthens connections between students and alumni.
• Oversee a shift in messaging and programming to emphasize alumni mentoring, networking, recruitment, and career/professional development
• Identify and prioritize key target audience segments, utilizing alumni survey data and Marketing's work on alumni "personae". In collaboration with relevant Advancement and external relations staff, develop audience insights and strategies, shaping engagement programming and messaging by segment.
• Oversee management of alumni-based events, communications and outreach activities to effectively engage, alumni, donors, friends and other constituent groups identified by the University.
• Stay abreast of key trends in fundraising/philanthropy/engagement programming and explore the relevance of new strategies, as appropriate. •
• Develops and monitors metrics related to alumni engagement. Understands how to use alumni engagement metrics to set strategy, allocate resources and assess outcomes. •
• Provide strategic direction and support for the Executive Committee of the Grambling University National Alumni Association.

University-wide Corporate Engagement Strategy, Programming, and Portfolio Management

• Design and implement a university-wide corporate engagement strategy that results in increased corporate philanthropy, sponsored research, sponsorship, volunteerism, student recruitment, and internship, and transfer of intellectual property.
• Implement productive and efficient corporate relations strategies across campus that build new relationships and strengthen existing relationships. •
• Develop strong internal communications protocols to streamline corporate relations strategies.
• Develop and implement identification, cultivation, and solicitation strategies for corporate prospects and provide effective coordination of activities such as campus visits, site visits, travel to relevant sites, briefings, and presentations or proposal submissions.
• Identify and implement strategies, activities, communications, and coordinate outreach to enhance corporate/campus partnerships and to cultivate and solicit these constituencies for support of campus programs.
• Actively, strategically, and seamlessly work with the schools and colleges and career services to increase our students’ experiential opportunities, as well as job placement upon graduation.
• Manage a personal portfolio of corporate prospects to solicit direct corporate investment support, with a focus on securing investments of $50,000 and above.

Collaboration, Management and Leadership

• Lead, mentor, develop, and provide direct supervision for development/philanthropy staff, including establishing and regularly monitoring performance goals and lead the effort to recruit additional talent to build out the team.
• Coordinate with the Vice President for University Advancement & Innovation on goals, operations and strategic initiatives for fundraising.
• Work closely with academic leaders, faculty, and staff to couple research and educational activities with corporations and their foundational interests. The Assistant Vice President must understand and clearly communicate the scientific, technical, educational, financial, and human resource aspects of campus programs.
• Work closely with the Vice President of Institutional Advancement to establish division-wide fundraising goals and performance metrics for development officers.
• Track and measure progress of the College's development goals. •
• Participates in the advancement strategic planning process, assists in policy making for department-wide initiatives, and may represent the division at university functions.
• Develops and manages budgets.
• Represents the Division of University Advancement & Innovation to donors, board members, alumni, staff, faculty and others within the community •
• Ensure all relevant work is documented in the Institutional Advancement constituent relationship management database.
• Provide timely reporting on initiatives and results to the Vice President and other relevant entities.

Other

• Performs other duties as assigned and aligned with the Division’s priorities and for the advancement of Grambling State University

Minimum:

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, public relations, nonprofit management, or related field.
• Minimum of years of experience in higher education development/advancement services, nonprofit, or community relations with a proven track record of successfully closing gifts of $10K or above.

Preferred:

• Master’s degree.
• Planned giving experience.
• Leadership experience in a comprehensive campaign setting including designing, planning and executing a plan for a multi-faceted institution.
• Experience in higher education development and/or corporate and foundation relations.

Applications without the following will not be considered complete.

• Cover Letter
• Resume
• Transcript(s) if applicable
• Curriculum Vitae if applicable