Associate Director, Annual Giving and Alumni Communities

Department

DIV Divinity: Staff

About the Department

The University of Chicago Divinity School is a space and a community dedicated to some of the most important, most exhilarating, and most humbling questions of humanity. The School is animated by two impulses seldom found together: by the critical study of religious traditions, objects, and ideas, and by the implications of those traditions and ideas for how faith might be practiced, life might be lived, and community might be realized. The conjunction of these approaches in a Divinity School situated at the very center of one of the world’s great research universities has produced many scholars, teachers, leaders, and ideas that have had a profound effect upon the possibilities for thinking about religion, and thereby a profound effect upon the world. Read more at https://divinity.uchicago.edu/.

This role is situated within the Divinity School and works in collaboration with Alumni Relations & Development.

About Alumni Relations & Development at the University of Chicago: Alumni Relations and Development (ARD) engages alumni (~220k), current students, parents and friends of the University through intellectual, professional and social activities on campus, around the world and online. ARD raises $600 million annually to support faculty and researchers, practitioners and patients, and students and programs across the University. Our work supports priorities in every division, school, department, and institute.

Job Summary

The Associate Director, Annual Giving and Alumni Relations designs, manages, and executes development strategies and programs to maximize philanthropic support for the Divinity School’s priorities, with a specific focus on annual giving and specific revenue goals. This position uses best practices in relationship management to lead and engage the School’s advisory councils, including the Baptist Theological Union, the Divinity School Visiting Committee, and the Alumni Council, with the focus of increasing overall alumni and donor participation as well as advancing the strategic objectives of the Divinity School. The Associate Director of Development reports directly to the Director of Development of the Divinity School.

Responsibilities

• Annual Fund: Guide a multifaceted direct response program that helps to retain, renew, strengthen, and establish new connections with individual donors and implements multi-channel campaigns that drive annual fund gifts in collaboration with University ARD and Divinity School Communications.

• Execute the acknowledgment and stewardship processes for the Divinity School.

• Leadership Annual Giving: Secure, renew, upgrade, and steward leadership annual gifts for the Divinity School through personal outreach and visits.

• Achieve personal fundraising activity goals monthly, quarterly, and annually.

• Serve as the primary University liaison in supporting the School’s advisory councils, including the Baptist Theological Union, the Divinity School Advisory Council, and the Alumni Council, including managing and overseeing individual relationships and committees, as needed.

• Develop and implement a strategic plan for assigned alumni communities, with specific and measurable annual and multi-year goals designed to develop a pipeline of both volunteer leaders and donors while deepening constituent engagement.

• Recruit, train, support, and steward volunteer leadership based on their respective role and community needs, with an emphasis on improving the overall Divinity School volunteer experience and creating a long-term donor pipeline for the Divinity School.

• Develop and coordinate volunteer leadership onboarding, training, off-boarding, succession planning, and pipeline-building tactics to be implemented across group leadership structures.

• Manage all aspects of engagement for assigned alumni communities, including programming, communications/marketing, and budget.

• Manage a portfolio of engaged alumni, stewarding their volunteer and engagement, with a focus on identifying major donor leads for the Divinity School and opportunities to deepen engagement.

• Identify opportunities to strategically engage assigned alumni communities in support of Divinity School engagement and fundraising initiatives.

• Build a culture of philanthropy throughout Divinity School audiences, including assigned communities, alumni, and friends.

• Assist in planning, organizing, and managing events, programs, and services to strengthen ties between the Divinity