Associate Director, Campaign Communications and Content Strategy

Working Title: Administrative and Professional Faculty

State Role Title: N/A

Position Type: Administrative & Professional (Non-teaching Faculty)

Position Status: Full-Time

FLSA Status: Exempt: Not Eligible for Overtime

 

College/Division: Advancement Marketing

Department: 100445 - Advancement Marketing

 

Pay Rate: Commensurate with Experience

Specify Range or Amount:

 

Is this a JMU only position? No

Is this a grant-funded position? No

Is this a Conflict of Interest designated position? No

 

Beginning Review Date: 09/11/2025

 

About JMU:

Mission
We are a community committed to preparing students to be educated and enlightened citizens who lead productive and meaningful lives.

Vision
To be the national model for the engaged university: engaged with ideas and the world.

Who We Are
Located in the heart of Virginia’s beautiful Shenandoah Valley, the city of Harrisonburg is approximately 120 miles from Washington, D.C. and Richmond, VA. With a population of just over 53,000, Harrisonburg is one of the most diverse communities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. JMU is a selective, public institution with a growing national reputation for offering experiences that lead to an outstanding education and inclusive environment for students, faculty and staff. The student body includes approximately 20,000 undergraduate and 1,900 graduate students, with over 1,000 full-time instructional faculty.

JMU offers thriving programs in the liberal arts, science and technology, and professional disciplines at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels. The university is committed to expanding diversity, fostering equity and inclusion, and supporting superlative teaching and scholarship. JMU has achieved national recognition for the high quality of its academic programs, focus on maintaining strong student/faculty interaction, and innovative faculty research.

 

General Information:

The Office of Advancement Marketing at James Madison University (JMU) is accepting applications for an Associate Director to play a leadership role in developing strategic content to support fundraising and engagement initiatives with JMU. The successful candidate will have a proven track record of developing persuasive philanthropic and promotional materials; compelling, meaningful storytelling in support of fundraising and stewardship; advanced editorial skills; and experience collaborating and managing projects.
This position works closely with fundraising, engagement, and other advancement staff as well as with campus partners and communications and marketing in support of fundraising and campaign priorities and strategies. This position reports to the Senior Director of Advancement Marketing and is in-person and onsite.

 

Duties and Responsibilities:

#1: Builds advancement content strategy and ecosystem comprising storytelling and campaign messaging for Advancement Marketing team and partners to leverage in support of UA programs and goals in engagement, fundraising, impact and stewardship. Advises and collaborates with AM team and other UA content developers on cross-channel and cross-UMB collaborations to optimize content reach and audience conversion.

#2: Researches, develops and project manages campaign messaging, narrative, cases, white papers and talking points for JMU giving priorities for major gift cultivation and solicitation. Assists the senior director in maintaining relationships with priority champions across campus, advancement leaders, development liaisons and calling officers in the development of campaign and fundraising collateral. Gathers and leverages audience and donor intelligence to help develop strong value propositions, compelling messaging and effective reach strategies in support of philanthropy that can be transformative for people and programs at JMU. Assists periodically with gift proposals.

#3: Develops editorial story content in support of fundraising, advancement constituent engagement, impact and stewardship. Researches, writes, edits, guides and /or inspires compelling editorial story content for web, magazine, email and other channels in support of advancement and university goals. Edits and proofreads content created by other staff; ensures that story content a