POSITION OBJECTIVE
The executive director of campaign strategy and strategic initiatives is responsible for planning, managing, and executing the strategies, processes, metrics, and relationships of all campaign activities on behalf of the university’s 10-year $2.5 billion comprehensive campaign. This position will serve as the campaign lead and support the senior vice president for university relations and development and vice president for development administration and strategic engagement, and campaign volunteer leaders, working closely with all members of the University Relations and Development (URD) division’s executive team, and university leadership to achieve the strategic goals of the campaign and philanthropic priorities for the university. The incumbent serves as a point of contact for the university-wide development community on the campaign and campaign-related activities and high-level projects.
The executive director leads key fundraising initiatives that align comprehensive fundraising efforts in support of strategic priorities, as identified by the university president. The executive director will develop and manage of fundraising plans, collaborating with on-campus partners, development staff and leadership volunteers to develop prospect pipelines, cases for support and other development materials, develop tracking and reporting mechanisms and monitoring progress against established timelines and goals. The incumbent oversees large, often cross-functional, organization-wide fundraising projects or initiatives, bringing together important stakeholders and driving decisions and ensuring timely and successful completion of fundraising projects and initiatives, such as the Adelbert Gym campaign and the Faculty Hiring Initiative.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
Serve as principal planner of key fundraising strategies related to campaign goals and partner with University and Development leadership on strategic design, implementation, and fundraising for the campaign. Provide leadership to a comprehensive campaign strategy and operations plan. Develop, oversee, and monitor the overall campaign plan, timetable, and task-list, and goals as the campaign unfolds and implement campaign fundraising strategies in support of priorities established by the university. Develop policies related to campaign execution. Develop and oversee the campaign budget, create long-range strategic and financial campaign planning models, and lead campaign budget planning, reporting, and reconciliation. Manage the campaign consultant relationship, including scheduling their work, overseeing consultant projects, and monitoring consultant billing and budgets. Consult with the schools/units, as needed, and determined by URD leadership, on campaign-related topics, including volunteer management, campaign planning, campaign management, etc. Act as liaison for the senior vice president on campaign-related issues across the university, as needed. (25%) Lead, develop, and manage a university-wide strategic initiatives program responsible for driving high priority multi-year fundraising initiatives as determined by the president and provost and in alignment with strategic philanthropic opportunities of the university. Collaborate with cross-functional teams across campus to ensure successful implementation of strategies to meet funding objectives for multiple projects. Convene key internal partners needed to advance fundraising for projects, setting objectives, developing strategies and timelines, and ensuring that projects progress toward their goals from inception to completion. Establish metrics and measures to evaluate initiative goal completion. Provide prospect management processes pipeline to effectively enhance cultivation and solicitation. Monitor the prospect pipeline for each initiative to ensure fundraising goal are achieved. (20%) Lead a comprehensive legacy program focused on families that have multigenerational relationships with the university, including students, alumni, and donors whose family, including parents, grandparents, and/or siblings, attended or currently attend Case Western Reserve University to maximize gifts in support of university strategic priorities. Supervise the director of CWRU legacy programs. Oversee the strategy and execution of a comprehensive bicentennial celebration program including management of internal and external volunteer committees, bicentennial events, communications, and engagement with individuals and families who have been instrumental in the success of Case Western Reserve throughout its history. Create plans to continue momentum among the university’s key constituencies from the bicentennial celebration to the comprehensive campaign. Set goals, metrics and monitor progress for the overall legacy program and the bicentennial program. (15%) Provide leadership for campaign volunteers and committees activities and inquiries. Design and implement the campaign volunteer structure and oversee a coordinated volunteer recruitment process and timeline. Provide training, as necessary, on key campaign topics and practices to volunteers, staff, and university-wide partners. Plan and lead campaign-related meetings, including campaign volunteer committees/councils. Develop meeting agendas, presentations, reports, and materials, and distributing meeting minutes afterward. (10%) Provide leadership to a comprehensive campaign data and reporting system. Identify and implement key metrics and track progress, monitor, analyze, and report on campaign fundraising results and the campaign prospect pipeline. Establish and implement standards of accountability to measure individual and team performance progress against activity goals, inspiring and achieving a commitment to reaching and exceeding expectations. Research and review results of specific initiatives; identify successes and opportunities for improvement. Develop campaign progress reports in conjunction with Advancement Services and oversee the preparation and dissemination. Work closely with Advancement Services to ensure accurate campaign prospect management activities and to update campaign prospect research profiles. In conjunction with the Office of Donor Relations, develop a campaign-specific donor relations plan, including naming opportunities, gift announcements and donor recognition opportunities. Working closely with the Office of Alumni Relations and Development Programs’ events team, design and oversee execution of campaign-specific events and celebrations. (15%) Oversee the process of developing the campaign’s formal identity and theme and be charged with communicating the campaign brand, both internally and externally. Oversee the design and implementation of all campaign communications and provide direction to UMC, including preparation and maintenance a campaign website, and all print materials related to the campaign. Create and oversee the execution of a comprehensive internal and external campaign communications strategy. Promote awareness of interdisciplinary projects and programs that are featured priorities of the campaign. Create formal presentations for meetings with both internal and external audiences. Develop and implement internal campaign communications plan for working with internal constituencies, including volunteers. (15%)
NONESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned. (<1%)
CONTACTS
Department: Regular and extensive interaction with the senior vice president for university relations and development, vice president, and a variety of staff as required to perform essential functions.
University: Contact with the president’s office, provost’s office, vice presidents, deans, trustees, alumni, chief development officers, senior staff in schools and college, faculty and staff as required to perform essential functions.
External: Daily contact with donors, alumni, foundation representatives, community organizers/advocates, corporate executives, and federal, state, and local government officials. Contact with visitors, academic boards and organizations as required to perform essential functions.
Students: Contact with undergraduate, graduate, and professional students as required to perform essential functions.
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY
Direct supervision of director of CWRU legacy programs.
QUALIFICATIONS
Experience: 10 or more years of progressive professional experience in related field required. Experience in direct fundraising or project management strongly desired.
Education/Licensing: Bachelor’s degree required. Master’s degree preferred.
REQUIRED SKILLS
Must have excellent verbal and written communication skills, including excellent customer relationship skill sets, with the ability to communicate concepts in non-technical business terms and bring vision and leadership for effective communications. Ability to interact with diverse internal and external constituencies. Must be able to work both independently and collaboratively with colleagues and teams to achieve desired outcomes. Ability to interact with colleagues, supervisors, and customers face to face and electronically. Ability to balance competing priorities and manage multiple concurrent projects. Attention to quality and detail are essential. Identify problems and anticipate needs, resolve data problems. Ability to create and maintain documentation for processes, exceptions, and decision-making criteria for projects and ongoing processes. Must be entrepreneurial and proactive, integrating execution of day-to-day activities with long range planning and execution and exemplary organizational skills. Ability to initiate, manage, and evaluate challenging situations in rapidly changing environments. Willingness to work within existing university systems while implementing new approaches to improve development strategies. Flexibility, tact, approachability, and responsiveness are required. Ability to discreetly handle sensitive information is essential. Ability to meet consistent attendance. Computer proficiency (including Microsoft Office) and the ability to learn new programs.
WORKING CONDITIONS
General office working environment.