Director of Development, Annual and Leadership Giving, Office of Advancement

Position Overview – Job ID: 27866

The Office of Advancement is currently seeking a Full-time Regular Director of Development, Annual and Leadership Giving.

The University of Calgary is Canada’s leading next-generation university, a living, growing and youthful institution that embraces change and opportunity with a can-do attitude. The University has a burgeoning new strategic direction, Growth through Focus. We will be Canada’s most entrepreneurial university in the country’s most enterprising city by ensuring a transdisciplinary focus for our scholarship; deeper partnerships and integration with businesses, governments and purpose organizations in our community; and future-focused program delivery that sees us offer more modes of instruction, modularization and micro-credentials.  In 2021, the University of Calgary was ranked in the top five of Canada’s best research universities, and is the youngest university in this class.

The Advancement Office exists for the mutual benefit of the University of Calgary and its stakeholders and coordinates development, alumni relations, communications and community partnerships. The Office of Principal Gifts and Strategic Initiatives, reporting to the Chief Development Officer in the VP Advancement unit, directly develops and implements focused, integrated fundraising strategies to drive donor engagement and advance philanthropic investment opportunities in support of UCalgary’s strategic vision, plan and priorities.

Reporting to the Executive Director, Principal Giving and Strategic Donor Engagement, the Director of Development, Annual and Leadership Giving will oversee all aspects of annual giving and leadership giving for the University of Calgary. The Director will lead a team who is responsible for increasing revenue and broadening the base of support through strategic qualification, engagement and pipeline development. The Director plans, designs, organizes and manages all aspects of annual and leadership giving solicitations and stewardship (in alignment with the University’s overall fundraising objectives), including but not limited to: direct mail/email appeals, student call centre, digital fundraising, faculty/staff giving, Giving Day, Crowdfunding, and both donor and alumni experience portfolios. The Director works closely with development directors in all faculties, alumni relations officers, and marketing/communications specialists to create an integrated strategy that aligns and supports fundraising at all levels of the pyramid and fosters a culture of philanthropy university-wide.

The successful candidate will have a track record of making data driven decisions, a commitment to creativity, and the ability to customize industry standards and best practices to reflect UCalgary culture.

Position Description

Summary of Key Responsibilities (job functions include but are not limited to):

• Design and develop a multi-year strategic plan and an annual operating plan for the long-term expansion of gift income and alumni donor pools.
• Work with various stakeholders from alumni engagement to major giving, utilizing annual and leadership giving as the bridge between units, creating a cohesive strategy that covers a donor’s journey from identification to major gift solicitation
• Serve as the primary facilitator for coordination of all faculty/unit-based annual giving efforts to develop a cohesive strategy for solicitation
• Lead the creation of fundraising strategy for UCalgary Giving Day and implement standard practices and processes to develop the existing crowdfunding program
• Utilize digital analytics tools, predictive modeling, social media mining, segmentation, and other data-driven techniques to ensure communications are personalized and timely, and annual giving goals are achieved.
• Identify opportunities to position volunteers as agents for annual giving growth and increased participation.
• Lead, manage, and mentor a strong team handling direct mail, telemarketing, online giving, UCalgary Giving Day, Crowdfunding, leadership giving, and alumni/donor experience portfolios.
• Implement a data-driven annual and leadership giving solicitation protocol; employ and monitor proactive strategies to increase performance metrics such as average gift size, donor retention, acquisition, and upgrades, and return on investment.
• Facilitate the development of automated metric reports to track team success toward strategic goals and KPIs and inform future strategies.
• Design a multi-channel direct marketing program to acquire, re-activate, retain, and upgrade annual donors with an emphasis on growing alumni participation.
• Leverage and align with alumni engagement strategy to build base and loyalty of alumni donors.
• Manage departmental budgets as well as forecast, project and analyze revenue streams.
• Ensure compliance with relevant university policies as well as CRA and FOIP guidelines and regulations.
• Develop the pipeline, moving prospects between annual and leadership giving seamlessly by automating processes around segmentation and outreach.
• Work closely with Donor Engagement, Strategic Fundraising Communications and Stewardship to support development and implementation of an integrated strategy to enhance the experience and connection of donors and position the University of Calgary as the post-secondary institution of choice locally, nationally and beyond.

Qualifications / Requirements:

• A university degree is required.
• 5 to 7 years experience total in a combination of annual and leadership giving, preferably in a post-secondary environment.
• A history of meeting or surpassing annual revenue goals coupled with consistent program growth.
• Superlative interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills.
• The ability to work independently while valuing collaboration to achieve shared goals.
• Ability to see the big picture while tending to detail.
• 5+ year’s supervisory experience with attention to individual growth and professional development of each team member.
• Ability to think strategically, critically and creatively. Must possess strong data analytic skills and be fluent and comfortable interpreting large and complex data sets.
• Experience in major gift fundraising an asset.

Application Deadline:  February 7, 2023

We would like to thank all applicants in advance for submitting their resumes. Please note, only those candidates chosen to continue on through the selection process will be contacted.

Additional Information

This position is classified in the Management Career Band, Level 2 of the Management and Professional Staff Career Framework. Management and Professional Staff (MaPS) Positions are currently under review as part of the Alberta Labour Relations Board exclusion review process. Visit the HR website for more information.

To find out more about management and staff opportunities at the University of Calgary and all we have to offer, view our Management and Staff Careers website.

The University strongly recommends all faculty and staff are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

About the University of Calgary

The University of Calgary is Canada’s leading next-generation university – a living, growing and youthful institution that embraces change and opportunity with a can-do attitude. Located in the nation’s most enterprising city, the university is making tremendous progress on its Eyes High journey to be recognized as one of Canada’s top five research universities, grounded in innovative learning and teaching and fully integrated with the community it both serves and leads. The University of Calgary inspires and supports discovery, creativity and innovation across all disciplines. For more information, visit ucalgary.ca.

The University of Calgary has launched an institution-wide Indigenous Strategy in line with the foundational goals of Eyes High, committing to creating a rich, vibrant, and culturally competent campus that welcomes and supports Indigenous Peoples, encourages Indigenous community partnerships, is inclusive of Indigenous perspectives in all that we do.

As an equitable and inclusive employer, the University of Calgary recognizes that a diverse staff/faculty benefits and enriches the work, learning and research experiences of the entire campus and greater community. We are committed to removing barriers that have been historically encountered by some people in our society. We strive to recruit individuals who will further enhance our diversity and will support their academic and professional success while they are here. In particular, we encourage members of the designated groups (women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, members of visible/racialized minorities, and diverse sexual orientation and gender identities) to apply. To ensure a fair and equitable assessment, we offer accommodation at any stage during the recruitment process to applicants with disabilities. Questions regarding [diversity] EDI at UCalgary can be sent to the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion ([email protected]) and requests for accommodations can be sent to Human Resources ([email protected]).

We encourage all qualified applicants to apply, however preference will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada.

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