Term: 11 Months

The Associate Director, Annual Giving is responsible for developing and implementing an integrated strategy for the university’s annual giving programs. The goal of this activity is to ensure a strong foundation of donors and philanthropic dollars raised at this level for the University of Waterloo. The Associate Director, Annual Giving has a critical role to play in developing and evaluating strategies to encourage annual gifts from important constituencies including alumni, students, parents, staff, faculty, retirees and friends. The Associate Director must work cooperatively with colleagues across Advancement and with numerous stakeholders across campus to ensure that programs are implemented successfully.

Fundraising and Program Development

• Develops and oversees fundraising strategies for the annual multi-channel solicitation (telephone, mail, email, social etc.) of alumni, parents, friends, staff, faculty and retirees within a data-driven framework
• Prepares annual strategic plans, with responsibility for revenue targets and pipeline development, along with other metrics, including donor counts, acquisition, retention, reactivation, upgrades and appeal performance
• Develops strategy and provides oversight for family campaign (faculty, staff, retirees) and specialty campaigns, and ensures that annual giving programs are coordinated
• Develops event planning, communication and engagement strategies for cultivation, recognition and stewardship of annual donors, including oversight of the university’s annual giving recognition program (donors who give between $1,000 and $24,999)
• Leads development of peer-to-peer solicitation strategies for annual giving programs
• Develops the marketing plan and strategy, including case for support development, for all annual programs

Relationship Management and Collaboration

• Leads the Annual Giving team in working closely and cooperatively with Faculty, AFIW, and ASU advancement teams, Marcomm, and the rest of the Engagement team including Planned Giving, Leadership Giving, Alumni Relations, and Alumni and Donor Experience to ensure cross-program coordination and effectiveness
• Collaborates with the Alumni and Donor Experience team to ensure that these programs are properly integrated with other annual giving appeals and broader pipeline development strategies and activities
• Ensures regular, open communication with the Advancement Services team with respect to internal processes and data issues to ensure the smooth operation of all annual giving programs
• Will lead the strategy around the Engagement Centre to help engage alumni and donors over the phone
• Assists with volunteer management strategies and management of key volunteer relationships
• Maintains contact with annual giving leaders at other institutions for the purpose of benchmarking, strategy development and best practice consideration
• May personally manage and solicit a select group of prospects and donors
• Prepares contact notes for prospect tracking and clearance systems

Management

• Recruits, trains, manages and evaluates permanent and temporary team members
• Will eventually works closely with, and provide feedback to, the Engagement Centre Manager around hiring, training and supervising student callers
• Develops, manages and monitors an annual budget in collaboration with the AVP, Engagement

Other

• Special Appeal projects
• Serves as annual giving advocate during software migrations/launches, including new customer relationship management (CRM) software
• Develops strategy for email marketing and other future digital strategies
• Researches best practice and innovation in fundraising programs, platform and strategies
• Other duties as assigned

• University degree or equivalent combination of education and/or experience
• 5+ years of experience in annual fundraising, telemarketing and volunteer management in a complex environment
• Strong background in developing and executing complex appeal segmentation, manipulating and analyzing large datasets, and deriving insights from multiple streams of information
• Demonstrated management/supervisory experience in an Annual Giving/Fundraising environment including the recruitment, training and motivation of staff
• Experience in developing strategic plans, gaining endorsement of plans from various stakeholders,  and providing evaluative reports and recommendations to drive strategy
• Experience collaborating with diverse teams, preferably in a decentralized organization and influencing project outcomes without direct supervisory experience
• Experience with frontline fundraising is an asset

• Demonstrated planning, teamwork and project management abilities

• Excellent interpersonal, communication, and problem-solving skills

• Sound judgment, tact, and diplomacy is essential

• Familiarity with various gift types and vehicles

• High degree of personal initiative and motivation

• Willingness to travel; work some evenings and weekends during peak periods

• Proficiency working with complex relational databases, familiarity with alumni and donor databases an asset (e.g. Raiser’s Edge, Blackbaud CRM, iModules Encompass)

• The ability to be a self-starter and calculated risk taker is necessary

• This position will be required to work some evening and weekend hours

The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is co-ordinated within the Office of Indigenous Relations.

The University values the diverse and intersectional identities of its students, faculty, and staff. The University regards equity and diversity as an integral part of academic excellence and is committed to accessibility for all employees. The University of Waterloo seeks applicants who embrace our values of equity, anti-racism and inclusion.  As such, we encourage applications from candidates who have been historically disadvantaged and marginalized, including applicants who identify as First Nations, Métis and/or Inuk (Inuit), Black, racialized, a person with a disability, women and/or 2SLGBTQ+.

Positions are open to qualified candidates who are legally entitled to work in Canada.

The University of Waterloo is committed to accessibility for persons with disabilities. If you have any application, interview, or workplace accommodation requests, please contact Human Resources at hrhelp@uwaterloo.ca  or 519-888-4567, ext. 45935.