Assistant Vice President

Overview

Title:
Assistant Vice President for Advancement
Department: College Advancement
Supervisor: Vice President for College Advancement
Last Updated: 1.12.2026

Pitzer College seeks a strategic, energetic, collaborative and accomplished development professional to serve as its next Assistant Vice President for Advancement (AVP). This senior leadership role comes at an exciting time as a relatively new college president and a new vice president strive for greater innovation, creativity, and collaboration in advancing Pitzer’s core values and strategic vision in preparation for a possible future comprehensive campaign.

Reporting to the Vice President for College Advancement, the AVP will engage all members of the Pitzer community – faculty, staff, key volunteers, senior administrators in the fundraising process; work in conjunction with Advancement colleagues and academic leadership to formulate fundraising strategies for the College; and set high standards, clear expectations and establish metrics for success for the philanthropy team.

A successful candidate will be a proactive leader, managing and motivating a team of frontline fundraising professionals while holding accountable the staff to accomplish ambitious and realistic financial goals and meeting metrics.

The ideal candidate will have at least ten years of progressively responsible experience building and managing fundraising programs, preferably in education; the intellectual depth, maturity and confidence required to effectively engage and garner the trust of the President, vice presidents, faculty members and key volunteers in the fundraising process; and the ability to formulate effective moves management strategies that lead to the successful cultivation, solicitation and stewardship of major and principal gift prospects.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Duties and Responsibilities (Program Management, Staff Management, Frontline Fundraising, Volunteer Engagement, Fundraising Events and Other Duties are listed below):

• Program Management (25%)
• Serve as a key member of the Vice President for College Advancement’s (VPCA) senior leadership team, overseeing the philanthropy team responsible for frontline fundraising.
• Translate the VPCA’s vision into real and relevant goals for fundraising including annual, major, principal and planned giving programs, and securing corporate and foundation grants.
• Help establish annual goals and metrics to ensure operational stability with sustainable long-term growth; manage and effectively allocate human and fiscal resources.
• Execute planned giving, major gifts, annual giving, and corporate and foundation relations plans and propose and implement strategies that will increase philanthropic support.
• Collaborate closely with academic partners to increase engagement in the fundraising process.
• Collaborate with the Alumni and Family Engagement programs to provide outreach to alumni, parents and friends in support of the goals and priorities of the College; utilize annual giving as a pipeline for major and planned giving prospects.
• Work closely with the Marketing/Communications team to ensure that internal and external communications incorporate appropriate and consistent development messages that align with the College brand and vision.
• Provide senior leaders with clear and consistent data-driven communication on the activities and metrics of College Advancement including progress toward established goals.
• Retain existing donor relationships while systematically and strategically identifying, cultivating and soliciting new individuals and institutional donors capable of making significant contributions to Pitzer, grow the pipeline of “friends” to increase philanthropic support among this audience.
• Work closely with the Prospect Management, Research and Analytics team to establish a data-driven approach to identifying, qualifying and engaging prospects; provide opportunities for the fundraising team to strategize on prospects and share ideas on appropriate ways to cultivate and solicit potential donors; through the use of data analysis of giving patterns and other factors, determine new markets where Pitzer can…