Assistant Director, Operations - McCormick

Assistant Director, Alumni Relations & Development

Location:

Evanston, Illinois
Job

Department: Alumni Relations & Development
Salary/Grade: EXS/7

Target hiring range: $63,500-$65,000 per year. Offered salary will be determined by the applicant's education, experience, knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data.

For full consideration, please submit a cover letter and resume in PDF format.

The Assistant Director is responsible for collaborating across departments to enhance the fundraising and development operations for the McCormick School of Engineering. This role will report to the Director of Development for McCormick and will work with them to oversee the following programmatic initiatives: annual giving, alumni engagement, stewardship and donor relations, and major gifts.

This position involves significant collaboration with colleagues from teams across Alumni Relations and Development (ARD) (e.g. leadership and annual giving, reunions, donor relations, marketing and communications, alumni engagement, prospect research and management, reporting and analytics, special events).

This role also interfaces with colleagues from the McCormick School of Engineering including deans, faculty, staff, program directors, and other University leaders.

Strategic Planning

• Administers & maintains existing strategic plans.
• Recommends changes & improvements to operational services strategies to better meet team needs & objectives.

Collaboration

• Involves high level of collaboration with internal department partners and moderate level of collaboration with University partners in implementing and expanding existing relationships to accomplish strategic goals.
• Innovate and improve team business processes by collaborating with internal ARD partners to understand needs and goals
• Liaise with the Dean's Office to help efficiently coordinate the Dean's visits with alumni and donors and ensure timely and accurate briefing materials
• Provides oversight and support to staff within the department

Prospects & Gifts

• Develop effective communications materials (talking points, sample proposals, case-for-support documents) for priority major gift opportunities
• Liaise with gift officers and prospect research and management team to identify strong major gift prospects to Mc Cormick
• Support gift officer work to qualify, cultivate, and solicit top donors and prospects
• Enhance McCormick's leadership giving program to strategically develop the prospect pipeline for future major gift donors
• Draft and develop annual appeal and solicitation communications in partnership with Annual Giving team and Engineering departments to drive giving participation

Stewardship

• Liaise with Donor Relations team and McCormick staff contacts for annual expendable and endowed stewardship reports
• Develop stewardship communications in line with school priorities for annual fund and leadership giving society, including acknowledgement letter templates and cards
• Oversee and manage annual stewardship processes for key McCormick giving programs (Murphy Society and Undergraduate Research Awards)

Events and Alumni Engagement

• Partner with the Northwestern Alumni Association team and McCormick partners to scale meaningful engagement opportunities for McCormick alumni
• Coordinate with prospect research team to identify potential board members and volunteers aligned with McCormick and department needs
• Ensure that McCormick events and engagement opportunities are well-communicated to appropriate audiences to drive participation rates
• Identify and track strategic McCormick faculty and programs to feature in alumni engagement opportunities and events
• Provide on site and planning support for events involving McCormick faculty and/or alumni

Administration

• Completes day-to-day oversight, maintenance, continuity and consistency of business processes related operational services.
• Implements ongoing operational services data integrity initiatives including participating in review, testing and quality assurance of processes, software, hardware, etc.
• Compiles & analyzes data; prepares reports; shares results and…