Associate Director, Principal Gifts Operations

I. JOB OVERVIEW

The Division of University Advancement (UA) is seeking an Associate Director of Principal Gifts Operations. UA is responsible for leading the university's alumni and fundraising efforts and seeks to promote a culture of philanthropy throughout the university community, including alumni, students, parents, faculty, staff, corporations and foundations, patients and other friends. Our goal is to advance GWU's mission of excellence in education, research, scholarship, and patient care.

As GW embarks on its most ambitious campaign yet, the Principal Gifts are GW's most significant individual philanthropy. Supporting the campaign priorities of the university, such gifts are increasingly highly complex, cross‑campus opportunities. This position leads, orchestrates, and ensures collaboration and communication around prospects, leads, and donors to help secure and elevate fundraising at the highest levels. Engaging principally rated constituents and executing large solicitations requires a cohesive, well‑timed approach, and the Associate Director leads discussions and information sharing with relevant stakeholders to advance donor‑centric strategies.

Reporting to the Associate Vice President of Principal and Legacy Gifts, incumbent manages macro and micro views of principal gift opportunities, from coordinating cross‑divisional collaboration to supporting executive‑level interactions.

• With a macro (many constituents) and micro (one constituent) view and ability to toggle between the two, manages the principal proposal and prospect pipelines, including leading strategy meetings, identification of priority constituents for discussion and agenda creation, documentation collection and dissemination, post‑meeting notes and action items distribution and monitoring, and actions in CRM.
• Partners across departments to develop and share reports on principal gifts prospects and pipeline to showcase successes and spark collaboration, including progress on principal gifts strategies and solicitations, bespoke stewardship of principal gift donors, and efficacy in closing principal gifts; obtain up‑to‑date, actionable research and to track the timely development and execution of stewardship plans for principal gift donors and prospects.
• As the subject matter expert, partners with the Associate Vice President and the Office of the Vice President to prioritize markets for leadership travel based on principal gifts strategies and solicitations. Coordinates with colleagues across the division to ensure readiness of principal gift prospects, leads, and donors in identified markets for leadership meetings.
• Recommends and prioritizes principal gift prospects, leads, and donors for visits and curated events with university leadership based on proactive reviews of principally rated constituents and proposals as well as collaborative discussions across the division. Engages directly with some constituents and their proxies, typically unassigned leads, to secure leadership meetings.
• Develops briefing materials in advance of leadership meetings with highest level donors, prospects, and leads, particularly with unassigned leads; reviews all briefings on principally rated constituents prior to delivery to leadership.
• With a deep understanding of high‑end donors and their approaches to philanthropy, collaboratively crafts increasingly complex strategies and orchestrates execution with advancement, academic, and administrative leadership, requiring intellectual curiosity to gain significant knowledge of the university's priorities and areas for support.
• Supports the Associate Vice President in the management of her portfolio, with a specific emphasis on engagement and execution of strategies.

Performs other related duties as assigned. The omission of specific duties does not preclude the supervisor from assigning duties that are logically related to the position.

Qualified candidates will hold a Bachelor's degree in an appropriate area of specialization plus 2 years of relevant professional experience, or, a Master's degree or higher in a relevant area of study. Degree must be conferred by…