Senior Director of Alumni Engagement and Participation

Job Description

THE ORGANIZATION

The Fuller Foundation is an independent Christian philanthropic services organization that provides financial support for Fuller Theological Seminary through annual and endowment fundraising, gift planning, capital campaign management, and funding for restricted purposes. Founded in 1987 and located in Pasadena, CA, the Foundation also offers estate planning, charitable trust administration, donor-advised funds, endowment management, and investment management services for Fuller’s supporters. The Fuller Foundation’s purview further encompasses Fuller’s extensive alumni relations programs, serving Fuller’s more than 40,000 alumni globally.

Fuller Theological Seminary, the organization that The Fuller Foundation serves and supports, has had a global impact and rich history throughout its 75-year history. Today, its focus is to offer God’s hope and healing in the world. One of the largest multidenominational seminaries in the world, Fuller serves nearly 3,000 students and learners from 90 countries and 110 denominations. Two schools (School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy, and the School of Mission & Theology), multiple locations, and many renowned centers and institutions enable Fuller to offer a full range of master’s and doctoral programs in traditional, cohort-based, and virtual settings. Fuller further offers resources and significant formation and equipping opportunities for Christians who are not on a degree-track but are interested in deeper embodiment of their faith. From founder Charles E. Fuller’s original vision until now, Fuller Seminary’s core commitment has remained the same: equipping leaders with minds for scholarship and hearts for the unchanging, saving gospel of Jesus Christ.

POSITION DESCRIPTION:

The Fuller Foundation’s Senior Director of Alumni Engagement and Participation is an innovative and entrepreneurial leader responsible for the development of deep and long-lasting relationships between Fuller Theological Seminary and its global alumni, and for growing the Seminary’s base of support through comprehensive annual giving campaigns for alumni and community members and overseeing digital engagement strategies for constituents.

The Senior Director will lead a team developing multi-year strategies and action plans to build alumni pride and involvement, promote social and career networking among alumni, enlist alumni volunteers, provide services to alumni, and build awareness of alumni programming among current students. This position will be responsible for advancing a comprehensive alumni relations program for Fuller, which proactively engages Seminary leadership, faculty, staff, students, and volunteers.

The Senior Director will also lead a team to expand a strategic and robust annual giving program. This role oversees the planning, execution, and management the program which raises unrestricted and scholarship gifts for Fuller Theological Seminary through the solicitation of donors, prospective donors, alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends of Fuller.

Reporting directly to the Senior Vice President of Advancement at The Fuller Foundation, the Senior Director works with divisional leadership, key volunteers, and university representatives to achieve Fuller’s goals and advance the Seminary, providing input on division-wide priorities including staffing, policies, budget, and fundraising campaigns. This leader will communicate and partner with departments across Fuller Theological Seminary, as well as closely collaborating with staff of The Fuller Foundation.

The successful candidate will have at least 7 years of experience within alumni, community, and/or volunteer relations; progressive experience supervising and managing staff and budgets; experience managing an advisory council, superior public speaking, storytelling, communication, planning, organizational, leadership, and interpersonal skills; and a demonstrated knowledge of complex non-profit or ministry organizations, with an emphasis on higher education institutions. This position will involve regular travel.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES:

Alumni & Community Engagement

• Manage a strategic alumni engagement program with the goal of increasing alumni participation in events, online engagement, philanthropy, mentoring, admissions, and career services and ensuring the program complements the work of institutional priorities.
• Design and oversee execution of strategic event programming plan that offers regular connection to donors, alumni, prospects, and friends throughout the globe.
• Serve as the lead staff liaison to Fuller’s Alumni Leadership Council.
  
  

Annual Giving

• Plan, organize, execute, and manage a strategic plan of action with objectives, timelines, and evaluation plans for the annual giving program ($1-$9,999) to include identification, cultivation and soliciting of annual gifts from alumni, donors, prospective donors, faculty, staff, and friends.
• Develop and implement a coordinated matrix of on-brand communication and solicitation strategies involving email, direct mail, phone and text, social media, ads, etc., all focused on cultivating, retaining, and increasing annual support.
  
  

Communications

• Devise a strategy to manage the technology associated with alumni communication, including social networking, web site development and management, and alumni database management. Work with Communications & Marketing and Advancement Services to identify opportunities for alumni collaboration and input. Launch and grow social media participation and other innovations for alumni to connect.
• Develop and implement a strategy for increasing digital communication with alumni, in conjunction with Fuller’s overall development and marketing efforts.
• Partner with colleagues to create stewardship strategy for annual donors and alumni.
  
  

Data & Analytics

• Develop and implement a plan of reporting annual giving need, progress, and impact to internal and external constituents, in the context of the strategic plan and vision. Ensure the timely and consistent production of monthly and year-to-date reports.
• Establish metrics to determine the success of alumni programs and communications. Ensure that alumni involvement is properly tracked for development purposes.
  
  

Institutional Collaboration

• Develop creative ways to engage students in a culture of philanthropy and giving back to Fuller, as well as to establish alumni-student programming and relationships.
• Serve as primary alumni relations and annual giving liaison to other Foundation teams and Seminary units, to teams such as career services, admissions, and other faculty departments on alumni-related programming, annual giving strategies, and constituent-wide communications.
  
  

Staff & Volunteer Management

• Manage a team of Advancement professionals to achieve the strategic objectives for Fuller’s alumni engagement, annual giving, and digital communications.
• Oversee volunteer leadership groups to further the mission of Fuller Seminary.
  
  

Requirements and Qualifications:

• This is a full-time, exempt position.
• Annual compensation will be competitive and correlated with experience and geographical location. A comprehensive benefits package will be provided.
• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.
• At least 7 years of advancement experience, with experience working on annual fundraising campaigns and with community engagement or alumni relations programs preferred.
• Strong communication skills with a persuasive ability, including strong written, verbal and presentation skills that can articulate compelling reasons for supporting Fuller.
• High degree of technological proficiency, including experience with fundraising systems.
• Experience in managing multi-phase projects from inception to completion, including the ability to build consensus among team members and balance concurrent priorities.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to think creatively to solve problems.
• Openness to new ideas and implementation.
• Ability and commitment to exercise discretion and maintain confidentiality of all donor/constituent information.
• Ability to travel up to 30% of the time, and ability to attend program and fundraising activities on evenings and weekends.
• Background check required.
• An organizational wide performance review process is required for all employees and a required task of all supervisors along with regular 1:1 meetings with their direct reports.
  
  

COMMITMENT TO FOUNDATION’S VALUES

Expectations

• Share a commitment to our mission and purpose.
• Make quality service a top priority.
• Must contribute to an organizational culture based on collaboration, commitment to excellence, and curiosity.
• Be a team-player who also works independently.
  
  

COMMITMENT TO THE FOUNDATION’S CULTURE

To work with our team means adhering to these principles that guide our work together:

• Collaboration
• Commitment to excellence
• Curiosity