Saint Mary’s School, the fourth oldest girls' boarding and day school in the country, seeks an Assistant Head of School for Development and Fundraising (AHDF) to oversee and manage the School’s fundraising, marketing, and constituent engagement endeavors.
Saint Mary’s new fundraising leader will join the School at an exciting time in its history. As he begins his third year as Head of School, Dr. Adam Holden and his team will launch a new strategic plan while overseeing multiple capital projects on campus, including a new academic center and multifunctional arts facility. These dynamic new learning spaces have been made possible through the generosity of the Saint Mary’s community, whose gifts to the Saint Mary’s Forever Campaign now total more than $64 million.
Saint Mary’s School is a great fit for an experienced and accomplished development professional who embraces Saint Mary’s purpose of “empowering young women to lead, excel, and make a difference in the world.” In order to thrive in Saint Mary’s vibrant, people-centric community, ideal candidates will exhibit strong personal drive and motivation, demonstrate exemplary professional behavior and values, and be resourceful, responsible, and collaborative.
Core Responsibilities
- Lead a high-performing team of fundraising and marketing professionals that is expected to raise over $6,500,000 in gifts annually ($2.6 million in annual giving and $4 million in capital gifts).
- Manage a portfolio of major gifts donors and prospects at the $25K+ level.
- Lead fundraising activities including the launch of the Saint Mary’s Forever Campaign’s public phase, annual giving, major giving, endowment growth, planned-giving, and stewardship programs for sustained revenue growth and campus development.
- Provide leadership direction and support to alumnae affairs, major gifts, annual giving, planned-giving, alumnae communications, and marketing teams.
- Work closely and collaborate with members of the senior leadership team as well as the Board of Trustees to develop fundraising goals, strategies, and action steps that align with and support the mission of the School, enhancing the culture of philanthropy throughout the constituencies.
- Develop through the staff, alumnae, and parent network a culture and tradition of philanthropy.
- Lead a team that builds and sustains relationships in the Saint Mary’s School community to foster philanthropic support of the mission and goals of the School. This includes all constituents such as parents, past parents, grandparents, alumnae, trustees, the community, and friends of the School.
- Manage the development team activities according to best practice in areas including annual giving, major giving, planned giving, donor relations and stewardship, alumnae and parent engagement, trustee relations, and campaign planning.
- Create and implement a yearly development operating plan that includes annual fundraising, solicitation of major gifts, donor cultivation, alumnae engagement, stewardship, and a plan to monitor and report on key departmental metrics.
- Provide strategic direction and execution designing engaging fundraising events.
- Represent the School in public appearances, speaking engagements, events, and digital formats and communicate passionately the mission, vision, and strategic initiatives.
- Travel domestically and possibly internationally on an annual basis as deemed necessary to cultivate and steward donors.
- Collaborate with the Marketing team in developing a strong fundraising brand that advances the School, implementing a digital and analog fundraising strategy, and engaging the greater community through thoughtful and regular communications.
- Cultivate constituent engagement such as volunteer fundraising, parent engagement and giving, alumnae relations, and trustee relations.
- Stay current of the changing landscape of philanthropy and marketing in independent schools and look for ways to implement new strategies at Saint Mary’s that broaden revenue streams and advance the School’s mission.
- Serve as the primary liaison to the Advancement Committee and Governance Committee of the Board of Trustees, jointly setting agendas, reporting on the fundraising progress of the School, researching prospective and candidate Board members, and developing fundraising readiness for campaigns.
- Represent the School on campus, in the community, and across the country to build a strong network of philanthropic support.
- Work directly and closely with the Head of School to engage him in major gift donor cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.
- Manage the departmental budget.
- Participate in the community as an engaged and involved presence and perform weekend and night responsibilities to support the life of the residential community, as assigned.
- Other duties as assigned.
The ideal candidate will have a minimum of 10 years of proven fundraising success; cultivating, engaging, and expanding relationships with a wide variety of prospects and donors, generating and diversifying revenue, preferably at a non-profit, independent school, or a higher education institution. While a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management, Communication, Public Relations, or a related field is expected, an advanced degree and/or professional fundraising certification is preferred. Familiarity with independent school or higher education fundraising is a plus. Additional qualifications include:
- Experience working with and connecting to a large and diverse community of people.
- Demonstrated strengths in interpersonal skills and collaboration.
- Ability to oversee, manage, and motivate people while also acting as a professional mentor to build on the skills and strengths of others.
- Ability to interact and communicate positively and effectively with prospective students and parents.
- Ability to collaborate with other departments and Senior Leadership and Board of Trustees members.
- Ability to collect, analyze, and communicate data.
- Ability to plan, organize, and coordinate multiple tasks and meet goals and deadlines.
- Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to speak in front of an audience.
- Energy, integrity, sincerity, commitment to teamwork, and the drive to succeed.
- Ability to work independently and collaboratively to achieve common goals.
- Exceptional ability to operate with discretion and demonstrate good judgement.
- Microsoft Office and database proficiency (Veracross experience preferred, but not required).
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