Vice President for Institutional Advancement

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Responsibilities

• Serves on the President’s Executive Cabinet; partners with the President and Board to set an ambitious, measurable advancement strategy and cultivate a culture of philanthropy across campus.
• Translates academic and strategic priorities into fundable initiatives with clear goals, budgets, outcomes, and ROI; leads multiyear planning cycles and quarterly KPI reviews.
• Designs and leads campaigns (comprehensive and targeted): readiness assessment, goal setting, volunteer structure, prospect strategy, gift counting/crediting policies, and progress reporting.
• Advises on naming opportunities, endowment growth strategies, and gift acceptance considerations in alignment with University policy.
• Maintains a high-value portfolio (~40-60 or more prospects); personally cultivates, solicits, and stewards 6-, 7-, and 8-figure gifts; sets the pace in prospect activity and results.
• Orchestrates philanthropic engagements of the President, Trustees, deans, and volunteer leaders in donor strategy and solicitations; prepares briefings and ensures timely follow-through.
• Develops compelling cases for support and gift opportunities (endowed scholarships and chairs, academic programs, student success initiatives, athletics, facilities, and innovation funds).
• Advances a pipeline from discovery to principal gifts with disciplined portfolio management, stage movement goals, contact strategies, and proposal calendars.
• Oversees prospect development/research, portfolio optimization, analytics/BI, CRM integrity and adoption, gift processing, acknowledgments, stewardship plans, and reporting cadence.
• Implements data standards and operating policies (contact reports, moves tracking, pipeline reviews) to drive forecasting accuracy and continuous improvement.
• Ensures donor-intent compliance, fiscal stewardship, receipting/tax compliance, and timely acknowledgments; partners closely with Finance, Legal, and Audit.
• Grows alumni participation and lifelong engagement through segmented communications, regional programming, volunteer leadership, and digital communities.
• Drives annual giving with integrated, multichannel campaigns (email, direct mail, social, phone/text, day-of-giving), clear value propositions, and strong testing/analytics.
• Leads corporate and foundation relations to align proposals and partnerships with institutional priorities; strengthens grants management and stewardship.
• Expands planned/estate giving, endowment building, and legacy society engagement; integrates bequest pipeline development into portfolio and campaign strategy.
• Partners with University Communications and Marketing to deliver compelling advancement storytelling, creative collateral, campaign microsites, impact reports, and media strategies.
• Serves as a visible ambassador to alumni, parents and families, corporate partners, foundations, community leaders, and civic organizations; represents JCSU at events and in the media.
• Recruits, develops, and retains a high-performing, diverse team; sets clear goals, coaches to outcomes, and promotes accountability and collaboration.
• Establishes professional development pathways for gift officers and advancement staff; embeds metrics literacy and donor-centric habits across the division.
• Develops and manages budgets, staffing plans, and vendor/technology investments; allocates resources toward strategies with the highest return.
• Negotiates and manages key advancement platforms and services (CRM, research/wealth screening, email/marketing automation, online giving, stewardship tools).
• Growth in principal/major gift pipeline; increases in commitments and cash/in-kind revenue; operational benchmarks (CRM adoption and data quality, stewardship SLAs, portfolio coverage, forecasting accuracy).

Qualifications

• Master’s degree required; terminal degree preferred.
• 8+ years of progressive advancement leadership in higher education (HBCU or a mission-aligned institution strongly preferred), including campaign leadership.
• Demonstrated record of closing principal/transformational gifts (7- and 8-figure) and consistent personal production at the major-gift level.
• Experience staffing Presidents/Chancellors and Trustees in high-level donor strategy and solicitations.
• Expertise in advancement operations: portfolio management, analytics/BI, prospect research, gift administration, stewardship, and CRM utilization.
• Strategic, data-informed, and outcome-oriented leadership; exceptional relationship-building and communication skills.
• High integrity and sound judgment; strong planning, project management, and change-management skills.
• Comfort with frequent travel and evening/weekend engagements; ability to thrive in a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment.

To apply, please include a cover letter, resume/CV, and contact information for three supervisory references including the most recent supervisor.

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