About the Foundation in the Office of University Advancement
The Foundation plays a pivotal role in support of Mount Royal’s vision of creating exceptional learning experiences for a world of possibilities. We are proud to advance this vision by cultivating long-term and inspired relationships with the community and raising funds for the university’s priorities: from more scholarships and bursaries for students to innovative programs and initiatives and state-of-the-art campus spaces.
About the Role
The Senior Specialist, Donor Relations provides strategic counsel to members of the Advancement team relating to donor stewardship. As a member of the Advancement Services team, the Senior Specialist assesses, plans, recommends, and implements stewardship strategies in support of the University, and identifies opportunities for the Foundation to promote initiatives and activities that support the Foundation both in reaching its strategic fundraising goals for Mount Royal University, as well as enhancing the University’s reputation. The scope of work includes planning, donor relations and stewardship related communications, and event management/support. The position reports to the Director, Advancement Services & Annual Giving.
Responsibilities:
Responsibility 1: Donor Engagement & Stewardship (55%):
• Identifies appropriate donors to steward based on the value and growth of their gift or endowment
• Reviews and controls all gift acknowledgments, thank you letters, pledge statements and endowment reports
• Delivers customized materials to donors and prospective donors, as required
• Manages and implements donor stewardship and recognition events and activities, as needed
• Manages stewardship reporting process including writing, interviewing faculty, students, and alumni, creating content, and reviewing of materials
• Compiles and maintains an inventory of existing stewardship and contractual obligations from previous and current campaigns and programs, ensuring that these obligations are met
• Compiles and maintains inventories of current nameable assets and currently named assets
• Works with other project teams within Advancement to provide strategy and support on communicating effectively with the various project stakeholders
Responsibility 2: Donor Relations Project Management (30%):
• Works directly with President’s Office, Chancellor’s Office, University Secretariat, Provost’s Office to provide opportunities for leadership to engage donor communities at all levels
• Works directly with fundraisers and Executive Director of the Foundation to ensure strategic objectives are met
• Works directly with the Annual and Leadership Giving teams including management thereof, in order to develop relationships and advance donors through the giving pipeline
• Works closely with other University Advancement team members to help develop robust, high- value and meaningful benefits for all donors, including events, impact reports, and other benefits
• Develop standardized stewardship materials and manage their implementation and execution across campus, including finalizing, printing and mailing stewardship reports where necessary
• Development and management of giving societies at various levels, including managing the recognition, collateral, and implementation of engagement opportunities
• Tracks, analyzes, and evaluates effectiveness of stewardship activities and donor engagement touch points by way of donor feedback
• Specializes and acts as a first point of contact on matters relating to donor stewardship and ensures action plans are operationalized and feedback is communicated to key stakeholders
Responsibility 3: Donor Relations Strategic Planning and Development (15%)
• Maintains an awareness of strategic initiatives, best practices, trends and new developments with regards to donor stewardship and recognition.
• Consults on and implements a multi-year strategic plan for donor relations, in order to ensure the most positive impact on the institution
• In collaboration with senior advancement staff, creates customized, multi-year stewardship plans as well as performs an annual audit of stewardship for Student Awards, Legacy, Matched Gifts Endowments and Expendable funds, all based on gifts from individuals, corporations and foundations
• Manages the implementation of individual, corporate, and foundation donor acknowledgment, recognition and stewardship strategies
• Meets regularly with appropriate stakeholders at all levels of Foundation leadership to plan stewardship activities for donors in their portfolios
• Acts as a subject matter expert and advisor to internal MRU clients and to other University Advancement staff, helping to develop strategic donor relations plans that align with faculty, University Advancement, and institutional priorities
Other duties as assigned.
Qualifications:
- Post-secondary education, preferably in business, administration, communications, development or a related field. Minimum 5 years of progressive experience, preferably providing stewardship support in a complex environment
- Well-developed research, synthesis, analysis, writing and presentation skills, with the ability to prepare reports and recommendations
- Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to operate with a high degree of tact and diplomacy.
- Demonstrated ability to work well in teams
- Demonstrated ability to support a high-impact customer-focused service environment.
- Experience in a consulting role to clients and colleagues would be beneficial as well as experience in the negotiation of project scope and timelines.
- Advanced organizational and time management skills.
- Ability to prioritize and complete tasks while working in an environment of multiple competing deadlines.
- Raiser’s Edge NXT database experience is highly desirable, as is the ability to use a variety of reporting and publishing tools.
Salary: $70,841 -$89,646
Close Date: Until suitable candidate is found.
A cover letter and resume should be submitted in one .pdf document. Please title your .pdf document as follows: [Last Name], [Requisition Number], [Document Title].pdf (ex. Smith, 999999, CV.pdf).
