Senior Stewardship Advisor

Job Description:

The Office of Donor Relations seeks to strengthen the ties between the college and the community. The office serves donors who invest in the college’s aspirations, overseeing such activities as gift acknowledgment, reporting, donor recognition and stewardship. The Senior Stewardship Advisor supports the planning, management and execution of personalized and creative stewardship plans for donors and prospects. The position reports to the Director of Donor Relations and also works closely with the Vice President for College Relations, Associate Vice President for Development, Director of Principal Gifts and frontline fundraisers to develop and implement personalized strategies for top donors to the college. This position collaborates with campus partners to gather and share impact stories and, where appropriate, connect student recipients with donors.

Primary Responsibilities:

The Senior Stewardship Advisor is responsible for the following programs and activities:

Principal Gifts Stewardship (80%):

• Identify and maintain a “Top 200” list of priority, principal-level prospects for highly personalized stewardship on a regular basis.
  • Working with the associate director of donor relations, monitor spending balances and distribution activities of principal gift endowment and current use funds, ensuring donor intent is upheld in accordance with gift agreements and all supporting documentation.
• Develop and implement stewardship plans for principal-level donors that create a positive donor experience, provide a timely overview of the impact of their gift and steward them toward future philanthropy. Strategies should be tailored to align with individual donor preferences, customized and personalized according to the circumstances and the donors’ relationship to Davidson.
• In collaboration with campus partners (and with the support of the assistant director of donor relations), create comprehensive and innovative reports for principal-level donors to demonstrate impact.
  • Coordinate collection of scholarship recipient gratitude notes for principal-level donors; create and implement procedures to educate students about and engage them in Davidson’s culture of philanthropy.
• Design effective systems to manage stewardship strategies, including gift announcements, celebration events, anniversaries, customized reports, thank you gifts, personalized communications and other engagement opportunities.
• Collect and maintain data on cohorts or networks of scholars/fellows for donor-funded scholarships, fellowships, etc.
• Create and execute stewardship plans for donors to capital projects. Keep comprehensive records on all capital projects and renovations, developing plans to recognize key donors during key anniversaries. 
• Coordinate donor lunches, site visits, dinners, dedications and other “red carpet” stewardship events as required, working closely with institutional leadership, major gift officers and events staff (including scheduling, invitation lists, production of printed materials, catering arrangements, scripts, staffing, etc.)
• Partner with and serve as stewardship expert to Principal Gifts and Major Gifts teams.

Other (20%)

• Manage processes for presidential acknowledgments and condolence notes.
• Manage presidential holiday card process, in partnership with the President’s Office.
• Assist with other stewardship letters to major donors as assigned by the Director of Donor Relations.
• Represent Donor Relations by attending events across campus.

The Senior Stewardship Advisor will:

• Demonstrate exemplary customer service in all communications and exchanges.
• Be proactive and driven – an organized self-starter.
• Demonstrate curiosity and an ability and willingness to learn and grow with technological change.
• Possess strong writing and critical thinking skills, and an ability to synthesize different types of data and feedback into cohesive, narrative reports.
• Be detail-oriented, organized and comfortable managing multiple priorities at once.
• Demonstrate strong teamwork skills and a willingness to support projects, events and other duties as assigned.
• Be familiar with, or comfortable learning, a CRM database to track donor data.

Work Setting and Hours

This position qualifies for a hybrid work arrangement with the option of working some days remotely from home/outside of the office in accordance with College Relations guidelines after a satisfactory introductory period of fully in-office work. The employee will need to be flexible with scheduling in-office days to meet the needs of the office and the division, including attending various in-person meetings and events. General work hours are 8:30 - 5, Monday through Friday, with occasional evening and weekend hours. 

About Us

Davidson is a highly selective, nationally ranked, residential, four-year liberal arts college located in Davidson, North Carolina, part of the greater Charlotte metropolitan area.  Davidson is strongly committed to achieving excellence and cultural diversity (https://www.davidson.edu/about/commitment-diversity-and-inclusion). 

At Davidson College, we believe the college grows stronger by recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty and staff committed to building an inclusive community. In order to achieve and sustain educational excellence, we seek to hire talented faculty and staff across the intersections of diverse races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, gender identities, ages, socio-economic backgrounds, political perspectives, abilities, cultures, and national origins.

Information about how to submit an application can be found at https://employment.davidson.edu.