Swarthmore College is a highly selective liberal arts college located in the suburbs of Philadelphia, whose mission combines academic rigor with social responsibility. Swarthmore has a strong institutional commitment to inclusive excellence and nondiscrimination in its educational program and employment practices and encourages candidates who will further advance the goal of fostering a diverse and inclusive community. As one of the nation’s finest institutions of higher learning, Swarthmore College is global in outlook and draws students from around the nation and world. The 425‐acre campus is a designated arboretum, complete with gardens, rolling lawns, a creek, wooded hills, and hiking trails in the Crum Woods.
Who We Are:
The Swarthmore Office of Advancement manages the College’s relationship with its alumni, families, and friends to further Swarthmore’s commitment to intellectual rigor and creativity, nurturing of student confidence and curiosity, production of new knowledge, and inclusive excellence, among other goals. Advancement works closely with the President, faculty, and senior colleagues to foster positive and productive relationships that not only accelerate the objectives of the College but also represent meaningful and beneficial engagement for the Swarthmore community.
The Office of Advancement manages and maintains alumni, family, and friend records; engages constituents in the life of the College in a variety of ways, contexts, and over time; provides and supports meaningful opportunities for volunteering; and partners with the President and Board of Managers to share information about the College and raise critical philanthropic support for the College’s priorities and new initiatives. Advancement ensures that alumni and donors are appropriately recognized and informed about the impact of their service and contributions and manages all gift acceptance and stewardship.
The opportunity:
The position of Associate Vice President, Capital Giving and Campaigns (AVP) is an outstanding opportunity for an advancement leader who is a gifted and inspired manager, a creative and collaborative colleague, and an experienced fundraiser. Working closely with the Vice President for Advancement (VP) and senior colleagues, they will create, hire for, and manage the Campaign and Capital Giving Office at Swarthmore. Planning Swarthmore campaigns, supporting the definition and building out of priorities, setting up projects and their management, establishing and implementing new practices in relationship management, developing fundraising strategies, hiring and supervising staff, creating and carrying a portfolio of high-level donors, the AVP will enable a new era of resource growth for Advancement and the College. Candidates will be hired into either an Assistant Vice President or Associate Vice President role based on experience and professional qualifications. Qualifications in this job description are reflective of the Associate Vice President level.
The AVP will have a track record in the Advancement field and with campaigns as a builder and strategist. They will balance ambitious goal-setting with support for group achievement and individual advancement. At the staff level–working with the Leadership Committee in Advancement and across the College—the AVP will be a key leader not only in campaign planning but also in broad, multi-year fundraising.
The AVP will collaborate with the Vice President to implement short and long-term engagement, fundraising, and campaign programs. They will be a key manager and advisor in defining and overseeing new pipeline development, donor engagement, volunteer committees, and prospect management systems and protocols. Providing leadership for and leveraging Swarthmore Advancement’s implementation and ongoing use of a Technolutions-based “Slate” database, the AVP will develop best practices in prospect engagement, solicitation, stewardship, and use of analytics for strategic planning to ensure unflagging focus on the alignment of donor interest with the College’s resource needs.
The AVP will hire and fill out the capital giving staff who raise capital and endowment gifts at the $100,000+ level. In this, they will have the unique opportunity to reinvigorate the program. As a “player coach,” they will model and create an effective and comprehensive program. The AVP will accelerate fundraising results through collaborative, cross-disciplinary, and proactive portfolio management and metrics-based achievement.
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