Senior Director of Campaign and Signature Initiatives

VISION:  Transform the university through the power of generosity.

MISSION:  Unite donor passions with university priorities to elevate the impact of Oklahoma State University.

DEPARTMENT PURPOSE:  This department focuses on executing the campaign fundraising strategies, ensuring the campaign’s development operations are implemented in ways to elevate best practices for OSUF development.

PRIMARY PURPOSE:  The Senior Director of Campaign and Signature Initiatives plays a critical role in executing the approved action items at each phase of the comprehensive campaign while overseeing the fundraising strategies for Presidential Signature Initiatives.


KEY AREAS OF FOCUS:

Partner with Development Leadership on the execution and refinement of campaign development strategies with a focus on helping campaign operations become standard best practices for OSUF development.

• Oversee the implementation and execution of various components of the campaign operation including but not limited to, fundraising strategy, events, report creation, marketing development, communications plan, training, etc.
• Continual assessment of comprehensive campaign framework to ensure alignment with standard development operations, including setting goals, timelines, and milestones.
• Collaborate with OSUF liaisons to university leadership to align campaign objectives with the institution's strategic priorities.
• Collaborate with internal department leaders to ensure alignment toward campaign launch success.
• Work with communications teams from OSU, OSUF, and external partners to prepare and implement campaign messaging across various mediums, ensuring the campaign brand, theme, and goals are communicated to the larger OSU community.
• Speak on behalf of the campaign in both internal and, as needed, external meetings and events while also drafting messaging that reflects campaign priorities for both OSU and OSUF Leadership.
• Serve as a key campaign liaison with various OSU entities in collaboration with OSUF President and Sr. AVP of Principal Gifts.
• Responsible for organizing and managing the executive campaign board and national campaign committee volunteers, overseeing logistics coordination, meeting content, and communications.
• Manage the Campaign Manager and Associate Director for Fundraising Communications to build synergy with campaign administrative tasks and campaign communications surrounding university signature initiatives.
• Manage the campaign budget, ensuring efficient use of resources and alignment with campaign goals.

At the direction of the VP of Development, partner with the Sr AVP of Principal Gifts to execute campaign signature initiatives.

• Ensure consistent execution of campaign signature initiatives (i.e., presidential priorities by deploying development teams as needed (e.g., Agile Teams, Constituent Dev Teams, etc.)
• Provide continued oversight & support for agile fundraising teams - ensure consistent communication, discovery/cultivation/solicitation of prospects as well as support the movement of fundraising concepts into reality.
• Partner with DLT to provide ongoing mentorship, training, and support the fundraising strategies for campaign signature initiatives.

Fundraise

• Identify, cultivate, and solicit major and principal gift prospects. Build and maintain strong relationships with donors, alumni, and other key stakeholders.

Other duties as assigned.

JOB COMPETENCIES AND EXPERIENCE:

• Education & Certifications-
  • Bachelor's degree required, or advanced degree/study preferred
    
    
• Experience-
  • 5 years’ experience as an executive in development and campaign management strongly desired.
  • Experience working with administrators, deans, faculty, and staff and has a solid understanding of advancement functions (development, operations, alumni relations, and marketing.)
    
    
• Organizational Competencies-

• Effective Communication: Able to present effectively to large groups of individuals; is clear, articulate, and direct in sharing and providing feedback; develops communication plans to ensure effective transparency and involvement throughout the organization; able to present complex issues appropriately for a target audience; maintains communication with all staff and stakeholders.
• Execution & Initiative: Drives a high-performance culture, having the ability to differentiate performance and demonstrate managerial courage; maintains focus on organizational priorities and sets challenging performance goals for units; invests personal energy and time in building buy-in among key influencers in advance of critical decisions; seeks to ensure that strategic initiatives are effectively executed and communicated to relevant audiences within the organization; encourages an environment in which results surpass activity and teamwork surpasses results; able to remain focused on only mission-related initiatives.
• Teamwork/Interpersonal Skills: Builds cohesive teams of people across OSUF based on strong personal trust and relationships; motivates the organization to increase employee engagement levels; constantly assesses and builds team morale; seeks out relationships with experts as a means of obtaining information about best practices and skills vital to departmental and organizational success; maximizes personal networks in different parts of the organization, campus & community partners, and effectively uses contacts to achieve unit results.
• Problem Solving/Judgment: Oversees the development of guidelines, principles, and approaches; appropriately applies risk management practices, including the escalation of risk issues, and recognizes and undertakes opportunities for others to learn from inevitable mistakes, and incorporates experience in future decisions; able to anticipate problems/challenges and required strategy for a situation; makes connections among previously unrelated ideas and looks beyond the first right answer.
• Adaptability/Flexibility:  Plays an active role in implementing change; encourages others to challenge the status quo; able to quickly adapt and lead during changing circumstances; foresees potential breakdown in the establishment/development of change and proactively recommends modifications to maintain standards of deliverables; anticipates specific reasons underlying resistance to change and proactively implements approaches to address potential concerns; remains active, visible and engaged throughout all stages of change management.
• Courage & Conviction: Takes responsibility for departmental outcomes regardless of success and learns from all results; creates a departmental environment where failure is seen as an opportunity for learning.
• Donor Centered: Uses donor and university feedback to improve service and feed into the business planning; builds performance-based business relationships by identifying and meeting donor needs rather than simply relying on social or affiliated relationships.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:  Must use a computer terminal and view a computer screen for extended periods of time.  Must talk in person or by phone (frequently and sometimes for extended periods) to people on campus and across the country.  Must constantly use visual acuity to check printed and designed materials of various types.  Must be able to navigate within the OSU Foundation. Typical office working conditions.