Assistant Athletic Director - Annual Giving & Donor Experience

$90,000 - $90,000/Yr

National Collegiate Athletic Association - Tempe, AZ

Full-time - Mid Level

Tempe, AZ

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About the position

The Assistant Athletic Director for Annual Giving & Donor Experience at the ASU Foundation (ASUF) is a senior fundraising professional responsible for managing sophisticated, large, and complex Intercollegiate Athletics annual giving programs. This role requires a digitally fluent, highly collaborative, and forward-thinking individual who will oversee philanthropic outreach to a diverse donor base, including alumni, faculty, staff, students, and community members. The Director will be tasked with philanthropic warming of prospects, acquiring new donors, and retaining, reactivating, and upgrading current and past donors. In this position, the Director will lead the conceptualization, development, implementation, and refinement of innovative fundraising communication strategies across multiple channels for the Sun Devil Club. The role is critical as it joins a dynamic team during a comprehensive university-wide campaign launch, focusing on immediate financial support, growing the donor base, and building a major gift pipeline. The Director will contribute ideas and expertise across the fundraising spectrum to deepen the culture of philanthropy for ASU Athletics and will serve as an integral member of the Sun Devil Club team. Key responsibilities include managing a team of professional annual giving staff, donor relations staff, and letterwinners staff, leading the Annual Giving renewal process, and developing a comprehensive Annual Giving calendar aligned with donor relations events. The Director will also provide oversight for major Annual Giving initiatives, establish effective working relationships with various stakeholders, manage external vendor partnerships, and ensure adherence to brand standards in communications. Additionally, the Director will be responsible for achieving broader Annual Giving goals and metrics, monitoring progress, and implementing corrective actions as necessary.

Responsibilities

• Manage a team of professional annual giving staff, donor relations staff, and letterwinners staff responsible for the daily operation of the Sun Devil Club's Annual Giving and Donor Relations program.
• Lead the Sun Devil Club Annual Giving renewal process through ASU Link.
• Conceptualize, create, and implement effective and integrated communications strategies across multiple channels to increase philanthropy, donor acquisition, retention, reactivation, and upgrades.
• Develop a detailed and comprehensive Sun Devil Club Annual Giving calendar aligned with Donor Relations and Letterwinners events and communications.
• Leverage database segmentation and personalization to enhance direct-response campaigns.
• Provide oversight, strategic direction, and ideation for major Annual Giving initiatives such as Sun Devil Giving Day, Giving Tuesday, and Back Your Devils Week.
• Establish and nurture effective working relationships with ASUF colleagues, Sun Devil Athletics colleagues, and university partners.
• Manage external vendor partnerships to ensure relationship efficiency and positive return on investment.
• Partner with Donor Relations and Letterwinners teams to enhance programs for donor retention.
• Collaborate with various units to ensure adherence to brand standards and deploy email campaigns.
• Manage the creation, design, and production of Annual Giving, Donor Relations, and Letterwinners collateral.
• Direct the design, development, and coordination of customer service initiatives for the Sun Devil Club.
• Manage the annual Thank-A-Thon in collaboration with Donor Relations and ensure fulfillment of Sun Devil Club benefits.
• Work collaboratively with Head Coaches to define sport-specific Annual Giving fundraising priorities.
• Establish, manage, and report on fiscal year Annual Giving metrics and furnish timely leadership reports on progress toward assigned goals.
• Proactively collaborate across the University enterprise to leverage the maximum philanthropic potential of each prospect and donor.
• Make recommendations on tools, training, and software to enhance the effectiveness of the programs.
• Monitor work in progress, accountability, and implement corrective action as required.
• Discover and deploy the latest tools, technology, and best practices to enhance the overall program and increase donor participation.
• Adhere to all NCAA, Big 12 rules and regulations, and the policies and procedures of Sun Devil Athletics, ASUF, and ASU Enterprise Partners.
• Hire, supervise, mentor, and evaluate assigned staff.

Requirements

• Broad knowledge of fundraising principles and techniques, preferably in a complex Intercollegiate Athletics setting.
• Proven success in building productive, long-term relationships with donors, prospects, external vendors, faculty, staff, non-profit boards, and volunteers.
• Strong interpersonal skills and excellent written and oral communication abilities.
• Ability to set goals and priorities, take initiative, and demonstrate accountability while remaining nimble to match the Foundation's strategic direction.
• Experience with budgeting and financial analysis.
• Team-oriented strategist able to effectively manage complex situations involving numerous and sometimes competing constituencies.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, results-oriented environment.
• Demonstrated experience successfully managing staff and volunteers.
• Experience with Salesforce CRM, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Workday Finance, Workday HR, Affiniquest, Google Analytics, PowerBI, GiveCampus, Mogli, and ThankView (or similar tools).
• Ability to maintain a high degree of confidentiality regarding Foundation and University business and prospect information.
• An advocate's belief in the vision of ASU as the New American University and an ability to represent the institution well.
• Bachelor's degree.
• Five (5) to seven (7) years of successful professional development and/or fundraising experience, preferably in Intercollegiate Athletics, with a strong background in Annual Giving and Donor Relations.
• At least two (2) to three (3) years managing a team.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in securing major grants and gifts from individuals, corporations, foundations, and other private funding sources.
• Documented success in implementing sophisticated, multi-year cultivation strategies that use a relationship-building and moves management approach.