About American University, Development and Alumni Relations

“We are a University of strivers and dreamers, of activists and artists, of scholars and servant-leaders. We realize that when we all contribute, we all succeed. We are, quite literally, one-AU.” – President Sylvia Burwell

American University is a student-centered research institution located in Washington, DC, with highly-ranked schools and colleges, internationally-renowned faculty, and a reputation for creating meaningful change in the world. Our students distinguish themselves with their service, leadership, and ability to rethink global and domestic challenges and opportunities.

At AU passion becomes action; students actively engage in the world around them; and the leaders of today train the leaders of tomorrow.

We are looking for candidates who reflect the diversity of our student body. At AU, we are deeply committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. American University was founded to respond to the needs of a changing world, with a set of guiding values—among them diversity, equity, and inclusion. AU cannot be excellent without being truly inclusive, and without taking the concrete, specific steps to improve our campus climate.

BIPOC, LGBTQ+, immigrants, multilingual, mature or differently abled candidates, and people of all faiths or none at all are encouraged to apply.

About Change Can’t Wait: The Campaign for American University

With a $500 million goal, Change Can’t Wait will create transformative educational opportunities for students, advance research with impact, and build stronger communities locally, nationally, and globally. Why us? Changemaking is in our DNA. Why now? We know change can’t wait.

Find out more about the campaign here.

The Role

The Director of Planned Giving is a major gifts fundraiser at American University responsible for managing a dynamic, affinity-based prospect portfolio with giving capacities of $50,000 and above with special emphasis on securing commitments of $100,000 to $1,000,000+. The Director of Planned Giving reports directly to the Senior Director of Planned Giving and serves as a key member of the Office of Planned Giving by helping develop and execute a range of strategic initiatives as it relates to American University’s historic Change Can’t Wait campaign as well as broader, long term priorities. The Director of Planned Giving provides expertise in the areas of structured giving, including outright current, blended, and deferred giving as it relates to comprehensive charitable estate planning.  

The Director of Planned Giving works within an entrepreneurial, fast-paced environment and is responsible for independently managing a portfolio of 75+ prospects and donors by closely collaborating with peer fundraisers in the Office of Planned Giving; throughout the Office of Development and Alumni Relations, including: university-wide leadership annual giving, schools, colleges, units; and central administration to design and implement major/planned gift strategies that strengthen the university’s donor base. Concurrently, the Director of Planned Giving proactively builds the donor pipeline by identifying new prospective planned giving donors and developing long range plans for their involvement with the university. The Director of Planned Giving’s performance is assessed based on a set of university specific and gift planning and major gifts industry informed metrics, including: significant contacts, pipeline development, portfolio penetration, proposals, solicitations, secured gifts, and – recognizing strong gift planning requires work within strategic gift teams – collaboration. 

As part of the Director of Planned Giving’s responsibilities, they serve as part of the Office of Planned Giving’s marketing team. The Director of Planned Giving supports an existing multi-channel marketing strategy designed to educate university constituents on the benefits of strategic charitable estate planning, highlight the impact of philanthropy on university priorities, and encourage prospects to self-identify their interest. The Director of Planned Giving also serves as a member of the Office of Planned Giving’s education and resource team, designing and conducting trainings on relevant trends in structured charitable giving for internal colleagues, and is a general resource to external professional advisors as needed to support prospect engagement strategies.

The Director of Planned Giving will be responsible for assuring that pertinent information and strategic moves for assigned prospects are properly recorded in the institutional database.

Responsibilities  

Essential Functions (required: Percentage of effort for each Essential Function totaling 100%)

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• (75%) Prospect Management: The Director of Planned Giving’s primary focus is prospect management in the form of direct prospect engagement and support of independent advisors working with clients structuring their philanthropic relationship with American University. In this capacity the Director of Planned Giving is involved with all levels of portfolio-based prospect engagement including: identification/discovery, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, gift closure, and stewardship. The Director of Planned Giving collaborates with members of the Office of Planned Giving, as well as major gift officer colleagues across the division with a focus on soliciting and securing outright gifts, gifts of complex or unique assets, gifts-in-kind, revocable designations, and irrevocable gifts such as charitable lead trusts, charitable remainder trusts, or charitable gift annuities, and outlining the gift details and purpose in agreements, memorandum of understanding, and the like. As guided by Office of Planned Giving strategic plans, the Director of Planned Giving takes on a role of point person between the Office of Planned Giving and a rotation of university schools, colleges, and units for the purpose of building donor prospect strategies – a responsibility shared and coordinated with the Senior Director of Planned Giving and Executive Director of Planned Giving. The Director of Planned Giving is responsible for accurately recording prospect management activities in the university’s CRM in accordance with practices and protocols in Development and Alumni Relations.
• (15%) Marketing: The Director of Planned Giving supports American University’s comprehensive, multi-channel gift planning marketing efforts within their suite of responsibilities. Marketing efforts highlight the impact of philanthropy at the university and are designed to educate university constituents on the value and opportunity of charitable estate planning and encourage prospects to self-identify their interest in, or the prior execution of, a charitable estate plan benefitting the university. Projects under the Director of Planned Giving’s purview are identified in coordination with and under the direction of the Senior and Executive Directors of Planned Giving. Each portion of the marketing portfolio assigned to the Director of Planned Giving is discrete and measurable. Marketing projects for involvement may include, but are not limited to: American University Legacy Newsletter, topical planned giving communications, American Magazine Donors Make a Difference feature, planned giving digital messaging, AU’s planned giving website (www.american.edu/plannedgiving), and integration of planned giving messaging into central, school, college, and program based marketing initiatives.
• (5%) Education and Training: The Director of Planned Giving serves on the Office of Planned Giving Team as a professional, educational resource to the University’s Development Office front line central and school-based fundraisers and supports Office of Planned Giving collaboration with advancement units of associated university programs, including the Washington College of Law and WAMU 88.5 American University Radio. In coordination with other members of the Office of Planned Giving team, the Director of Planned Giving highlights current trends in planned giving for Development and Alumni Relations staff and other audiences at the direction of the Executive Director of Planned Giving, Senior Director of Planned Giving, and other senior development personnel.
• (5%) Other Duties As Assigned: The Director of Planned Giving carries out tasks as assigned by the Executive Director of Planned Giving, Senior Director of Planned Giving, and other senior Development personnel.

Competencies

• Acquiring and analyzing information
• Serving customers
• Prioritizing and organizing
• Developing plans
• Making accurate judgments and decisions
• Acting strategically
• Collaborative leadership
• Thinking broadly

Work Environment

• Local and regional (domestic) travel in line with strategic opportunities within prospect portfolio and discovery base.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent; Master’s degree preferred
• 8-10 years of relevant experience
• Specialization and/or related professional certification encouraged (CAP, CFP, CFRE, etc.) 
• Demonstration of progressively responsible experience in institutional development with emphasis on major gifts from individuals and organizations, or equivalent combination of education and experience
• Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills 
• Integrity and trust with a demonstrated ability to manage highly confidential information
• Ability to manage a busy office with competing demands; not easily flustered nor easily overwhelmed by a high volume of activity and projects
• Familiarity with planned giving modeling software preferred (PG Calc, Crescendo, or similar) 
• Familiarity with databases and/or other fundraising systems, and strong command of MS Office Suite of products