Assistant Director of Advancement Operations

Assistant Director of Advancement Operations

Position Title Assistant Director of Advancement Operations

Department

Department MNC

Job Description

Position Title: Assistant Director of Advancement Operations
Department: Advancement Operations/Institutional Advancement
Reports To: Associate Director of Advancement Operations

Lees-McRae is a small, four-year, liberal arts college serving Appalachia and the southeastern United States. The College is located in the town of Banner Elk in the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains of northwestern North Carolina. Banner Elk is nestled between two popular ski areas and is within a short drive of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the Appalachian Trail. The area is popular to outdoor enthusiasts: skiing, cycling, hiking, climbing and fly fishing are among the many attractions. The college also owns and maintains the Elk Valley Preserve and Field Station and the May Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. Please visit our website at

Lees-McRae College offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes Highmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield medical plans with wellness incentives, Aetna dental coverage with orthodontia for children, and a voluntary vision plan for all employees. Life and long-term disability insurance are employer-paid, with optional voluntary life coverage available. Employees can take advantage of flexible spending accounts, a retirement plan with up to 5% employer match after one year, and generous paid time off including vacation, sick, personal, holiday, and college-closed days. Tuition waiver benefits are available for employees and dependents, along with access to a national tuition exchange program. Additional perks include free monthly dining, discounted meal plans, and required direct deposit for payroll.

Job Summary / Objective

The Assistant Director of Advancement Operations provides strategic leadership and operational execution for the College’s advancement information infrastructure, CRM , data management, reporting, analytics, and technology systems. The position ensures that accurate, secure, accessible, and actionable constituent information is available to support fundraising, alumni relations, stewardship, communications, campaign management, and institutional decision-making. The Director serves as the primary operational and technical resource for Institutional Advancement and works collaboratively across the College to establish efficient systems, processes, standards, and integrations. The position also works in support of the broader needs of Advancement and Alumni Relations.

Essential Functions

Provides turnkey management and frontline accountability of the College’s advancement data and digital tools/services/ CRM to ensure their accuracy, functionality, ready accessibility, and evolution with modern practices.

• Investigates and leads best practices in data strategy, data management and protection, data collection, and data hygiene with an eye to both granular and systems-approach.
• Identifies and builds efficient systems, protocols, and daily practices for Advancement and data users across campus. Creates and maintains, in collaboration with other divisions, consistent data governance and procedures for entering, updating, documenting, and retrieving advancement information.
• Serves as a central operational resource for the Office of Institutional Advancement, the President’s Office, and other offices requiring constituents’ data.
• Develops and operationalizes proactive quality control procedures, auditing, and testing environments.
• Identifies and deploys various methods of statistical analysis and data visualization/presentation for effective communications about fundraising and alumni relations.
• Ensures that accurate, timely, and complete information about all constituents is maintained and readily available to support fundraising, alumni engagement, stewardship, communications, and institutional decision-making. Serves as lead in data maintenance and hygiene.
• Serves as the lead support for CRM data mapping and migration; anticipates and troubleshoots both transitional issues and concerns and future utilization impact.
• Ensures data safety protocols are in place and redundancy is established.
• Oversees the day-to-day functions that involve the Advancement database, including, but not limited to, maintaining or producing constituent records, gift and pledge records, biographical and relationship information, prospect assignments, fundraiser portfolios, moves management, contact reports, campaign data, reporting, screenings and prospect identification, heatmaps, fundraising reports and dashboards, lists for management and communications, statistical visualization, and seamless data transfer across various college software and applications.
• Cross-trains and maintains knowledge of gift recording, receipting, and acknowledgement processes, partners, external services to serve as secondary accountability.
• Provides training and materials to assist in system navigation and usage.
• Supports general needs and activities of the Advancement and Alumni Relations programs, including events, communications, and projects.
• Technical acumen and adaptability
• Discretion and confidentiality
• Anticipatory thinking
• Deep command of details
• Written and verbal communication proficiency
• Effective time management
• Problem solving/analysis
• Customer service and teamwork orientation
• Conscientious and dependable

Supervisory Responsibility

This position may oversee student workers, interns, or other staff as required.

Day to day work will typically occur in the offices of the division, but may sometimes require a presence across campus for meetings, projects, and activities. On occasion, work may be required in other locations and environments.

Position Type / Expected Hours of Work

This is a full-time, exempt position. Days and hours of work are Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for daily operations. Night and weekend work is also required as needed to complete high priority projects, support events, or assist with college activities.

Travel

This position may require up to 20% travel, including long distance and overnight requirements, on a periodic basis.

Required Qualifications

• Associates or Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems, data analytics, business administration, nonprofit management, higher education administration, or a related field; or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• At least 3-5 years of progressively responsible experience in one or more of the following fields: CRM /database administration, data management, institutional research, business intelligence, project management, advancement services, fundraising operations, or a related field.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to translate complex intelligence into clear information for non-technical users.
• Technical fluency with Microsoft Suite products, AI.
• Ability to manage competing priorities and work independently.
• Understanding of or willingness to learn advancement ethics, confidentiality, and appropriate use of donor

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Ellucian Colleague/Enterprise, Salesforce, Blackbaud/Raiser’s Edge, or comparable advancement/ CRM platforms. Advanced knowledge of advancement CRM architecture and functionality.
• Experience with and ability to lead CRM migration, data hygiene and collection, data integration, reporting, analytics and business intelligence.
• Understanding of data ownership, permissions, security, retention, and privacy. Understanding of data flow and integrations among CRM , student/parent databases, finance, email and mass communication tools, payment processing and merchant accounts, and other institutional systems.
• Ability to work with vendors and IT personnel on APIs, imports/exports, data mapping, and integrations.
• Ability to document, redesign, and improve business processes.
• Experience working in a small college or university environment.
• High level of discretion when handling confidential constituent and financial information.
• Strong quantitative and analytical skills.
• Experience supporting a fundraising comprehensive or major campaign.
• Understanding of the fundraising lifecycle
• Knowledge of annual giving, major gifts, planned /deferred giving, campaigns, stewardship, alumni relations, events, research and prospect management.

Physical Demands

• Must type proficiently and use a computer throughout day

Required fields are indicated with an asterisk (*).