Director of Annual Giving

Join our vibrant community of dedicated faculty and staff who work to create a transformative educational experience rooted in faith, reason, and justice. Eastern University is a nationally-recognized Christian university enrolling approximately 9,000 students in a wide array of undergraduate, graduate, professional, and seminary programs. The university’s main campus is located in St. Davids, PA, with many programs also offered online. Eastern’s core values of Faith, Reason, and Justice are woven into all of its educational offerings. Through dynamic programs, a vibrant campus community, and meaningful service learning opportunities, Eastern University is committed to providing students with transformative, accessible, and affordable education. The Director of Annual Giving leads the strategy, execution, and continued growth of Eastern University's comprehensive annual giving program. As the University's primary annual giving professional, the Director develops and implements a coordinated, year-round program designed to grow philanthropic revenue and participation through donor acquisition, retention, reactivation, renewal, upgrades, recurring giving, leadership annual giving, and other strategies that strengthen Eastern's donor pipeline. This is a hands-on fundraising role requiring both strategic leadership and strong execution. The Director personally drives annual giving initiatives across direct mail, email, and digital fundraising; University Giving Societies; faculty and staff giving; stewardship; fiscal year-end fundraising; and other University priorities. The Director also manages a portfolio of approximately 40-60 annual and leadership-level donors and prospects, with responsibility for qualification, cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, renewal, and growth, while helping identify donors with potential for deeper philanthropic engagement and future major giving. The successful candidate will be a strategic, self-directed, and highly collaborative professional who takes ownership, anticipates needs, manages multiple priorities, and brings ideas and solutions forward. The Director will embrace technology, automation, and emerging tools to create smarter, more efficient, and repeatable ways of working, reducing unnecessary manual processes and allowing greater focus on fundraising and donor engagement. Working closely with Advancement colleagues and campus partners, the Director must be adaptable and receptive to collaborative review and changing priorities. Equally important, the Director will be a positive, value-added presence who contributes to a mission-centered team culture and approaches the work with professionalism, humility, initiative, generosity, and a genuine sense of purpose and service to Eastern's mission, vision, and values. Position Responsibilities: A. COMPREHENSIVE ANNUAL GIVING STRATEGY & EXECUTION — 40% Lead all aspects of Eastern University's comprehensive annual giving program from planning through execution, evaluation, and continuous improvement. Develop annual and multi-year fundraising strategies, goals, budgets, solicitation calendars, audience segmentation, ask strategies, messaging, and integrated donor journeys for the Eastern Fund and other University priorities. Develop and execute coordinated strategies for donor acquisition, retention, reactivation, renewal, upgrades, recurring giving, leadership annual giving, faculty and staff giving, fiscal year-end fundraising, and other annual giving initiatives. Personally manage the hands-on work required to move campaigns from concept to completion across direct mail, email, digital, personal outreach, stewardship, and other appropriate channels, including copy development, production coordination, proofing, timelines, and follow-up. Manage, monitor, and effectively steward the annual giving budget; oversee campaign production schedules, vendor relationships, and operational workflows; and evaluate return on investment. Serve as the primary annual giving partner to University Marketing, ensuring fundraising communications align with University brand standards, institutional messaging, visual identity, and appropriate communications calendars. Continuously test and refine approaches based on results, donor behavior, and emerging annual giving practices to increase donors, dollars, participation, and long-term engagement. Use annual giving response and engagement—including direct mail responses, online gifts, first-time gifts, increased giving, recurring gifts, and other giving behaviors—to identify and qualify prospective donors for deeper engagement and increased philanthropic support. B. DONOR PORTFOLIO & LEADERSHIP ANNUAL GIVING — 20% Manage a focused portfolio of approximately 40-60 annual and leadership-level donors and prospects, with responsibility for qualification, cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, renewal, and upgrading. Conduct meaningful donor visits and interactions, make personal gift solicitations, and achieve established goals for donor activity and fundraising results. Identify annual donors with the capacity, inclination, and engagement for increased support and collaborate with Individual Giving colleagues on appropriate movement into major gift or planned gift portfolios. Document donor strategies, contacts, solicitations, and other relevant activity accurately and consistently in the University Advancement CRM. Proactively identify prospective donors through the annual giving program, paying particular attention to direct mail and digital response, first-time gifts, increased giving, recurring gifts, campaign engagement, and other giving behaviors that may signal potential for deeper philanthropic engagement. Partner closely with Advancement Services and Individual Giving colleagues to combine annual giving insights with available data and research to qualify, cultivate, assign, and appropriately transition emerging leadership, major and planned gift prospects. C. UNIVERSITY GIVING SOCIETIES, STEWARDSHIP & CONSTITUENT PROGRAMS — 15% Provide strategic leadership for Eastern's primary University Giving Societies, including acquisition, communications, recognition, stewardship, renewal, retention, and growth. Develop intentional strategies that encourage donors to deepen their engagement and move to increased levels of support. Lead the University's Faculty and Staff Giving program and recurring giving strategies, working collaboratively with Advancement and campus partners to strengthen participation and a culture of philanthropy. Collaborate with Advancement Services, Alumni & Family Engagement, and other colleagues to ensure annual donors receive coordinated, meaningful stewardship that demonstrates the impact of their philanthropy and encourages continued support. D. DIGITAL FUNDRAISING & ADVANCEMENT ASSOCIATE PARTNERSHIP —10% Partner closely with the Advancement Associate to ensure digital fundraising and communications are fully integrated into the comprehensive annual giving program. Establish fundraising objectives, audiences, segmentation, ask strategies, timelines, and messaging direction; collaborate with the Advancement Associate, who supports drafting and execution of email and digital communications and content for the Eastern Impact social media page. Collaborate on Day of Giving, Giving Tuesday, and the Graduating Class Gift, for which the Advancement Associate serves as the primary project lead given their significant digital and social media components; provide annual giving strategy, goals, segmentation, solicitation approach, and integration with the broader program. Maintain clear roles, timelines, and communication within this collaborative partnership. Both positions report to the Associate Vice President for Advancement; neither supervises the other. E. DATA, ANALYTICS & ADVANCEMENT SERVICES PARTNERSHIP — 10% Partner closely with Advancement Services on campaign segmentation, data requests, lists, reporting, gift administration, donor coding, Giving Society administration, CRM strategies, and other annual giving operations. Establish meaningful key performance indicators and analyze results by audience, appeal, channel, fund, giving level, acquisition, retention, reactivation, renewal, upgrade, recurring giving, and other relevant measures. Move beyond activity reporting to interpret results, identify opportunities or concerns, and provide specific recommendations that improve future fundraising performance and donor pipeline development. Use fundraising data, constituent analytics, and engagement trends to inform decisions and collaborate with Advancement leadership and frontline fundraisers on qualification and movement of prospective donors. Regularly review annual giving and campaign response data in partnership with Advancement Services to surface new prospects and donors whose giving behavior and available data indicate potential for increased engagement, leadership annual giving, or future major or planned gift cultivation. Leverage technology, automation, and appropriate AI-enabled tools to improve the efficiency and scalability of annual giving operations. Identify opportunities to automate repetitive processes, create repeatable workflows, strengthen personalization and segmentation, and reduce unnecessary manual work while maintaining appropriate human review, data integrity, and donor-centered communication. F. COLLABORATION, LEADERSHIP & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES — 5% Serve as Eastern's annual giving subject-matter leader and an active, collaborative member of the Advancement team, leading through expertise, influence, initiative, and accountability rather than supervisory authority. Work effectively with Advancement leadership and campus partners in an iterative review environment, bringing forward thoughtful recommendations while incorporating feedback and maintaining momentum. Anticipate needs, manage timelines, communicate proactively, adapt to changing priorities, and represent Eastern professionally with donors, alumni, parents and families, volunteers, colleagues, and other constituents. Perform other related duties as required. Specific projects or responsibilities may shift as institutional priorities, staffing, or fundraising opportunities evolve. Minimum Qualifications (Education, Experience, Certifications, Skills): Bachelor's degree required. Minimum of five (5) years of progressively responsible professional fundraising experience, including demonstrated experience in annual giving, direct response fundraising, higher education advancement, nonprofit development, or a closely related fundraising environment. Demonstrated success independently planning, implementing, executing, and evaluating fundraising campaigns from strategy through completion, with measurable results. Experience developing and executing integrated direct mail, email, digital, or other multichannel fundraising strategies. Experience personally cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding donors and managing donor relationships toward increased giving. Demonstrated ability to use fundraising data, donor behavior, and campaign results to inform strategy, segmentation, messaging, and next steps. Self-starter with strong project-management and organizational skills, able to manage multiple campaigns, constituencies, deadlines, vendors, and stakeholders simultaneously with limited day-to-day direction while maintaining a positive attitude. High levels of executive functioning. Calendar-driven. Exceptional writing, communication, proofreading, editing, interpersonal, and collaborative skills, including the ability to develop persuasive donor-centered fundraising communications. Demonstrated initiative, sound judgment, adaptability, and ability to take ownership of work from concept through completion. Experience working with a fundraising CRM/database and donor segmentation. Ability to handle confidential information and donor matters with sensitivity, tact, and discretion. Strong commitment to cooperative teamwork. Work Conditions and Additional Position Requirements: Travel is necessary to be successful in this position to support visits with prospects (alumni, parents, and friends) and to manage and participate in special events primarily in the Greater Philadelphia region. Evening and weekend work are necessary in this position. Hybrid work flexibility may be considered following the successful completion of the introductory 90-day review period and continued supervisor approval, based on job performance, departmental needs, and University policy. The work location/hours and use of accrued time off (annual leave, sick, personal, etc.) will follow that of the University and Office of Advancement’s policies and procedures. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions. Commitment to the University's mission, vision, and core values. Preferred Qualifications (Education, Experience, Certifications, Skills): Seven (7) or more years of progressively responsible annual giving or fundraising experience, preferably within higher education. Familiarity with and success in the complex environment of a faith-based university. Experience serving as the primary professional responsible for a comprehensive annual giving program or independently managing significant components of one. Experience managing a donor portfolio and personally securing annual or leadership annual gifts. Experience with leadership annual giving, donor Giving Societies, faculty and staff giving, recurring giving, giving days, class giving, and other constituent-based fundraising programs. Experience with fundraising analytics, A/B testing, segmentation, donor acquisition and retention strategies, and evaluation of fundraising return on investment. Experience managing fundraising vendors, printers, mail houses, digital platforms, or other external partners. Proficiency with Excel and familiarity with Virtuous or similar fundraising/marketing software is a plus. Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: Strategic Thinking - Keeps the University's strategic objectives in mind when developing and contributing to plans and initiatives for Advancement and donor engagement. Is able to explain the link between program goals and the University's strategic direction to Advancement. Makes informed decisions based on a clear understanding of the impact and consequences involved. Considers key financial factors (e.g., budget, revenue, resources) when making decisions. Adaptability - Stays focused on work and responsibilities in a changing work environment. Is able to quickly reprioritize to ensure resources (e.g., staff, systems, tools, etc.) are in place to achieve objectives. Responds positively and supports change initiatives. Communication and Networking - Articulates thoughts clearly and effectively.Consistently communicates with colleagues and/or the supervisor, ensuring everyone is well informed.Proactively builds informal networks and uses them to drive results within the EU community. Results Driven - Self-motivated and can work independently and collaboratively. Supports continuous policy improvement to reduce inefficiencies and better achieve goals. Respectfully holds people accountable for the quality of their work and minimal errors. Strives to achieve challenging goals and works through obstacles. Collaboration & Influence - Builds productive relationships and leads projects across functional areas without relying on supervisory authority. Adaptability - Reprioritizes effectively in a changing environment and remains constructive, flexible, and solutions-oriented as priorities, timelines, or approaches evolve. Communication - Communicates clearly, proactively, and professionally with donors, colleagues, University leadership, and campus partners; produces strong, donor-centered written materials. Receptiveness to Feedback - Brings professional expertise and well-developed recommendations while productively incorporating review, feedback, and refinement from multiple stakeholders. Technology & Organization - Manages multiple concurrent projects and deadlines and uses CRM, fundraising, digital, and data tools effectively. Demonstrated curiosity and adaptability in using technology, automation, and emerging AI tools to streamline work, create repeatable processes, improve productivity, and strengthen fundraising effectiveness. Integrity & Community - Handles confidential information with discretion and treat members of the University community with fairness, dignity, respect, caring, compassion, justice, integrity, competence, and affirmation. Positive, mission-centered team presence - Contributes constructively to team culture, assumes positive intent, support colleagues, avoids unproductive conflict, and helps move conversations toward solutions and shared goals. Demonstrates a willingness to go beyond assigned responsibilities when circumstances call for it and approaches the work with a strong sense of purpose, service, and commitment to Eastern. #J-18808-Ljbffr