Director for Annual Giving & Constituent Engagement at Bay Path University – Longmeadow, Massachusetts

Supervisor: Vice President for Institutional Advancement

Status: Full-time

Hours: 8:30am - 5:00pm, some evenings and weekends required

Job Location: Hybrid

Exempt (Yes/No): Yes

JOB SUMMARY:

The Director for Annual Giving & Constituent Engagement provides strategic leadership to increase immediate and long-term philanthropic support for Bay Path University. This position leads comprehensive annual giving programs, manages constituent engagement initiatives, and is responsible for enhancing donor participation and constituent engagement across all educational offerings—undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate, and certificate programs.

Reporting to the Vice President for Institutional Advancement, the Director oversees the Advancement Communications and Engagement Specialist. This role requires close collaboration across Advancement, Marketing, and academic departments to execute innovative, metrics-driven fundraising and engagement campaigns aligned with institutional priorities.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

Fundraising (50%)

• Design, execute, and evaluate a comprehensive, multi-year annual fundraising strategy that drives year-over-year philanthropic revenue growth.
• Establish giving levels and segmented donor strategies based on analytics and trends.
• Develop and lead innovative fundraising initiatives across medium and in-person such as Giving Days, reunion giving, and class fundraising.
• Develop and manage VEO (Virtual Engagement Officer) ongoing strategy and vendor relationship.
• Manage a portfolio of Leadership Annual Gift Prospects (those with $1K-$10K capacity).
• Prioritize identification of new Major Gift Prospects (those with $10K+ capacity) for either transition to the major gifts team or primary solicitation.

Constituent Engagement and Events (25%)

• Create the strategic vision for annual constituent engagement programs and events.
• Manage the Advancement Communications and Engagement Specialist who implements Advancement-wide constituent engagement activities and events. These include but are not limited to:
• Alumni Association Council and committee activities
• Reunion
• Donor and constituent events.
• Oversee and when appropriate attend volunteer engagement and advancement events and activities.

Advancement Centric Communications (10%)

• Oversee fundraising-related Marketing and Communications strategy (integrated messaging for all external communications including direct mail, email, social media, and stewardship platforms).
• Ensure that constituent and donor communications reflect Bay Path’s brand and institutional values.
• Collaborate with the Associate Director for Donor Relations to provide donor stewardship through timely acknowledgments, impact reporting, and recognition.

Strategic Collaboration (5%)

• Participate in strategic discussions regarding donor cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.
• Support broader Advancement team initiatives and campaign activities.

Administrative Support and Data Management (5%)

• Work collaboratively with the data team to produce reports and presentations to analyze annual giving trends, track engagement efforts and assess program impact for the Vice President, University and Volunteer leadership, and Advancement colleagues.
• Maintains accurate records of engagement activities, volunteer participation, and event attendance using the university’s CRM.

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Assist with special projects and perform other duties as assigned to meet departmental and university goals.
• Attend training as required.
• Perform any other duties or tasks as assigned by the University.
• If you operate a University owned, leased or personal vehicle at any time while performing your duties you must follow all policies and procedures outlined in the Operations Manual. You must have a valid driver’s license and must successfully pass the online safe Driving Course and driving record check at time of hire and annually thereafter. Additionally, you must report any driving offense, on or off company time, which causes a loss, suspension, or any other change in your license status. You must report this change within one business day of the offense. You can report this change to the Human Resource Department or your direct supervisor. Failure to do so can lead to disciplinary action, up to and including terminations.

This list of essential job functions and other responsibilities is representative of those duties and responsibilities that are required of this position. However, the list is not to be considered as all-inclusive. A supervisor or director may assign other duties and/or other duties at alternate locations to meet mission requirements of the University and cooperation of all personnel is expected to carry out the mission.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Advancement Communications and Engagement Specialist

PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

• Ability to stand, walk and/or sit and continuously perform essential job functions.
• Ability to grasp, lift and/or carry or otherwise move lightweight objects.
• Ability to walk up and down stairs and walking significant distances between and within University buildings.
• Perform tasks requiring bending, stooping, and kneeling.
• Sufficient manual dexterity in both hands to operate variety of office related equipment including; computer, telephone, copier, fax, calculator, and the like.
• Visual ability corrected, to assure accuracy of all documents produced or disseminated from this position.
• Audio ability corrected, to hear telephone, fax and any emergency related alarms such as fire alarm.

This position requires standing, sitting and walking; minimal pulling, pushing, lifting, stretching, kneeling, and lifting up to 20 lbs.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree required (fields such as Business, Nonprofit Management, or Communications preferred).
• Minimum 5 years of progressive experience in fundraising, annual giving, alumni engagement, or nonprofit leadership.
• Higher education advancement experience is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to design and implement donor acquisition and retention strategies.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, Google Workspace, Raiser’s Edge (or similar CRM).
• Strong writing, interpersonal, and data analysis skills.
• Project management and vendor negotiation experience preferred.
• Valid U.S. driver’s license and successful completion of Bay Path’s Safe Driving Course required.
• Ability to handle confidential information with discretion and within FERPA and HIPAA guidelines
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with all members of the University community including students, faculty, staff, and administrators
• Ability to adhere to University policies and procedures.
• All new employees must complete the FERPA, Anti-Harassment, and any other required online trainings within 15 days of employment.
• General knowledge of the University’s mission, purpose and goals and the role this position plays in achieving those goals.