Senior Director of Donor Relations and Stewardship

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Department: Advancement and Alumni Relations

Classification: Administrative Faculty

Job Category: Administrative or Professional Faculty

Job Type: Full-Time

Work Schedule: Full-time (1.0 FTE, 40 hrs/wk)

Location: Fairfax, VA

Workplace Type: Hybrid Eligible

Sponsorship Eligibility: Not eligible for visa sponsorship

Salary: Salary commensurate with education and experience

Criminal Background Check: Yes

About the Department:

The George Mason University Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations is a comprehensive development and alumni relations enterprise with a staff complement of approximately 135 FTE. Functional units within Advancement include development/fundraising, alumni relations, donor relations and stewardship, advancement communications, special events, gift processing, research, prospect management, gift planning, corporate and foundation relations, information systems and management, and infrastructure services.

Advancement's mission is to build strong, lifelong relationships with George Mason University's alumni and constituents while matching their philanthropic interests with the university's aspirations and priorities. The division is committed to serving the needs of the university, our alumni, and the greater community by providing access to quality education and lifelong learning. Respect, service, integrity, collaboration, diversity, transparency, and creativity are the values that guide our work and culture.

About the Position:

As an integral part of Central Advancement, the Senior Director is responsible for ensuring that Mason has a comprehensive, best-practice donor relations and strategic stewardship program that supports the cultivation, recognition, and stewardship of Mason's donors - at all levels - and fosters their lifetime engagement in the University.

This position is responsible for the strategic development and implementation of a high performing, comprehensive University-wide donor relations and strategic stewardship program that is designed to increase donor satisfaction and drive fundraising growth; creates and maintains a positive and professional relationship between the university and its donors, alumni, and constituents; collaborates with various advancement units to determine effective gift stewardship strategies; and elevates the overall philanthropic experience to support donor cultivation and retention.

This position also oversees all aspects of gift acknowledgements, gift acceptance, endowment reporting and compliance, impact reporting, giving societies, naming opportunities, scholarship stewardship, and custom principal and major gift stewardship plans. The Senior Director collaborates closely with George Mason University Foundation accounting personnel, as well as University leadership to maintain donor relations standards and donor-centric programming across all areas of Mason. The Senior Director oversees a team of staff members in the Donor Relations and Stewardship team.

Responsibilities:

Vision and Strategy

• Working with supervisor, develops the strategic direction to improve the donor experience, increases donor retention, and promotes giving to Mason;
• Conceptualizes, oversees and/or executes initiatives that reach major and principal gift prospects and help elevate Mason's reputation among potential and current donors;
• Collects and utilizes qualitative and quantitative inputs from a wide range of leaders across campus to inform and develop highly customized stewardship plans for principal and major gift donors, lifetime and planned giving societies, and annual fund donors;
• Oversees the development of strategy for strategic recognition and stewardship events, and programs for key donors and giving societies;
• Collaborates with Advancement events teams to successfully execute the vision and strategy for recognition and stewardship events;
• Builds and oversees a donor relations and strategic stewardship community of practice consisting of Central Advancement team members and other fundraising practitioners throughout the University; and
• Communicates a vision for the community of practice that aligns with and affirms the overarching goals of Central Advancement.

Program Management

• Identifies resource requirements annually for the donor relations and strategic stewardship staff team, operations, and capital needs to place Mason's program at the leading edge;
• Conceptualizes and implements a quantitative and qualitative system of data and metrics to evaluate the effectiveness and success of all stewardship and donor relations programs, utilizing the data to improve standards, increase donor retention, and further the success of fundraising goals;
• Collaborates with Advancement Communications to identify areas of integrated marketing opportunities to tell donor impact stories and emotionally connect donors;
• Oversees the creation of all stewardship-related reporting that educates, engages, inspires, and thanks donors for their generosity to the university;
• Evaluates potential naming opportunities for new construction and major renovation, as well as virtual spaces without dedicated physical space;
• Develops, implements, and maintains standards and policies for capital and special project naming and recognition opportunities;
• Works on collaborative, cross-campus committees for special university projects and events; and
• Develops, implements, and manages all work for the university's giving societies.

Donor Experience

• Works closely with university fundraisers, senior academic administrators, faculty, and staff to build long-term donor relations programs that enrich relations between donors and the university;
• Works closely and collaboratively with fundraising team members to provide oversight, direction, and operations support for their donor relations needs to create and implement short-term and long-term strategies to steward and engage major gift donors in alignment with overarching donor relations and stewardship programs, plans, and goals;
• In partnership with the principal gifts needs, contributes to the management of these donors by developing and executing thoughtful and individualized strategies for stewarding donors; and
• Represents Central Advancement at functions and works with donors and other constituents to strengthen connections and build trust in Mason.

Supervision of Staff; Leadership and Coaching

• Sets clear direction and priorities for staff of professionals and administrative support personnel;
• Promotes excellence through well-defined and measurable goals;
• Inspires and motivates staff through the free flow of information, placing staff members' work within the context of donor relations strategic priorities as well as within the mission of the University, consistent with Central Advancement goals, policies and procedures;
• Fosters a work environment that recognizes and rewards cross-functional collaboration and team-based efforts;
• Celebrates current achievements and set clear expectations for future success.;
• Actively mentors and trains staff, providing frequent opportunities for professional learning and growth;
• Emphasizes retention as a means of increasing capacity and expertise of the team;
• Fully leverages human and financial resources and promotes greater efficiency;
• Maintains working knowledge of industry best practices and standards to promote departmental longevity and divisional efficacy;
• Responsible for setting goals for performance and deadlines in ways that comply with the university's plans and vision and communicating them to direct reports;
• Organizes workflow and ensures that employees understand their duties or delegated tasks;
• Monitors employee productivity and provides constructive feedback and coaching;
• Maintains timekeeping and personnel records;
• Disseminates information from upper management to employees and vice versa;
• Prepares and submits performance evaluations;
• Determines rewards and promotions based on performance;
• Hires and trains new employees;
• Ensures adherence to legal and university policies and procedures and undertakes disciplinary actions if the need arises;
• Manages and approves work schedules and workload;
• Develops performance goals collaboratively with direct reports; and
• Monitors performance, provides feedback regularly, prepares and administers annual staff evaluations for direct reports.

Other duties as assigned within the scope of the role

Required Qualifications:

• Master's degree in related field;
• Significant (generally six to nine years) experience in stewardship, donor relations, communications, marketing, or similar work;
• Significant experience designing donor stewardship strategies for major and principal gifts;
• Direct experience supporting or partnering with front line fundraisers;
• Significant experience planning and executing donor-focused events (in person and virtual), at various giving levels;
• Fundraising and donor relations experience, including proven track record of stewarding gifts of $1M or more;
• Proven track record of effectively working and leading in a large, complex, dynamic, and sophisticated organization;
• Considerable (generally three - five year) supervisory experience;
• Experience working across a complex organization with C-suite individuals;
• Strong knowledge of donor engagement, campaigns, planned giving, annual giving, and major gifts;
• Knowledge of gift agreements and endowment reporting;
• Strong project and program management skills, including experience initiating and implementing a new program or project;
• Skill in a CRM;
• Skill in scholarship management system;
• Skill in data analysis and reporting related to donor relations;
• Excellent verbal, written, and proofreading skills, and exacting attention to detail;
• Ability to develop and manage relationships with donors;
• Ability to set a vision and to influence and inspire others to action, as well as a willingness to dig in and understand the work being done at a more granular level;
• Strategic and creative approaches to tasks and challenges; and
• Considerable knowledge of donor relations and stewardship in higher education.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in a public research university;
• Experience working in a decentralized, complex organization;
• Wide-ranging knowledge of academic units, current affairs in higher education, and research, as well as genuine interest in the ongoing affairs at the university and intellectual curiosity;
• Skill in Salesforce;
• Skill in Microstrategy; and
• Skill in Blackbaud.

Instructions to Applicants:

For full consideration, applicants must apply for Senior Director of Donor Relations and Stewardship at https://jobs.gmu.edu/. Complete and submit the online application to include three professional references (one must be a current supervisor) with contact information, and provide a Cover Letter/Letter of Intent with Resume for review.

Posting Open Date: August 11, 2025

For Full Consideration, Apply by: August 25, 2025

Open Until Filled: Yes