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Director of Donor Relations

Title of Job: Director of Donor Relations

Reporting to the Assistant Vice President of Advancement Operations and Campaigns, the Director of Donor Relations is a strategic leader responsible for architecting a world-class donor experience.

This role bridges the gap between operations and front-facing engagement. As the College targets ambitious growth (targeting $25M+ annually), the Director will design the systems, data-driven workflows, and personalized stewardship frameworks necessary to sustain a high-velocity fundraising program. This role will lead the transition from traditional stewardship to a comprehensive donor experience model: ensuring every supporter feels the impact of their investment in our students and faculty.

Principal Donor Stewardship and Relationship Management

• Develop and execute individualized stewardship plans for the College's most significant donors at $1M+ ensuring each donor experiences a highly personalized and meaningful connection to Harvey Mudd College.
• Manage a portfolio of principal, major, and legacy donors in stewardship phases of the donor lifecycle. Conduct regular donor visits, campus meetings, virtual briefings, and strategic outreach designed to deepen engagement and strengthen long-term philanthropic relationships.
• Serve as the primary institutional relationship manager for select donors whose commitments have been fulfilled or are in active stewardship, maintaining momentum between solicitations and ensuring readiness for future philanthropic conversations.
• Design customized stewardship experiences that connect donors directly to the impact of their giving through faculty engagement, student interactions, research updates, campus visits, and special programs.
• Partner closely with Philanthropic Advisors to ensure seamless transitions between cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, and renewed investment.
• Serve as a central point of coordination for select principal donors and families, ensuring a thoughtful, seamless, and highly personalized donor experience across the College.

Strategic Stewardship Planning and Donor Experience

• Lead the College's comprehensive stewardship strategy, creating differentiated engagement plans for annual, major, principal, and planned giving donors.
• Develop individualized stewardship roadmaps for the College's highest-priority donors, coordinating engagement opportunities across academic departments, leadership, students, trustees, and alumni.
• Create signature stewardship experiences that reflect Harvey Mudd's distinctive culture and demonstrate the impact of philanthropy on students, faculty, research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
• Evaluate and enhance donor recognition programs, giving societies, and engagement opportunities to strengthen donor retention and long-term loyalty.
• Design and oversee a comprehensive acknowledgment strategy that ensures timely, personalized, and meaningful donor recognition at every level.
• Oversee strategic stewardship events and donor experiences, identifying opportunities for meaningful engagement that deepen donor connection to the mission and future of the College.

Campaign, Capital Project, and Naming Strategy

• Partner with Advancement leadership, campus stakeholders, and frontline fundraising staff to develop comprehensive stewardship and recognition strategies for major campaign initiatives, including capital projects, endowed programs, faculty positions, and transformational philanthropic investments.
• Contribute to campaign planning by establishing stewardship frameworks, donor recognition strategies, naming opportunity guidelines, and long-term engagement plans that support campaign success and donor retention.
• Lead the development and refinement of tiered stewardship models that define engagement, reporting, recognition, and experiential opportunities across donor segments, with particular emphasis on major, principal, campaign, and legacy donors.
• Oversee stewardship commitments associated with naming agreements and major gift commitments, ensuring recognition obligations are documented, fulfilled, and maintained over time.
• Advise Advancement leadership on stewardship considerations related to new facilities, campus improvements, endowed funds, and campaign priorities, helping ensure a donor-centered approach throughout the gift lifecycle.
• Collaborate with campus partners to develop meaningful dedication ceremonies, milestone celebrations, donor briefings, and other engagement opportunities tied to campaign investments and institutional priorities.

Principal Gift Strategy and Pipeline Development

• Serve as a member of the College's prospect strategy team, contributing donor intelligence and stewardship insights to support campaign and fundraising priorities.
• Monitor donor engagement, satisfaction, and stewardship outcomes to identify opportunities for renewed giving, increased investment, planned gifts, and campaign participation.
• Develop and implement formal stewardship-to-cultivation transition plans that position donors for future solicitations while preserving relationship continuity.
• Identify highly engaged donors whose stewardship experience indicates readiness for principal gift, endowment, campaign, or planned giving conversations.
• Provide strategic recommendations to Advancement leadership regarding donor retention, donor lifetime value, and principal donor engagement strategies.

Endowment, Scholarship, and Impact Stewardship

• Oversee the College's endowment and fund stewardship program, ensuring donors receive transparent, compelling, and accurate reporting regarding the impact of their philanthropy.
• Lead annual stewardship reporting for endowed funds, scholarships, faculty positions, programs, and special initiatives.
• Partner with Advancement Services, Finance, Academic Affairs, and other campus stakeholders to ensure donor intent is honored and stewardship reporting reflects meaningful outcomes and measurable impact.
• Utilize stewardship systems and reporting tools to track fund utilization, donor engagement, stewardship deliverables, and key performance metrics.
• Oversee the College's scholarship stewardship program, including student engagement opportunities, scholarship impact reporting, and signature events such as scholarship and student support luncheons.

Memorial, Tribute, and Legacy Stewardship

• Provide strategic oversight of the College's memorial, tribute, and legacy stewardship program, ensuring donors, families, classmates, and friends experience thoughtful, personalized, and meaningful engagement following commemorative gifts and legacy commitments.
• Oversee the development and execution of stewardship plans for memorial funds, tribute scholarships, endowed funds, and other philanthropic gifts established in honor or memory of members of the Harvey Mudd College community.
• Guide institutional strategies that celebrate and preserve donor and alumni legacies through meaningful recognition, impact reporting, student connections, and commemorative opportunities.
• Partner with Academic Affairs, Alumni and Family Engagement, and Advancement Communications to ensure memorial and tribute donors receive coordinated stewardship and appropriate opportunities for continued engagement with the College.
• Supervise the administration and stewardship of memorial and tribute funds, ensuring donor intent is honored, stewardship commitments are fulfilled, and families receive periodic updates regarding the enduring impact of their philanthropy.
• Advise Advancement leadership and frontline fundraisers on opportunities to deepen relationships with families, classmates, and friends whose philanthropic engagement may lead to future major gifts, planned gifts, volunteer leadership, or long-term support of the College.

Stewardship Analytics and Compliance

• Develop and manage a comprehensive stewardship framework that supports donor engagement, retention, accountability, and campaign readiness.
• Partner with Advancement Services to oversee stewardship systems, reporting infrastructure, donor engagement tracking, stewardship analytics, and the optimization of donor relations technologies.
• Establish key performance indicators and dashboards to measure stewardship effectiveness, donor retention, engagement levels, stewardship completion rates, and long-term donor satisfaction.
• Monitor stewardship obligations associated with endowed funds, restricted gifts, naming agreements, scholarships, faculty positions, and campaign commitments, ensuring compliance with donor intent and institutional policies.
• Identify stewardship risks and areas of concern, partnering with Advancement leadership, Finance, and Academic Affairs to proactively address issues related to donor expectations, fund utilization, or reporting commitments.
• Establish and maintain service standards for gift acknowledgments, donor reporting, stewardship deliverables, and engagement activities, fostering a culture of responsiveness, accountability, and excellence across the Advancement division.
• Evaluate emerging stewardship practices, technologies, and donor engagement strategies, recommending innovations that strengthen donor relationships and support future philanthropic investment.

Executive Engagement, Strategic Communications, and Leadership

• Develop and manage a coordinated engagement strategy for the President, Vice President for Advancement, trustees, faculty leaders, and other institutional partners involved in donor stewardship.
• Prepare customized donor briefings, impact updates, stewardship plans, and engagement strategies for institutional leadership.
• Partner with Advancement Communications to create personalized stewardship materials, donor impact reports, and strategic communications for principal and major donors.
• Ensure the College's highest-level donors receive proactive, coordinated, and consistent engagement from institutional leadership.
• Build and promote a campus-wide culture of stewardship by partnering with faculty, academic leaders, administrators, and frontline fundraisers to integrate donor engagement into the life of the College.
• Develop resources, training, and best practices that help faculty and staff understand their role in cultivating meaningful donor relationships and demonstrating philanthropic impact.
• Serve as a strategic advisor to Philanthropic Advisors and College leadership on donor experience, stewardship strategy, principal donor engagement