Assistant Director, Donor Relations & Events, Peabody Institute

Assistant Director, Donor Relations & Events, Peabody Institute

The Assistant Director, Donor Relations & Events, is responsible for coordinating stewardship initiatives and donor-related events that enhance engagement with donors, volunteers, and alumni of the Johns Hopkins Peabody Institute. Reporting to the Director of Development, this role independently manages complex projects in collaboration with fundraisers, senior leadership, and Development Offices (DOFFs), ensuring the effective implementation of both ongoing and new stewardship and engagement strategies. The Assistant Director also oversees all special events for Peabody Development and Alumni Relations, managing the planning, execution, and evaluation of events ranging in scale. Working closely with leadership, the Assistant Director ensures each event aligns with departmental goals and audience needs. The successful candidate will be proactive, exercise sound judgment, and demonstrate the ability to work independently while fostering strong collaboration.

Key responsibilities :

• Coordinate stewardship programs and plans and implement changes as needed.
• Assist in developing stewardship plans for major, principal, and leadership level prospects and donors with fundraisers. Meet as needed with fundraisers to prepare for stewardship meetings.
• Prepare and coordinate sophisticated written stewardship correspondence for various prospects, which includes conducting research on alumni, friends, faculty, and students.
• May manage a portfolio of a targeted number of stewardship cases, providing annual correspondence on the use of their contributions and visiting donors or stewardees where appropriate.
• Utilize database (CRM) in daily work, including updating individual records, pulling reports, and interpreting dashboards and data.
• Maintain and refine a standard set of metrics and annual dashboards (both centrally and for individual development units) to measure the overall health and performance of advisory boards / councils and their impact on the institution.
• Maintain volunteer metrics for the campaign engagement goals as well as the tracking of volunteer pipelines.
• In close partnership with the Office of Advancement Services, develop and maintain guidelines, documentation, and resources for volunteer coding and reporting in JHAS.
• Advise divisional offices on JAS-related best practices for volunteers; provide training, guidance, and leadership in ensuring accurate data.
• Manage the implementation of a board portal for interested development units, working with the vendor to ensure appropriate structures and permissions.
• Create publications, personalized books, and other stewardship pieces for DOFF prospects, partnering with the central stewardship teams and / or other offices as appropriate.
• Coordinate and oversee mailings, with the other DOFFs as appropriate to recipients announcing their awards, working closely with the administrative staff in the area.
• Contact or coordinate with those benefitted from donors funding to request impact letters, programmatic updates, and biographical information to be shared with donors.
• May track and report on the use of endowed funds for professorships, fellowships, and lectureships, and / or projects by DOFFs, seeking consistency with central programs and other departments. Work with department chairs and administrative staff to keep leaders and donors updated on new endowments, and to receive details about the recipients and awards.
• Work closely with department administrative staff to draft and mail leadership letters to benefactors, including thank you letters for scholarships, fellowships, awards, and internships.
• Manage the DOFFs gift acknowledgement process which includes defining stewardship levels based on giving and coordinating personalized notes and thank you gifts from deans or other leaders.
• Coordinate or partner in the planning and execution of stewardship events.
• Work with Development Communications and other appropriate offices to ensure online and written publications regarding fellowships, scholarships, professorships, etc. and awards are up to date.

In addition to the duties listed above, the Assistant Director will :

Minimum Qualifications :

Preferred Qualifications :