Working Title: Operations Lead for Principal Giving

State Role Title: Administrative and Office Specialist III

Position Type: Full-time Staff (Classified)

Position Status: Full-Time

FLSA Status: Non-Exempt: Eligible for Overtime

College/Division: Principal Relationships

Department: 100650 - Principal Giving

Pay Rate: Pay Range

Specify Range or Amount: $45,000 - $46,820

Is this a JMU only position? No

Is this a grant-funded position? No

Is this a Conflict of Interest designated position? No

Beginning Review Date: 12/12/2024

About JMU:

James Madison University is a publicly funded university with a beautiful campus and a supportive community that is committed to preparing students for the future. The university offers excellent comprehensive benefits which include paid vacation, sick, parental, and community service leave in addition to 19 paid holidays a year; affordable health insurance; retirement through the Virginia Retirement System. We also offer a work-life balance and integration program, Balanced Dukes, that is designed to support the overall wellbeing of our employees and a Tuition Waiver Program that allows employees to have tuition waived for undergraduate and graduate level courses taken at JMU.

Visit our Prospective Employee site to learn more about what makes JMU a great place to work: bit.ly/JMUEmployment

General Information:

The Operations Lead is a critical position on the Principal Giving team in JMU’s ambitious comprehensive third campaign. This is a unique and exciting opportunity to help build out a best-in-class Principal Giving operation for JMU.

The Principal Giving team is a team of three frontline fundraisers and two operations/administrative professionals whose charge is to raise gifts of $1M or more from our high-net-worth donors through meaningful cultivation of relationships, solicitations and post-gift engagement/stewardship. These high-net-worth principal donors will contribute the largest category of funds raised in the campaign.

The Operations Lead is a primary player behind the scenes in executing the core mission of the Principal Giving program through the workflow processes we establish for guiding the fundraising and stewardship of principal-level gifts. Reporting to and working in close coordination with the Assistant Vice President (AVP), the Operations Lead provides operational and administrative strategy and support to drive priorities and necessary outcomes. The Operations Lead also helps to align the work of the team’s part-time Administrative Specialist and provides executive-level administrative assistance to the AVP in collaboration with the Administrative Specialist.

The successful candidate will be effective in managing and tracking alignment across multiple projects and workflows in a fast-paced environment where priorities can shift day-to-day, and able to stay on track with big-picture timely completion. The successful candidate will be highly organized with attention to detail in careful planning and execution while taking a comprehensive overview in order to be proactive in anticipating needs. Finally, the successful candidate will have a desire to be part of the transformative power of philanthropy in making society better, within an environment that is focused on relationships, metrics, and outcomes.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Develop, Manage, and Analyze Process Workflows

• Collaborate with the AVP for Principal Giving to develop, refine and monitor systems and processes that enhance the Principal Giving program, ensuring effective workflows for fundraising and meaningful donor engagement with campus partners, while acting as a key representative with Prospect Development and Donor Relations to support principal prospect strategy and deployment.
• Ensure documentation and organization of agendas, high-level strategy files, and workflow procedures.
• Produce and analyze reports for the AVP that monitor the effectiveness of program activities and workflows.
• With the AVP, monitor and analyze the fundraising revenue multi-year forecast from principal-level gifts.
• Oversee fiscal management and associated tasks such as preparing travel expense reports for three fundraiser team members.
• Provide AVP with timely updates on projects, processes and budget.
• Collaborate with AVP to ensure planning and execution of strategy meetings and roundtables as well as team meetings and retreats.
• Assist with special projects and initiatives, as assigned, to enhance the Principal Giving program and operation.

Support activities that engage donors, pre- and post-gift

• Track and assign next steps for donor strategies.
• Support next-step actions with principal-level prospects before, during and after gift.
• Use reporting and formatting tools to provide polished donor giving impact summaries.
• In consultation with AVP for Principal Giving, coordinate high-value events with individual donors, handling logistics with reservations and catering, touchpoints with donors, and follow-up.
• Provide partnership with Donor Relations on presidential- or leadership-level salon events involving principal-level donors or strategic campaign priorities.
  
  

Draft Strategic Communications in support of donor meetings and solicitations

• Contribute to critical aspects of Solicitation (Proposal) Development, including outline, content synthesis and summary, layout, task coordination, and distribution.
• In coordination with the AVP for Principal Giving, support the content development and delivery of Presidential briefings for donor meetings.
• Maintain repository of communications and proposals in order to build on previous work and develop ways to become a hub for principal proposal development.
  
  

Provide Executive-level Administrative Assistance to AVP for Principal Giving

• Sustain a high level of professionalism in all communications.
• Manage AVP’s calendar to schedule meetings, screen for conflicts, and ensure that logistics needs are met.
• Anticipate and prepare meeting materials and next steps, make suggestions, and be a trusted partner to the AVP.
• Draft and edit select communications on behalf of AVP.
• Represent AVP in communication with other offices, including strong collaboration with office of VP for
• Advancement and other Advancement AVPs, as well as serving as proxy for the AVP in certain meetings, taking notes and identifying follow-up steps.
• Manage office needs for the team in the areas of supplies and equipment.

Qualifications:

Required Qualifications:

• High level of professionalism and building relational trust in interactions.
• Demonstrated ability to uphold a strict level of confidentiality with sensitive information.
• Demonstrated project management skills, including managing multiple tasks, re-prioritizing daily, and meeting or renegotiating deadlines, with a strong understanding of project monitoring, task scheduling, and “managing up” to keep projects on track.
• Demonstrated writing and editing skills.
• Experience with ensuring data integrity and completeness in application software such as MS Office tools as well as databases such as CRMs.
• Ability to work both independently and in a collaborative environment.
  
  

Additional Considerations:

• Track record of taking initiative to complete assignments and seek solutions when necessary, observing given parameters.
• Demonstrated ability to work and communicate within nuanced organizational structures.
• Ability to summarize, synthesize, and report out information to support others.
• Ability to analyze data to observe gaps, trends, and make suggestions.
• Ability to oversee the tracking and monitoring of budget spending at the activity level.
• Capable of seeing the larger significance of the work while focusing on specific tasks.
• Interest in the power of philanthropy to make a positive impact.

Additional Posting Information:

Conditions of Employment:  

Employment is contingent upon the successful completion of a criminal background check.

E-Verify Notice: After accepting employment, new hires are required to complete an I-9 form and present documentation of their identity and eligibility to work in the United States. James Madison University uses the E-Verify system to confirm identity and work authorization.

EEO Statement:

James Madison University is committed to creating and supporting a diverse and inclusive work and educational community that is free of all forms of discrimination. This institution does not tolerate discrimination or harassment on the basis of age, color, disability, gender identity or expression, genetic information, national origin, parental status, political affiliation, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or veteran status.

We promote access, inclusion and diversity for all students, faculty, staff, constituents and programs, believing that these qualities are foundational components of an outstanding education in keeping with our mission. The university is interested in candidates whose experience and qualifications support an ongoing commitment to this core quality.

Anyone having questions concerning discrimination should contact the Office for Equal Opportunity: (540) 568-6991.

Reasonable Accommodation:

If you are an individual with a disability and need assistance searching or applying for jobs please contact us at (540) 568-3597 or jobs@jmu.edu. You may also visit the JMU Human Resource Office, located at 752 Ott Street, Harrisonburg, VA 22807 and we will be happy to assist you.