"Assistant/Associate Director, Yale Alumni Fund"

Overview

The Yale Alumni Fund seeks an Assistant/Associate Director to elevate fundraising and volunteer management efforts. Yale’s annual fund programs, which include Yale College, Yale parents, and graduate school and professional schools, raise unrestricted funds to support the university's core needs, from financial aid and enriching student life, to teaching and research. As an Assistant/Associate Director, you will work as a frontline fundraiser in the Yale Annual Giving team regularly connecting with prospective donors and volunteers through individual visits, phone, and email to solicit gifts to the university. Additionally, you will recruit and partner with a substantial group of dedicated volunteers to identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward alumni, driving engagement and expanding broad-based donor support in strategic ways to provide a sustainable source of revenue in support of Yale’s mission. As an Assistant/Associate Director, you may also support student events by providing event management and marketing strategy and serve as a resource to annual fund professional school colleagues. The ideal candidate will have demonstrated success in project management while overseeing multiple priorities and be familiar with relational databases. The Yale Alumni Fund is an integral component of Yale University's For Humanity Campaign, a university-wide fundraising initiative that aims to address the most critical challenges facing our world. This multi-year campaign is scheduled to conclude on June 30, 2026.

Note that business title and salary will be commensurate with experience.

Required Skills and Abilities:

1. Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Outstanding organizational and interpersonal skills, including attention to detail. Ability to handle diverse, simultaneous tasks and attend to follow-through.
2. Professionalism, maturity, and the ability to maintain strict confidentiality. Commitment to an inclusive workplace.
3. Highly motivated and energetic, ability to show initiative and work independently.
4. Outgoing personality and ability to initiate and enjoy direct communication with alumni; customer-service orientation.
5. Demonstrated proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite tools and the willingness to learn new online tools and database programs as needed.

Preferred Skills and Abilities:

Familiarity with fundraising/relational/marketing databases. Demonstrated success in project management while overseeing multiple priorities.

Principal Responsibilities

1. Develops revenue and donor goals; develops and implements effective fundraising programs for each assigned class or constituency, including external personal visits, personalized written campaigns, phonathons, social media, direct mail, and email.
2. Recruits, trains, and manages a substantial group of alumni volunteers; creates communications to large number of volunteers; supervises mass mailings to volunteers; informs volunteers of updated information and deadlines; evaluates individual donor and volunteer needs and provides other personal support. Has the authority to represent the University to alumni donors and volunteers.
3. Advises, educates, and solicits potential alumni donors through external face-to-face meetings, phone contacts, and written communications.
4. Monitors, on a weekly basis, annual giving solicitation strategies as well as participation and dollar goals for all supported classes. Identifies opportunities/needs to adjust strategies in order to reach fund raising goals. Implements new and modified strategies as needed.
5. Continually reviews alumni donor profiles to identify potential top annual donors and determines individual solicitation strategies.
6. Develops, fosters and maintains positive alumni relations to keep alumni engaged and disposed to give back to the University.
7. Coordinates special annual programs with a targeted focus.
8. Plans and attends meetings and events on and off campus.
9. May perform other duties as assigned.

Required Education and Experience

Bachelor's Degree in a related field and two years of direct fundraising, marketing, communications or volunteer management experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience.