General Accountability

The Director, Alumni and Donor Engagement plays a leadership role in engaging alumni, cultivating donor relationships, and promoting a culture of philanthropy. Reporting to the Associate Vice President, Advancement, the Director, Alumni and Donor Engagement is accountable for providing strategic direction and leadership in the implementation of a comprehensive alumni and donor engagement strategy, as well as execution of strategic marketing and communications that encourage philanthropic support for Sask Polytech. The Director actively seeks opportunities to engage with individuals, groups, and networks to learn and understand their needs, developing value-add programs for engagement while ensuring alignment in support of Sask Polytech’s mission and mandate. The Director role is an external focused, visible and accessible point of contact representing Sask Polytech with professionalism in cultivating and coordinating the institution’s involvement in a variety of individual and group relationships. These relationships will assist the ongoing development, reputation, and philanthropic support of Sask Polytech.

The Director is responsible for implementation of strategies that attract stakeholders to become supporters and provide alumni and donors with meaningful programming that encourage a supportive community. The Director will employ strategic marketing and communications to identify key alumni and donor segments and create alumni engagement programming that builds awareness, grows affinity, and increases participation and support of Sask Polytech priorities.

The Director will work collaboratively with other Advancement leads, and have regular interaction with senior leaders (President, Vice-Presidents, AVPs, Deans, Program Heads) on a daily basis. This individual will be required to assess and ensure requisite staffing levels and skill sets, identify, obtain and monitor funding requirements, identify and manage risk factors, and ensure the appropriate management of alumni and donor engagement activity.

Job Context

The Director, Alumni and Donor Engagement is responsible for strategic planning, donor relations, and alumni engagement program development, and is primarily accountable for:

This position is frequently a point of first contact for both internal and external stakeholders, and requires tact, diplomacy, foresight, and sound judgement being effectively exercised to ensure continued goodwill, strong relationships and financial support of Saskatchewan Polytechnic. On a daily basis, the Director will interact with academic and professional services employees, other senior leaders within Saskatchewan Polytechnic, such as Deans and other school leaders, prospects, donors, alumni, and other external stakeholders.. This leadership role will also work collaboratively with other post-secondary institutions local, nationally, and internationally, representing Saskatchewan Polytechnic at the national level. Travel is required on a frequent basis.

The Director will have a strong sense of accountability and enjoy leading and being part of a team that collaborates to achieve goals and reach successful outcomes. The individual will be one who learns from experience and can easily apply insights gained across a variety of internal programs as well as from external sources. The Director will also possess a well-founded propensity to challenge the status quo in alumni and donor engagement, while appreciating the importance of effectively managing organizational change—all within an integrated business model.

Working in alignment with Saskatchewan Polytechnic policies and procedures, the Canadian Income Tax Act, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) guidelines, and Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) ethical principles and standards, this position builds and maintains collaborative relationships with representatives of the institution, donors, and prospects to meet fundraising objectives. The Alumni Engagement team is part of the Office of Advancement, which includes Advancement Services, and Development (fundraising) teams.

Preference is for this position to be based at the Saskatchewan Polytechnic Administrative Office in Saskatoon (alternate locations may be Moose Jaw, Prince Albert or Regina).

Accountabilities

People Management
 Effectively recruit, select, train, develop and motivate employees through implementation of Saskatchewan Polytechnic human resource policies and practices, in consideration of the terms and conditions of the collective agreement.
 Lead the Alumni and Donor Engagement team, providing expertise, mentorship, coaching and develop opportunities to enhance performance, and to enable direct reports to achieve their accountabilities.
 Address people management issues with direct reports, including discipline (up to and including termination) where appropriate, applied in a timely manner and with respect for provisions of the Collective Agreement, and Saskatchewan Polytechnic policies.
 Work with direct reports to develop clear performance objectives. Monitor overall effectiveness in meeting these performance objectives and work to overcome obstacles as they arise.
 Provide leadership and expertise serving as a resource to academic and professional services employees on Advancement fundraising and engagement programs.
 Ensure a positive, diverse, and inclusive work and learning environment.
 Develop resourcing/workforce plan(s) for project and program initiatives identifying the staffing levels, knowledge, skills and abilities required to successfully meet objectives.
 Demonstrate and encourage cross-enterprise collaboration across the unit by aligning work with business needs, use of team norms, and constructive communications.

Alumni and Donor Strategy and Programming
 Lead alumni and donor engagement programs intended to broaden awareness, affinity, and fundraising support for Saskatchewan Polytechnic; including aligning the direction, goals, objectives, and annual reporting, to ensure they are consistent with the overall strategic direction of Saskatchewan Polytechnic.
 Provide expertise, recommendations and solutions to program design and ensure consistency of a donor-centric experience across all programming across the institution.
 Oversee alumni and donor communications, setting integrated marketing communications strategies in support of program objectives.
 Provide education and support to the team and staff related to alumni and donor programs to ensure consistency throughout business practices.
 Define clear outcomes for the programs, identify performance measures, and follow a regular review and evaluation process to support continuous improvement.
 Collaborate with institutional departments and units to maximize partnership opportunities.
 Engage a wider network of alumni and donor relations professionals by liaising with others in the industry to seek out, adopt and share best practices.
 Continually challenge status quo within the alumni programs and strive for continual enhancement while effectively managing organizational change.
 Participate in Advancement strategic and operational planning, including budget preparation.
 Support, lead, and be accountable for the implementation of Alumni and Donor Engagement priorities and initiatives.
 Collaborate with Advancement Services, and Development leadership to support a continual improvement and common service delivery model of Alumni and Donor Engagement that positively impacts alumni, donors, and friends.
 Foster a collaborative, alumni and donor-centric orientation among staff.

Donor Engagement
 Lead the development of customized, multi-channel strategies to engage diverse donor constituencies, including events and activities (both created internally with Advancement and integrated with events hosted at Sask Polytech), social media, digital and print publications and other means, as well as 1:1 visits with constituents.
 Conduct personal visits with donors and prospects to support qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship activities. Conduct solicitations as directed.
 Ensure contacts with donors and prospects are documented and recorded in Raiser’s Edge in a timely manner.
 Support the work of volunteers engaged in support of alumni engagement programming and fundraising initiatives through effective recruitment, training, motivation, communication and recognition.

Resource Allocation and Management
 Develop and manage operational budgets in alignment with the Advancement strategy, including Advancement Services and Development areas. Ensure accordance with generally accepted accounting practices and initiate corrective action as required.
 Ensure resources are allocated in accordance with the multi-year business planning model.
 Ensure the general safeguarding and stewardship of all resources within Advancement 
Develop innovative solutions to resource challenges.
 Conduct regular reviews of performance against objectives, monitor financial performance to ensure adherence to budgets, and provide monthly ad-hoc reports to the AVP Advancement as required.

Relationships Internal:
 Work closely with the Associate Vice President, Advancement for collaboration of alumni engagement activities that involve the President, Vice Presidents, Associate Vice Presidents, Deans, and Directors to ensure Advancement strategy is integrated across the institution.
 Provide strong leadership presence and accessibility, enabling and encouraging open, transparent, and bold thinking, to generate new ideas that continually enhance the organization.
 Support a culture of entrepreneurial spirit, curiosity, and experimentation within the team and across partnerships. Remove barriers and build systems and processes that encourage and reward innovative ideas and philanthropic opportunities.

External:
 Engage in consultations and relationship building with alumni and external audiences to support the President, Board of Directors, Vice Presidents, and other management. Represent Saskatchewan Polytechnic externally, in partnership with other senior managers.
 Maintain a positive and proactive relationship with strategic vendors to ensure mutually beneficial and long-term relationships that result in Saskatchewan Polytechnic receiving the best value and service.
 Liaise and collaborate with leaders in other post-secondary institutions on shared initiatives.
 Build a network of contacts and information sources to keep current and informed on matters and trends related to Alumni Engagement to enhance programs and services to donors and alumni and maintain a high-functioning operation.

Bachelor’s degree required, master’s degree or other advanced education strongly preferred. A recognized professional accreditation such as CFRE would be considered an asset.

The successful incumbent will bring a minimum of five years of directly related progressive experience in donor relations, alumni engagement, as well as leading change in a complex, rapidly changing environment and experience in promoting teamwork, collaboration and partnership in an inclusive manner. All candidates must display a proven track record of applying engagement and philanthropic methodologies towards successful outcomes.