Director of Development and Donor Relations

Tougaloo College

A. Postion Summary

Reporting to the Vice President for Institutional Advancement & Strategic Partnerships, the Director of Development and Donor Relations is the College's lead development officer and the architect of its donor relations and stewardship program. The Director partners with the Vice President to set annual and campaign fundraising goals; carries out the cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of donors in support of the College's strategic priorities — including scholarships, academic programs, capital projects, and the College's comprehensive campaign; and ensures every donor to the College is thanked promptly, recognized appropriately, and shown the difference their investment makes.

During the initial year of the appointment, the Director serves as the institutional lead for the Division's development capacity-building consulting engagement, working in tandem with the consultant to stand up the systems, policies, and materials that will carry the College's development program forward. The Director is expected to operate those systems as they come online and to assume full internal responsibility for the functions the consultant supports upon the conclusion of the engagement, ensuring the College's investment in capacity building becomes permanent institutional capability.

The Director works in close partnership with the Manager of Gift Accounting & Advancement Services, the Director of Donor Sponsored Scholarships, the Office of Sponsored Programs and Research, and academic and program leaders across the campus.

Duties

• A. Development and Fundraising

• Partner with the Vice President to develop annual and multi-year fundraising goals, strategies, and work plans for the Division, and track progress against them throughout the year.

• Build, qualify, and manage a portfolio of individual, alumni, and organizational donors and prospects through the full development cycle — identification, research, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship — with documented strategies and contact reports for each relationship.

• Execute solicitations in support of the College's annual giving, scholarship, capital, and campaign priorities, including written appeals, personal asks, and follow-through to gift closure.

• Support the planning and execution of the College's comprehensive campaign, including prospect strategy, campaign communications, and volunteer and leadership engagement.

• Draft compelling cases for support, appeal letters, and gift proposals grounded in the College's mission, history, and strategic plan.

• B. Donor Relations and Stewardship

• Design and operate a tiered donor stewardship program that ensures timely, personal, and appropriately scaled acknowledgment of every gift to the College, from annual fund donors to transformational investors.

• Produce donor impact reports, endowed fund reports, and stewardship communications, working with the Director of Donor Sponsored Scholarships and the Manager of Gift Accounting & Advancement Services to ensure accuracy of fund balances, awards, and student recipient information.

• Administer donor recognition programs, including giving societies, naming recognition, donor walls and listings, and recognition events, in accordance with College policy and gift agreements.

• Monitor fulfillment of donor intent for restricted and endowed gifts, and flag for the Vice President any gift whose terms are at risk of noncompliance.

• Coordinate donor-facing events and campus visits, including scholarship donor-recipient events, funder site visits, and campaign recognition activities.

• C. Capacity Building and Consultant Transition

• Serve as the Division's day-to-day institutional point of contact for the development capacity-building consulting engagement, coordinating access, information, and scheduling and keeping the Vice President informed of progress against deliverables.

• Participate fully in staff training delivered under the engagement and support the coordination of board and leadership training sessions.

• Implement and operate the systems and materials produced under the engagement — including the prospect management system and workflows, the case-for-support framework and template library, and the development policies and procedures manual — as they are delivered and accepted.

• By the conclusion of the consulting engagement, assume full internal ownership of the development functions the consultant supports, including prospect management operations, development planning, and the maintenance of development policies, templates, and training materials.

• D. Corporate and Foundation Relations Support

• Assist the Vice President in cultivating and managing the College's corporate and foundation relationships, including prospect research, briefing materials, meeting preparation, and follow-up correspondence.

• Support the drafting of letters of inquiry, concept papers, and proposals to corporate and foundation funders at the Vice President's direction, in collaboration with program staff and the Office of Fiscal Affairs.

• Maintain the calendar of corporate and foundation deadlines — proposals, reports, renewals — and ensure no reporting obligation to a funder is missed.

• E. Systems, Data, and Collaboration

• Maintain complete, current, and confidential records in the donor database — contact reports, proposal tracking, relationship histories, and stewardship touchpoints — and uphold data hygiene standards for the development pipeline.

• Prepare pipeline, activity, and revenue reports for the Vice President, Cabinet, and Board as requested.

• Serve as a collaborative member of the Division, supporting alumni giving efforts and special projects as assigned.

• Perform other duties as assigned by the Vice President for Institutional Advancement & Strategic Partnerships.

• Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree or CFRE credential preferred.

• Five or more years of progressively responsible experience in development, donor relations, annual giving, or major gifts, preferably in higher education or a complex nonprofit; HBCU experience a plus.

• Demonstrated success in closing gifts and managing donor relationships through the full cycle from identification through stewardship.

• Experience contributing to fundraising goal setting, development planning, or campaign planning.

• Exceptional writing ability, including persuasive appeals, proposals, and clear, accurate stewardship reports; strong presentation and interpersonal skills.

• Working knowledge of donor CRM systems (e.g., Raiser's Edge, Blackbaud) and prospect research tools; disciplined recordkeeping habits and the capacity to adopt and operate new systems.

• Understanding of restricted-gift compliance, gift agreements, and donor-intent administration.

• Commitment to Tougaloo College's mission, history, and legacy of leadership in education and social justice.

Measures of Success:

• Fundraising goals set jointly with the Vice President, and dollars raised and solicitations completed against those goals.

• Portfolio activity: qualified prospects added, substantive contacts completed, and asks made each quarter.

• Stewardship performance: gift acknowledgment turnaround time, on-time endowed-fund and funder reports, and donor retention rates.

• Transition readiness: systems, policies, and materials delivered under the consulting engagement adopted, operated, and fully owned in-house by the engagement's conclusion.

• Data quality: completeness and currency of contact reports and pipeline records in the donor database.

• Date of Position Opening

• 2026-09-25

• Application Deadline

• Until position filled

Salary

Commensurate with experience

Job listing

TOUGALOO COLLEGE IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER

ALL APPLICANTS WILL BE CONSIDERED WITHOUT REGARD TO RACE, COLOR, RELIGION, SEX, AGE, NATIONAL ORIGIN, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, DISABILITY, CITIZENSHIP, VETERAN STATUS, GENETIC INFORMATION, GENDER IDENTITY; OR ANY OTHER LEGALLY PROTECTED STATUS. THE COLLEGE PROHIBITS SEXUAL HARASSMENT, INCLUDING SEXUAL VIOLENCE.