Assistant Director, Annual Giving Channel Fundraising Operations

Job Summary

The Assistant Director executes and manages the day-to-day operations of the University's centralized annual giving direct marketing programs. This role owns campaign and appeal production, data segmentation, reporting, and vendor coordination for the Chicago Fund, schools, divisions, and units, with a focus on accuracy, timeliness, and continuous improvement of processes that drive donor participation and retention.

Responsibilities

• Owns end-to-end execution of annual giving campaigns across central Advancement, including timelines, production schedules, and quality control.
• Serves as a liaison to assigned unit partners, ensuring appeal execution reflects unit priorities and maintains strong working relationships.
• Builds and manages appeal codes and segmentation in Phoenix (Salesforce Ascend CRM), partnering with Advancement Technology and Prospect Development on complex list pulls, data delivery, and analytics.
• Supports targeted, multichannel (mail, email, social media, texting, social fundraising) solicitation and stewardship strategies, including the University's annual Giving Day.
• Coordinates with external print vendors and mail houses on production specs, schedules, and deliverables.
• Develops and maintains annual giving reporting, tracking progress against participation, retention, and revenue goals.
• Leverages A/B testing and other methods to systematically evaluate campaign effectiveness.
• Maintains rigorous attention to data accuracy and hygiene throughout the appeal lifecycle.
• Identifies opportunities to improve processes, documentation, and data practices within the direct marketing program.
• Handles sensitive donor and gift data with strict discretion and confidentiality.
• Contributes to the development of plans to solicit prospective donors and meet campaign goals.

Minimum Qualifications

• College or university degree in related field.
• Knowledge and skills developed through 2-5 years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree.
• Minimum two years of professional work experience in fundraising, direct marketing, campaign management, data/analytics, operations, or a related field.
• Experience with Salesforce or a similar CRM platform.
• Familiar with data analysis and communicating findings to non-technical audiences.
• Managing cross-functional projects involving multiple stakeholders, timelines, and deliverables.
• Proficient in Microsoft Windows environment, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access.
• Knowledge of SQL, Python, or other data analysis tools/languages.

Working Conditions

This position has a hybrid work schedule which includes weekly in office presence. Standard office environment. Travel to campus and/or non-campus locations for University business. Work evenings and weekends as needed. This position is located in Hyde Park at 5235 South Harper Court.