Vice President, Lawrence Development

Description

Position: Vice President, Lawrence Development

Department: Development

Reports to: Senior Vice President & Chief Development Officer

FLSA Status: Exempt

In recognition that donors seek and deserve authentic engagement and substantive dialogue, desire to transcend the transactional and to partner in pursuit of the transformational, the KU Endowment seeks a Vice President for the Lawrence campus that will embody these principles and inspire the advancement team to do the same. We want a leader. In turn, we will provide what a leader most needs - a supportive, collaborative and open environment.

Salary

The salary for this position starts at $213,900. The final pay will be determined based on several factors, including qualifications, experience, education, and years within the job or industry, with a strong emphasis on maintaining internal equity.

Who We Are And What We’re About

KU Endowment is an independent, nonprofit organization and the official fundraising foundation for the University of Kansas. We partner with donors in providing philanthropic support to build a greater KU.

As an employee of KU Endowment, you’ll witness firsthand the power of our donors’ generosity. You will join a talented and fun group of people who are inspired to help KU through the support of loyal alumni and friends. We connect the philanthropic passions of donors with the needs of students, faculty and programs – and everyone benefits.

People are engaged. Purpose is ignited. Lives are changed.

What We Are Looking For

Reporting to the Chief Development Officer (CDO), the Lawrence Vice President (VP) works closely with the KU Medical Center VP to ensure co-training, collaboration, and celebration. Together, the VPs set the tone for culture and ensure that the fundraising team has an abundance of support, direction, and accountability needed to meet KU Endowment’s (KUE) next campaign. The Lawrence/Edwards Campus VP will directly manage 2-3 Assistant Vice Presidents and, indirectly, the bulk of our fundraising team. VP is responsible for creating and continually evolving systems that keep KUE humming at high productivity and employee satisfaction. They will carry a select portfolio of major gift donors/prospects to support strategic initiatives.

This position requires a dynamic, results-driven leader with proven experience in fundraising strategy development, team leadership, donor relationship management, and organizational development. The VP will play a pivotal role in advancing the university’s philanthropic priorities and cultivating a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement within the fundraising division.

The individual in this position is expected to embrace KU Endowment’s stated core values— curiosity, collaboration, empowerment and excellence—and demonstrate support for them through professional interactions and activities.

What’s a typical day look like?

• Invest in identifying and recruiting staff and develop hiring practices that will project and advance our core values. Ensure that new employees, KUE’s most important investment – are curious, unusually dedicated and a good fit for our organization, that new hires are well trained and fully equipped.
• Foster and continually evolve career-pathing, including 9-box work with AVPs, tailored career development plans co-led by employees themselves, creative professional development opportunities.
• Work closely with the AVP for Business Intelligence, create and monitor data-led fundraising – including geographic or other assignments, wealth ratings, use of artificial intelligence for research and pre-qualification – in order to scale to meet the next campaign.
• Create standard operating procedures for development at KUE that will guide us into the next generation, including: consistent reporting to deans, 1:1 supervision, goal setting, review preparation and delivery, and cross-department collaboration (pods).
• Support AVPs in their own career growth and in leading a curious, ambitious, highly collaborative team.
• Work closely with the AVP of Donor Engagement and lead for Strategic Initiatives, monitor principal gift and major initiative progress using data-informed strategies to identify potential stalls, optimize engagement, and ensure sustained high performance throughout the campaign lifecycle.
• Supervise 2-3 AVPs to support dynamism, celebration, coaching, smart experiments, and career support as well as team productivity and collaboration.
• Work actively with a select group of donors and prospects, to be determined with CDO
  
  

You’ll Be Successful If…

• You Love KU. You believe in the mission of public education and the transformational power of philanthropy — and you’re proud to help tell that story.
• You lead by example and with heart.
• You listen to donors and align their passions with the immense capabilities of the University.
• You reinforce the worth and value of every donor and seek to optimize their lifelong potential to contribute time, talent and treasure.
• You’re a creative and innovative thinker.
  
  

Requirements

What’s required to be considered:

Training and Experience

Bachelor’s degree, a decade of progressive experience and a proven record of leading successful teams and philanthropic initiatives.

Knowledge, Abilities And Skills

Ability to adeptly provide strategic guidance to senior-level leadership; well-developed coaching habit to lead frontline team to historic success; exceptional organizational skills; superior communication and organizational skills; the political savvy and sophistication needed to work effectively in a large, complex institution with multiple campuses; a commitment to creating and fostering a collaborative, team-driven environment. Ability to independently initiate, organize and follow through with program plans and coordinate a wide variety of solicitation activities and supervise numerous projects at the same time. Must be able to establish and maintain effective working relationships and be a visible, influential partner with both internal and external university colleagues.

What separates the best from the rest?

• You’ve created systems that resulted in measurable fundraising success.
• You lift and sustain team morale and satisfaction.
• Your attention to detail and attendance to data identified ways to improve program/processes that led to smoother operations and more dollars raised.
• Your compassion is equal to your ease in difficult conversations – you address issues immediately, directly, and with full intent to support team-driven solutions.
• You inspire – people follow you because they want to, not because you’re at the top of the org chart.
  
  

Physical Requirements

• A valid driver’s license.
• Must have access to reliable transportation to travel between multiple locations for training, donor meetings, networking, events and/or work-related activities.
• Must be able to respond quickly and effectively to directions and safety hazards.
• This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office productivity machinery such as computers, keyboards and a mouse, laptops, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines.
• This is largely a sedentary role; however, some filing is required. This would require the ability to move files, open filing cabinets and bend or stand as necessary.
• The ability to observe details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• The person in this position frequently communicates with donors, colleagues, students, and general public. Must be able to communicate with others effectively.
• Physical effort/lifting is limited - up to 10 pounds
• Light travel required on occasion.
  
  

KU Endowment is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals to enable them to perform the essential functions of the job as regulated by ADA. If you require accommodation for any part of the application process or during employment, please contact [email protected] to discuss your needs.

We’ve Got You Covered

KU Endowment offers a competitive salary with an excellent benefit package including:

• 100% employer-paid pension plan
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) and Roth 401(k) matching program
• Section 125 flexible benefits
• Generous paid leave including holidays, personal and sick leave
• Volunteer and community engagement opportunities
• Paid Parental Leave
• Life, AD&D, short- and long-term disability insurance
• Legal & ID theft protection
• Critical Illness
• Accident and Hospital Indemnity insurance
• KU education assistance
• Free parking
  
  

Sounds good, right? What’s next?

Please include your resume and cover letter. In your letter, address one of the two following questions:

• Describe a time you led organizational change within a development office. What was the catalyst, how did you lead through it, and what were the outcomes?
• How do you build and maintain a high-performing development team? Share your approach to recruitment, coaching, accountability, and culture.
  
  

Submit at https://www.kuendowment.org/careers.In order for us to evaluate writing skill, tone and style, please submit 2 writing samples (created or published within the last year) with your application. Examples of acceptable samples include major internal memos, program descriptions, blog or LinkedIn posts, articles or grants. Samples should reflect your ability to research, report, organize content and communicate creatively and clearly to your readers. This attachment needs to be attached within the application under Upload Additional Files, next to Upload Cover Letter.