Director of Campaign and Prospect Management
The Thacher School
Ojai, CA
Anticipated Start Date: TBD
Description
Thacher seeks an experienced development professional who is familiar with capital campaign and prospect management. This position will occupy a key role on the Lead Gifts Team and be critical to the success of the School’s fundraising efforts.
Responsibilities
Prospect Moves Management and Reporting
Proactively manage and assign all prospect assignments
Track and monitor all capital campaign solicitation activity including meeting regularly with fundraisers, managing Lead Gift Team meetings and tracking the activity of donor pipelines.
Partner with director of stewardship to ensure collaboration between teams with shared donors
Ensure collaboration with Annual Fund team especially regarding donors assigned to Lead Gifts Team members
Works with director of development operations to run any and all campaign reports including prospect pipelines
Volunteer Management, Stewardship and Cultivation
Support the work of the Capital Campaign Steering Committee Create campaign briefings for head of school and board chair
Support the director of stewardship with a communication plan for major donors and maintain an updated list of naming opportunities and materials. Executes small campaign related events (aka dialogue dinners, cultivation events).
Customizing campaign materials keeps them updated and organized in a place where relationship managers have access.
Prepares package of materials, to include proposals, as needed for donor meetings. Needs are identified by the director of advancement, campaign director, relationship managers, and volunteer solicitors.
Requirements
A bachelor’s degree (B.A.) or equivalent years of experience is required. Ideal candidates will have multiple years of experience in Development and have a familiarity with moves management and capital campaigns.
Experience with Raiser’s Edge or a similar platform is required including the ability to enter and retrieve data, generate reports, and track progress.
To be successful in this role, an individual must collaborate very well with others including “managing up” to fundraisers and other leadership. A criminal background check must be successfully completed before employment can begin.
The physical requirements described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position.
As prescribed by law, reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Salary Range and Employee Benefits
Salary Range is $95,000-$110,000.
Final salary is based on experience relevant to the role and internal equity. The Alumni and Development Offices offers a hybrid, flexible work environment. Thacher offers a competitive total rewards package, which includes a 403(b) match, healthcare coverage, and a broad range of other benefits including full tuition remission for eligible dependents, use of campus facilities and generous professional development support. Housing is not included in this role.
How to Apply for this Job
Send a cover letter and resume via email to the attention of Sara Billings, Director of Advancement: Alumni and Development at: sbilllings@thacher.org.
About the Organization
Founded in 1889 by Sherman Day Thacher, The Thacher School serves academically talented students from 24 states and 9 countries in a rigorous college preparatory experience. The faculty and students live and work closely together on a 427-acre campus nestled in the foothills of the Los Padres National Forest in Ojai, California (85 miles north of Los Angeles).
Honor, fairness, kindness, and truth are the cornerstones of school life. Together, the school community commits to the belief that demands in the academic classroom, when combined with those of mountains and horses, of sports and the arts, produce independent minds, strong bodies, and powerful character. Thacher trains young people in the art of living for their own greatest good and for the greatest good of their fellow citizens in a diverse and changing world.
To that end, the School augments its highly challenging academic program with profound lessons learned from the care of a horse, regular chores around the School, teamwork on playing fields, outstanding instruction in the arts, the give and take of everyday life with schoolmates and teachers, and adventures shared in the wilderness. The aim is to inspire and encourage hard work, integrity, self-reliance, a lifelong love of learning and truth, self-knowledge, and a deep concern for the world in which we live.
The Thacher School is anything but typical. There, students encounter a combination they won’t find anywhere else: demanding academics, tough character-building challenges, and a healthy, authentic community culture that supports them every step of the way. It’s how Thacher succeeds in shaping resilient, compassionate, and ambitious young people who are prepared to take on the challenges of today’s world. Everything Thacher does is guided by a set of deeply held convictions that have been tested, improved, and validated by research. Convictions that add up to the simple truth that high school can and should be a thrilling adventure. Thacher enrolls 260 students.
This year, 55% of students identify as people of color, and 44% of the faculty and staff identify as people of color and LGBTQ+. As an organization, they embrace a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in tangible ways—with thriving affinity spaces, culturally responsive teaching, anti-bias, anti-racist curriculum, with the elevation and celebration of the richness of the many identities and cultural traditions that comprise the community, and with all-gender advisories and residential space. Thacher is also addressing these critical issues in less concrete ways—scrutinizing their culture and confronting attitudes, practices, and assumptions that create barriers to building a fully inclusive community.
About Philanthropy at The Thacher School
With an operating budget of $29 million and an endowment of $170 million, Thacher’s track record of fundraising has a strong foundation on which to continually build. In June 2021, they finished the $197 million “Next Peak” Capital Campaign to enhance the endowment, create a new Dining Hall, and the new Creativity and Technology Center. Annual giving and events programs are also robust—42% percent of alumni and 90% of parents supported the School last year. Thacher is among the most well-supported schools in the nation, raising $5.4 million for the Annual Fund and $13 million in major gifts in the 2022-2023 school year.
Their dedicated, purposeful Institutional Advancement Division includes 15 staff, who prioritize a team-based approach, transparency, accountability, and openness to change. Ambitious fundraising goals are set based on each staff member’s unique portfolio and skillset. With a new Strategic Plan in process and plans to embark on a Capital Campaign with an anticipated goal of at least $250 million, it is an exciting time and the School is poised for continued growth.
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