Vice President Dennis Cross leads University Advancement and reports directly to President Ruscio.
Dennis’s organizational structure includes University Development; Alumni Programs; Communications & Public Affairs; Special Events; and Special Programs.
When he joined W&L in October 2004, Dennis began the process of constructing a focused, integrated, and highly professional advancement function. The results of this assessment guided his reformulation of each of the Advancement Offices and paved the way for the establishment of the Advancement Operations unit. Dennis recruited Tres Mullis from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College in March 2006 to become Executive Director of W&L’s Development Office.
The Advancement team has worked together to build a structured and disciplined approach to cultivate and communicate with this group more effectively, and with broader, more consistent outreach from the University. In turn, this institutional competency has become a foundation on which the Development Office has been constructed. With accurate and accessible data such a critical element to the achievement of his overall vision, attracting the right person for this role is extremely important to the entire Advancement Office.
The assistant director of advancement operations will provide information access, business intelligence, and technology leadership for the office of university development. The assistant director will be a primary provider of ad-hoc and standard queries, reports, and analysis to the office of university development and the entire university advancement division.
•Assist in oversight of the gift (and fees) processing function providing guidance on IRS guidelines, gift acceptance issues, questions on hard/soft credit, and questions on donor intentions. Serve as a secondary contact with business office on the creation of new funds, processing errors, and related issues.
•Collaborate with a staff of five including: three gift accounting specialists, the constituent records coordinator, and the acknowledgement and records specialist.
•Support the work of the director of advancement operations and serve as the front-line representative for the department in the director’s absence.
•Support the information needs of Advancement Staff by handling ad-hoc and scheduled requests for information.
•Evaluate and develop queries, reports, and analysis for staff and administration.
•Oversee the data integrity group, the goal of which is to codify, and achieve consensus on, data coding matters in RE.
•Manage the operations of the training program (which covers Raiser’s Edge, other software applications, data codex, and best practices), including surveying users to determine topics of interest, collaborating with the director on prioritization of classes, developing training materials, and teaching specific classes as assigned by the director.
•Write reports, including developing a reporting program to be used with data culled from a proposed data warehousing system.
•Proactively steward our relationship with other University units, in order to identify areas of mutual interest, particularly in the area of data integrity. Work with the director to develop an action plan to improve the quality of processes in identified areas.
•Manage and develop the class agent portal, a targeted reporting system facilitated through Blackbaud NetCommunity.
•Assist in the maintenance of all records in the RE database. Identify and manage ongoing data cleanup projects and special projects related to data integrity and integration with third party sources. Perform regular data integrity checks, identify problem areas, and propose proactive solutions.
•Assist in all testing of upgrades and patches to the Raiser’s Edge and BBNC, and other software applications as needed.
•Propose and assist in implementation of Raiser’s Edge for additional University staff
•Propose and implement additional standards for entering data in RE and oversee how important data will be fully used.
•Assist with maximizing efficient use of enterprise database systems and processes including but not limited to: gift processing, receipting and acknowledgment processes, research and prospect tracking and management.
•Assist in proposing and implementing strategies and processes for using the web (and/or other web technologies) in conjunction with Raiser’s Edge and data integrity efforts.
•Assist in the implementation of mobile giving pages through Blackbaud NetCommunity; liaison with University Communications, ITS, and other units as necessary.
•Perform comparative analysis among vendors and make recommendations for technology implementations.
•Assist in the full implementation of PaperSave scanning software. Propose and implement plan for document retention for existing paper files stored in the development building, alumni affairs office and the Library.
•Assist in the maintenance of the Operations policies and procedures manual.
•Assist in preparing all progress summary reports and annual reports to administration, CASE, USNWR, VSE, ABA and others by request.
•Attend meetings as needed.
•Other related duties and responsibilities as assigned.
Minimum Qualifications:
The ideal candidate will have the following qualifications:
•Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university required; concentration in information technology, accounting or related major(s) desirable
•Extensive knowledge of and experience in database management and information networks
•Prior advancement services experience
•Proficiency in all MS Office professional suite applications and the Internet
•Collegiality, a positive outlook, and a desire to set an example and lead others through a strong work ethic
•Ability to be self-directed and proactively suggest process improvement
•Creativity, goal orientation, and attention to details.
To view full job description and to apply on-line, visit http://jobs.wlu.edu/postings/1431 [4]