Executive Director, Constituent Relations and Development

The Executive Director, Constituent Relations and Development serves as the chief advancement officer and strategic leader for the Milken Institute School of Public Health (SPH). Serving as an integral member of the George Washington University Division of Advancement and the senior leadership team for GW Health and Medicine Advancement, the Executive Director designs, leads, and executes a comprehensive, multi-million-dollar fundraising and constituent engagement program.

This role plays a crucial role in setting a new path in reimagining why and how alumni, donors, volunteers, and board members are engaged. This role requires an innovative self-starter who is willing to think differently about the activity of engagement, presenting a strong value proposition that counteracts modern shifts in higher education philanthropy.

The Executive Director is responsible for driving transformative philanthropic support and fostering lifelong loyalty to advance GW’s mission of excellence in education, research, scholarship, and public health impact, with an explicit focus on achieving aspirational fundraising, campaign, and constituent participation goals. This is a senior management leadership position within University Advancement, requiring high-level autonomy, executive presence, and strategic decision-making authority.

The Office of Advancement serves as the proverbial ‘front door’ for SPH alumni, healthcare/career partners, and potential students; this role is charged with ensuring first-class customer service across all touchpoints.

Reporting and Collaboration
 

• Direct Reporting: Reports directly to the Associate Vice President of Advancement, Health and Medicine.
• Executive Partnership: Primarily physically located within the SPH, the Executive Director collaborates closely with and provides direct executive counsel to the Dean, department heads, research directors, and senior administrative leadership of the School of Public Health to create and execute annual and long-term advancement plans.
• Strategic Alignment: All constituent engagement activities, advisory council and affinity group strategies, and alumni initiatives led by this position will be developed and executed in close consultation and coordination with the Executive Director of Constituent Engagement and Advancement for Health and Medicine to ensure seamless divisional alignment and maximize collaborative impact.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Coordinates directly with central development major and principal gift teams, planned giving, corporate and foundation relations, and alumni relations colleagues to ensure total alignment, consistency in practice, and a unified approach to the university’s broader campaign frameworks.

Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership & Campaign Oversight

Leads the overarching advancement and engagement strategy for SPH. In partnership with leadership, creates comprehensive strategic plans that include ambitious, realistic fundraising goal-setting, constituent engagement programming, campaign frameworks, strategic messaging, and public health impact narratives.

Team Management & Unit Leadership
Directs, inspires, and directly supervises 1-2 direct reports, with the potential to grow the team in the future. Responsible for hiring decisions, performance management, coaching, mentoring, setting clear metrics, and determining future staffing needs to scale the operation.

Principal, Major Gifts & Pipeline Management
Develop and manage a portfolio of leadership, major and principal gift prospects, with a focus on the net-worth prospects with a major/principal gift focus ($50K to $1M+) using effective partnerships with the Dean, the faculty, and the central development offices. Lead the overall prospect management, donor strategy development, and solicitation activities for SPH, and include targeted travel in support of strengthening these relationships.

Strategic Constituent Engagement
Working in close alignment and coordination with the Executive Director of Constituent Engagement and Advancement for Health and Medicine, develop and execute a comprehensive strategy that engages SPH alumni, council members, donors, and volunteers locally, regionally, and nationally. Elevate the school’s effectiveness of events and programs through feedback mechanisms and data analysis, making budget and programming adjustments as necessary to enhance alumni participation and satisfaction.

Councils & Volunteer Management
In close partnership with Health and Medicine Advancement leadership and the Dean’s Office, develop and implement a robust and streamlined approach to effectively manage the School’s various advisory councils and affinity groups (providing high-value experiences for members and the School). In coordination with central Health & Medicine engagement teams, implements tracking mechanisms and engagement models to elevate alumni participation and fundraising totals.

Leadership Briefing & Strategy Mobilization
Leads and orchestrates all SPH donor, prospect and high-level volunteer strategies. Prepares comprehensive briefing materials, national travel itineraries, and strategic proposals for the University President, Provost, Dean, and Vice President of Advancement for high-level solicitations and relationship-building meetings.

Donor Stewardship & Financial Accountability
Oversees and manages the SPH comprehensive donor stewardship program in collaboration with the University Advancement Donor Relations Stewardship team and the Executive Director of Constituent Engagement for Health and Medicine. This will involve the execution of faculty chairs/installations, customized annual endowment reports, and bespoke acknowledgements. Works closely with the Director of Finance to ensure efficient funds management, complex pledge collection, and strict alignment with donor intent toward the goals of increasing retention rates and elevating existing donors to higher gift levels.

Annual Giving & Communications
Partner collaboratively with leadership in the Health and Medicine Annual Giving and University Advancement Annual Giving Office to plan, execute, and report on SPH annual giving efforts, focusing on unrestricted revenue, donor counts, and lead generation. Partner with University Advancement and School Communications leaders to execute multi-platform outreach to constituents utilizing social media, newsletters, SPH publications, surveys, online communities, and post-event communications to effectively project SPH news and advancement opportunities.

Performs other related duties as assigned. The omission of specific duties does not preclude the supervisor from assigning duties that are logically related to the position.