Director of Donor Relations
Position Overview
Organization: McMaster University
Title: Director of Donor Relations
Reports to: Susan Wright, Senior Director, Advancement Campaign
Team: Manager, Advancement (Events); Manager, Stewardship and Gift Documentation; Senior Development Officer and Manager, Donor Relations
Location: Three campus locations (Hamilton, Burlington and downtown Toronto – 180 Bloor). McMaster University supports flexible work, and this is a hybrid role, and flexibility is required to support donor needs. This role will require occasional travel, and some evening and weekend events.
Is This You?
You are excited at the prospect of leading the Donor Relations and Stewardship strategy for one of Canada’s leading Universities as they plan their first campaign in over a decade.
You consider yourself to be a ‘do-er’, you like rolling up your sleeves and executing on the strategy you’ve been instrumental in developing alongside your highly capable team. You are a strong stewardship professional and bring creativity to the strategies you implement. You enjoy leading a team and motivating, coaching and inspiring your teams to achieve shared goals.
You are a natural collaborator and working in a highly matrixed environment doesn’t intimidate you, rather excites and motivates you. You see the full picture and know what it takes to provide a best-in-class donor experience across faculties and units, as you respect and appreciate all donors, regardless of level or frequency, are McMaster donors and should be treated with a high degree of respect and appreciation.
Lastly, representing a vital function ahead of an upcoming campaign currently in the planning phases excites you. Ideally you have campaign experience and would add value to McMaster’s advancement leadership team to ensure the successful execution of the campaign. If this sounds like you, read on.
The Opportunity
The Director, Donor Relations leads a team and provides strategic oversight to the donor relations and stewardship strategies across the University of significant impact and scope, which includes regular interactions and customized tactical plans to build relationships with the University’s donors.
Donor Relations/Stewardship encompasses three important aspects of building relationships with existing donors: gift acceptance and acknowledgement; gift recognition and appreciation; and accountability and impact reporting. This critical advancement role develops, implements and directs a comprehensive stewardship program that promotes engagement and deepens relationships with McMaster’s donor community.
This is an exciting time to join McMaster as a key advancement leader as they move towards an ambitious campaign for the University’s highest priorities. This role will work closely with advancement leaders in the development of campaign donor recognition strategies and stewardship strategies for the campaign. As a highly collaborative leader by nature, this role will be comfortable working with stakeholders of all kinds and engaging faculty and unit-based partners to drive the development of stewardship plans and initiatives that acknowledge and steward all gifts to the university in a campaign environment.
This leader will be pivotal in elevating McMaster’s fundraising achievements and will lead the effort to ensure that donors experience high-quality interactions with the organization leading to long-term engagement, loyalty, and investment.
About McMaster University
Founded in 1887, McMaster University is a research-intensive public university. McMaster is dedicated to advancing human and societal health and well-being. McMaster is ranked in the world’s Top 80 publicly funded universities by the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings.
With a total student population of more than 33,000, McMaster welcomes students from 120 countries as well as Canada. Home to more than 70 research centres and institutes, McMaster University is comprised of the six faculties of Business (DeGroote School of Business), Engineering, Health Science, Humanities, Science, and Social Sciences. McMaster’s 30-acre main campus, located in the Westdale neighbourhood of Hamilton, Ontario, is comprised of 300 acres of scenic property at the western end of Lake Ontario, between Toronto and Niagara Falls. McMaster University also has three other regional campuses: Burlington, Kitchener- Waterloo, and Niagara.
Advancement at McMaster University
McMaster’s vibrant student experience, world-class research, and community engagement are empowered by the support of thousands of alumni and donors who also believe strongly in McMaster. Together, McMaster’s donors and alumni help make the university what it is today and help nurture the next generation of leaders in our world.
The Advancement leadership team provides overall strategic leadership and direction in the areas of fundraising; developing and building partnerships; and engaging with donors, alumni and stakeholders. The Advancement team also plays a critically important role in advancing McMaster’s strategy, in support of McMaster’s ambitious vision, in partnership with the academic and administrative leaders across the University. The Advancement team has a centralized/decentralized structure, with strategies established and coordinated centrally, along with some programs and services (e.g. Annual Giving, Leadership Giving, Principal Giving, Corporate Giving, Estate Giving & Legacy Planning, Stewardship, overarching Alumni programs, Research & Prospect Analytics, and Gift Processing services), whereas other programs and services are delivered ‘locally’ through decentralized, dedicated Development and Alumni staff embedded within the faculties and units.
Leadership
Lili Litwin, Vice President, University Advancement
Lili Litwin joined McMaster on June 1, 2023, as McMaster’s new Vice-President, University Advancement.
As a leading Canadian advancement expert, Litwin has worked across the research, hospital, charitable and university sectors. In addition to serving as executive director of Advancement at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, she spent five years as president of the St. Michael’s Foundation at St. Michael’s Hospital and Providence Healthcare, Unity Health Toronto. In both roles, she led fundraising campaigns that surpassed their goals, developed strong and diverse advancement teams, and liaised with academic partners on governance and donor stewardship.
Lili graduated from York University with a B.Ed. Her earlier work experience includes time as Vice- President of Development at the Canadian Centre for Diversity and with ONEXONE, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of children in health and education.
Susan Wright, Senior Director, Advancement Campaign
Susan Wright is the Senior Director, Advancement Campaign at McMaster University. Prior to taking on this role in January 2024, Susan was the Director of Stewardship & Donor Relations, a position she held since 2006. As the Senior Director of the Campaign, Susan is responsible for the planning and orchestration of what will be McMaster’s largest and most ambitious fundraising campaign to date. This includes drafting and managing the deliverables within the campaign plan, budget development, volunteer management and special events. As Director of Stewardship, Susan led a team of stewardship and event professionals to provide a comprehensive suite of pro-active stewardship and donor-centred programs and initiatives for McMaster’s top supporters. Susan’s portfolio includes bespoke principal donor stewardship, events, recognition, endowment reporting and supporting the advancement team on areas of best practice in stewardship and donor relations.
Susan has been an active volunteer for the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE) and has presented on various topics at numerous CCAE, CASE and ADRP conferences. Susan is a past board member of CCAE Canada and Past-President of CCAE-Ontario.
Key Duties & Responsibilities
Leading, Planning and Consulting
- Models a culture of collaboration, integration and service to support the University’s core academic and research missions
- Provides trusted leadership and direction to University-wide stewardship and donor relations strategies , as well as supporting Faculty and unit(s) to integrate policies, practices and best practices within their advancement teams
- Leads a high performance team of stewardship professionals committed to fulfilling the vision, goals and priorities necessary to achieve the short and long-term goals of the University
Operational Leadership
- Develops and leads a customized stewardship program to meaningfully engage and recognize all donors to further support strategic priorities of the University
- Develops and oversees strategic initiatives and annual operating plans for stewarding McMaster’s significant funders across the University who can assist in achieving McMaster’s institutional objectives
- Works in collaboration with Vice-President, University Advancement, and senior advancement leaders to proactively structure and implement strategic engagement and recognition opportunities, including new program development and moves management strategy and ensures the department activities are aligned with the overall University Advancement business plans
- Leads the development and implementation of customized stewardship plans to ensure that our most significant donors are recognized and stewarded in a way that is meaningful to them, thereby strengthening their relationship with the University
- Interfaces with McMaster’s significant donors to create unique, bold and meaningful engagement and recognition opportunities to recognize all gifts to the University
- Designs new stewardship strategies that support the excellent stewardship of all gifts to McMaster University, which enables University Advancement’s key success factors, including the development and implementation of policies, practices and tools to ensure that the University fulfills, at minimum, all requirements as outlined in each donor gift agreement
- Supports the development and strategic use of advancement events to engage and recognize donors to the University
- Provides strategic leadership to, and on-going consultation to Faculty and units their respective advancement teams in relation to stewardship at the University
- Provides direction to stewardship professionals across campus to enhance collaboration, share best practices and deliver exceptional donor relations programming across the university
- In close collaboration with Senior Director, Advancement Campaign and advancement leadership, leads the development of the campaign donor recognition strategy and donor recognition activities for the campaign
- Provides direct leadership to the stewardship department, a team of stewardship and donor relations professionals
- Oversees fund reporting to donors, as well as fund stewardship activities that ensure donor funds are spent and used according to donor intent
- Acts as a trusted advisor across the University for all stewardship and donor relations activities.
- Develops, implements and evaluates policies, practices and tools to ensure that the University fulfills recognition and stewardship obligations as stated in gift agreements
- Develops McMaster’s most complex funder gift agreements (e.g. partnership gifts) and provides consultation to the Vice-President, University Advancement and senior leaders to resolve the most complex gift agreement issues
- Leads, consults on best practices for the team and University on how to mobilize, engage and steward significant funders
- Represents the University, with the team, at community and University events, nationally and internationally
- Works closely with other areas of University Advancement to support the success of the operation’s annual goals as well as Advancement’s mission and strategic goals
- Integrates the University’s brand and marketing with the stewardship and advancement events programs
- Annually develops a comprehensive and measurable annual operating plan and budget for stewardship and donor relations.
- Leads and oversees the stewardship program’s finance, human resources, and administration functions
- Develop, implement and evaluate the University’s recognition strategy, including naming lists for all University buildings, provide consult to University senior leadership on all existing recognition activities for naming on campus, including the governance for naming approvals
- Budget accountability for stewardship, including the establishment of program expense projections, and development of cost projections for the University
- Develops and implements strategies to produce and disseminate marketing and communication materials that support stewardship for the University
- Remains abreast of best practices in the field with respect to stewardship
- Ensures the stewardship team maximizes all use of technology including the use of Advance to track and report on all stewardship activities
Qualifications & Competencies
- A University degree
- A McMaster degree is an asset
- A Master’s degree or advancement designation is an asset
- Minimum of 10 years’ experience in an advancement leadership capacity for a complex and multi-dimensional institution
- Experience leading and managing teams of high-performing, donor-centred development professionals
- Experience developing, implementing and evaluating stewardship and donor relation strategic priorities, and change management
- Experience in policy and governance development and implementation
- Experience and expertise in the most complex and significant gifting agreements
Must have the following skills and abilities:
- Vision, and the ability to think strategically with a creative and entrepreneurial mindset
- Superior skills in critical analysis, judgement, decision-making, building effective relationships, and communications (oral, facilitation and written)
- High level of initiative, tact and diplomacy
- Excellent judgement and discretion
- High level of comfort and credibility working with senior academic leaders, funders and government officials
- Ability to work at the highest strategic levels, to gain and maintain the trust of senior leadership and supporters and also take strategy and move it through to tactics and action
- Ability to navigate and be effective within a complex organization that values collaboration in addition to individuality and creativity
- Funder-centered and goal-oriented with a reputation for integrity and transparency
- Strong skills with computers and relational databases (Advance)
Working at McMaster
At McMaster, you will find a community of talented individuals who are inspired by the University’s Mission and the sense of purpose this mission brings. It is through these talented individuals, their creativity and drive for results that McMaster University has earned its reputation as being Canada’s “most innovative” University.
Leaders in The Management Group (TMG) are vital contributors to McMaster’s renowned culture of creativity, innovation and excellence. They demonstrate the value they place on their leaders with a highly competitive total rewards package featuring compensation, well-being, growth and inclusion provisions.
McMaster University strives to embody the values of integrity, quality, inclusiveness and teamwork, and has a strong commitment to employment equity. Building an inclusive community with a shared purpose is something that McMaster University prioritizes. They believe it is important for their workforce to reflect the diversity of their students and community. The diversity of their workforce is at the core of their innovation and creativity and is a key area that strengthens their research capabilities and teaching excellence.
Compensation & Benefits
To learn more about the total rewards available to the successful candidate, please access McMaster’s interactive guide with a summary of the compensation, benefits, retirement income, work life, development and career opportunities, and performance and recognition provisions offered at McMaster. To further explore the extensive total rewards program, detailed information can be accessed through the links throughout the guide. The hiring range for this position is $125,000 – $145,000 plus a performance pay bonus eligibility of up to 10% of base salary, along with an excellent benefits package.
Application Instructions
If you would like to apply, please send your CV and cover letter to Lindsay Preston (lindsay@phcap.ca) by May 30, 2025 at 5pm ET. Accommodation is available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process. If you require any accommodation, please notify Lindsay Preston.
The University seeks qualified candidates who share their commitment to equity and inclusion, who will contribute to the diversification of ideas and perspectives, and especially welcomes applications from indigenous (First Nations, Métis or Inuit) peoples, members of racialized communities, persons with disabilities, women, and persons who identify as 2SLGBTQ+.
McMaster University is located on the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee and Mississauga Nations and within the lands protected by the “Dish With One Spoon” wampum agreement. The diversity of their workforce is at the core of their innovation and creativity and strengthens their research and teaching excellence. In keeping with its Statement on Building an Inclusive Community with a Shared Purpose, McMaster University strives to embody the values of respect, collaboration and diversity and has a strong commitment to employment equity. We thank you in advance for your interest. Only qualified candidates will be contacted.