Director, Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) Advancement
Permanent, full-time position – Guelph, ON
An accomplished advancement professional, you welcome this opportunity to join the University of Guelph’s Alumni Affairs and Development team, and assume accountability for alumni engagement, and annual, major, principal and planned gift fundraising for the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC). Reporting jointly to the Associate Vice-President (Advancement) and the Dean, OVC, you will hold the most senior advancement position in the College and, as such, guide the OVC Advancement team toward an annual target of $10-million in sustained fundraising revenue.
As Director of Ontario Veterinary College Advancement, you will work in partnership with the OVC Dean, members of the executive team, and other key members of the College, to promote and support OVC’s strategic priorities and enhance its reputation as a world-class veterinary college. Along with providing advancement expertise, and strategic advice and support, you will introduce top donors and prospects to the Dean and senior administrators in OVC, and the University President, Vice-Presidents and AVPs. You will also be expected to provide leadership and guidance to a small advancement team of direct reports, while partnering with the Director, Pet Trust to coordinate advancement activities within the Pet Trust portfolio.
In particular, as part of your responsibilities for several key functions related to advancement at the University of Guelph, you will:
- Model the values of respect, integrity, appreciation, forward focus, and empowerment.
- Lead and implement OVC advancement strategy, ensuring alignment of advancement activities with College strategic goals and objectives, in concert with the Directors of OVC Marketing and Communication and OVC Pet Trust.
- Deploy team resources, as needed, to meet the needs of this portfolio, as well as all principal, major, and planned gifts.
- Serve as a principal and major gift fundraiser for the College, including your own fundraising accountabilities, providing oversight and strategic direction toward the fundraising goal to successively build to a sustained $10-million per year.
- Provide oversight of all solicitation of gifts of $1-million or greater within the College.
- Manage all prospect and donor activity to ensure donors are being identified, cultivated, solicited and stewarded, as well as overseeing and monitoring gift planning initiatives.
- Develop strategies and plans to enhance alumni engagement to cultivate and build lifelong relationships between the College and its expanding alumni base, including outreach strategies for events, and volunteer management.
- Develop and implement an overall strategy, annual and multi-year plans accommodating alumni engagement, and annual, major, principal and planned giving objectives and activities through a wide array of programming.
- Plan correspondence with alumni and donors on behalf of the College, including managing alumni and donor concerns/complaints with tact and authority of OVC.
REQUIREMENTS
As the preferred candidate for the leadership role of Director, Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) Advancement, you must be a strategic and critical thinker and a collaborative relationship builder with a profile that includes the following experience, skills and qualifications:
- A university degree;
- Demonstrated progressive experience in fundraising, with a proven track record of success securing principal and major ($1M+) gifts from a variety of stakeholders;
- Experience leading and managing team members and volunteers, and advising senior administrators;
- Demonstrated ability to think and act strategically and creatively in a dynamic, high-pressure work environment, exercising tact, diplomacy, discretion and good judgment;
- Proficiency in business management and development, including budget planning and analysis;
- Capacity to build consensus and influence direction and priorities;
- Knowledge of the business community, and related issues and challenges;
- Strategic planning, people management and administrative skills to lead an advancement team, ensuring fundraisers and other team members have both individual and group success;
- Good interpersonal skills and ability to deal effectively with diverse groups of people, including donors and prospects, senior administration, colleagues, and alumni;
- Ability to anticipate, identify, and respond to the needs and interests of varied audiences;
- Proven ability to lead groups towards completion of long-term goals in dynamic environments;
- Excellent written and oral communication skills;
- Experience managing the personnel and resource requirements of competing projects and shifting between projects.
ASSETS:
- A Certified Fund Raising Executive designation;
- Fundraising experience in a university or public sector environment or a comparable setting with complex organizational structures;
- Knowledge of the veterinary field.
In keeping with the University’s commitment to support a community of wellness for its employees, you will be eligible to request a flexible work arrangement. An important area of growth for the team is in building an inclusive, equitable and diverse team reflected throughout the organization. Following the lead of our unit’s Equity Diversity and Inclusion Committee, we recognize we have more work to do in this area and are committed to the journey of learning, growing and improving. Applicants who identify as belonging to an equity-seeking group are encouraged to apply.
The University of Guelph (www.uoguelph.ca) is one of Canada’s leading research-intensive comprehensive institutions, with a record of outstanding scholarship in the arts, humanities, social sciences, life sciences, physical and engineering sciences, agriculture and veterinary sciences. This is your chance to join us in our endeavour to improve life.
To view a detailed posting for the role of Director, Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) Advancement, please go to our website at www.uoguelph.ca/jobs. Applications, quoting Hiring #2022-0211, must be sent to: careers@uoguelph.ca.
At the University of Guelph, fostering a culture of inclusion is an institutional imperative. The University invites and encourages applications from all qualified individuals, including from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in employment, who may contribute to further diversification of our Institution.