Executive Director of Development, Penn Libraries

Executive Director of Development, Penn Libraries

University Overview

The University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in Philadelphia, is a world-renowned leader in education, research, and innovation. This historic, Ivy League school consistently ranks among the top 10 universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report survey. Penn has 12 highly-regarded schools that provide opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and continuing education, all influenced by Penn's distinctive interdisciplinary approach to scholarship and learning. As an employer Penn has been ranked nationally on many occasions with the most recent award from Forbes who named Penn one of America's Best Large Employers in 2023.

Penn offers a unique working environment within the city of Philadelphia. The University is situated on a beautiful urban campus, with easy access to a range of educational, cultural, and recreational activities. With its historical significance and landmarks, lively cultural offerings, and wide variety of atmospheres, Philadelphia is the perfect place to call home for work and play.

The University offers a competitive benefits package that includes excellent healthcare and tuition benefits for employees and their families, generous retirement benefits, a wide variety of professional development opportunities, supportive work and family benefits, a wealth of health and wellness programs and resources, and much more.

Posted Job Title
Executive Director of Development, Penn Libraries

Job Profile Title
Senior Director, School/Center Development

Job Description Summary
Unit Overview:

The Penn Libraries provides a network of information resources and knowledge services that are vital to teaching, research, and learning at the University of Pennsylvania. This network includes 19 physical libraries, recognized for their collections, and a digital library known for innovation and richness of content. Through dynamic programming and exhibitions, and through the acquisition and preservation of literary and artistic artifacts, the Penn Libraries documents a wealth of social and historical periods, bringing scholarship to life at the University and in the various communities it serves.

The Penn Libraries development program has distinguished itself as a destination for donors who want to support and engage with the breadth of the University's academic enterprise. With its placement at the heart of the University, Penn Libraries is uniquely positioned to impact the entire institution and provide a comprehensive donor experience. Recent fundraising successes include a campaign to renovate the 5th floor of Van Pelt Dietrich Library Center to create a state of the art home for the Center for Global Collections, as well as a naming gift for the recently-renovated Holman Biotech Commons.

Position Summary:

Reporting jointly to the H. Carton Rogers III Vice Provost and Director of Libraries, and the Associate Vice President for University Development, Development and Alumni Relations (DAR), the Libraries Executive Director of Development is responsible for the overall conceptualization, planning and execution of a coordinated program of fundraising and donor communications for the Penn Libraries. As the lead fundraiser for the program, the Executive Director of Development is also responsible for growing and maintaining a robust overall pool and individual pipeline of prospects, donors and volunteer leaders on the Libraries' behalf.

The Executive Director of Development serves as an integral member of the Vice Provost's senior leadership team and plays a key leadership role. They will work closely with the Vice Provost, senior leadership team, the Board of Advisors, other volunteer groups to promote their active involvement in the fundraising process, and orchestrating the use of their time and talent to advance the Libraries' quest for gift and grant support, as well as further Penn alumni engagement and public awareness.

In addition, the Executive Director of Development partners intimately with the Director of Strategic Communications, who is responsible for developing and fostering a comprehensive, technology-rich strategic marketing and communications plan to promote the services, collections and programs of the Penn Libraries to an external audience, including but not limited to current members of the Penn community (faculty, staff, students, administrators); Penn Alumni; Penn parents; private, public and governmental agencies; other research libraries and more.

As part of the University of Pennsylvania's hybrid centralized/decentralized DAR structure, the Executive Director of Development also serves as a valued member of Central DAR's University Development Program and will be included in leadership planning within the program. Within this structure, the Executive Director of Development has responsibility for cultivating and sustaining deeply collaborative relationships with Central DAR programs and colleagues in order to fully activate the additional capacity of the University's centralized functions.

Duties also include supervision, mentoring and professional development of a staff of four FTEs and one dotted line report who lead the major gift fundraising, gift-in-kind, volunteer leadership, annual giving, stewardship, events and donor communications programs for the School.

Job Description

Job Responsibilities

Lead a coordinated and comprehensive program of institutional advancement that includes:

• developing and executing multi-year strategic plans involving development and communications-related initiatives;
• managing staff and budgets;
• maintaining and analyzing data in support of strategic planning;
• developing effective cases for support for institutional priorities that hinge to the University's strategic fame work: In Principle and Practice;
• building meaningful volunteer and donor engagement opportunities;
• overseeing a broad-based annual giving program pointed at both alumni and non-alumni friends of the Libraries;
• organizing development events and visibility opportunities in support of strategic initiatives;
• planning and executing campaigns as needed.

Coordinate a robust annual calendar of development and engagement events that includes:

• Bi-annual meetings of the Board of Advisors
• Spring Leadership Celebration Dinner
• Regional cultivation events in major hubs (New York, Miami, and Los Angeles)
• Reunion, Homecoming, and Family Weekend events on campus
• Virtual and hybrid programs to cultivate and identify new donors
• Others as determined by programmatic needs, such as donor-funded programs and campaign-specific events.

Understand and guide a complex program of cultivation and stewardship for gifts-in-kind, or scholarly materials that the Libraries wishes to accept. Gifts-in-kind may have significant cash values, complex