The primary purpose of the Director of Gift Planning is to encourage and secure both immediate and longer-term financial support of the school through charitable giving. This work requires forging and maintaining productive individual relationships with major donors, who are chiefly alumnae and parents. These giving relationships are the key component to preserving the legacy of the school and make up a critical source of support.

We seek someone who is committed to navigating today’s changing and diverse landscape to help the school promote and nurture diversity, equity, and inclusion. The School encourages candidates from under-represented groups to apply, as well as those who have demonstrated experience with diverse populations.

Key Areas of Responsibility: 

• Manage a portfolio of major gift prospects. Through face-to-face meetings that most often require travel away from campus, discover, cultivate, solicit and steward major donors in order to secure charitable gifts of all kinds, with special emphasis on those gifts that require estate planning. 
• Train and consult other front-line fundraisers in charitable gift planning best practices. Provide calculations and proposals to colleagues managing planned giving solicitations. 
• Oversee the Sage Society and encourage membership, market planned giving vehicles, and serve as the primary liaison to the school for donors who have made planned gifts. Administer these gifts by working with trust officers, estate attorneys, financial advisors, and executors.
• Support The Emma Fund’s Reunion Giving program by providing planned giving materials to classes celebrating 50th Reunions and beyond. 
• To perform other duties as assigned by the Head of Advancement.

Minimum Requirements / Qualifications / Competencies:  

• Bachelor’s degree
• 10+ years of experience in the Development profession or related skills.
• Ability and willingness to travel.
• Knowledge of laws, standards and practices of charitable gift planning, including use of gift planning software and legal instruments is preferred.
• Ability to use a consultative, donor-centric approach in fulfilling institutional priorities.
• Highly ethical, taking great care with donors’ sensitive and confidential information.
• Strong interpersonal communication, writing, and presentation skills, with special emphasis on tactful interviewing and skillful listening.
• Highly motivated with ability to work independently and with little direct supervision.
• Ability to manage multiple functions or projects simultaneously.

Salary

$105,000 - $125,000 based on education and experience.

We seek to identify, recruit, and develop employees who bring a diversity of experiences, perspectives, talents, and backgrounds. We offer a competitive total compensation package in a stimulating and dynamic academic community.

Emma Willard School encourages employees to be vaccinated. You will need to submit a resume and cover letter to be considered for the position.

Please apply through the school's Career Center website.

About Emma Willard School

Since 1814, Emma Willard School has been one of the nation's leading college preparatory boarding and day schools for young women. At Emma Willard, every possible resource is dedicated to developing in students the values and skills that form the foundation of a life of accomplishment, leadership, and fulfillment. These include a love for the life of the mind, a commitment to service, courage and confidence, grace and creativity, and collaboration and friendship. Known for its rigor, the school promotes intellectual curiosity and disciplined study habits through a challenging curriculum distinguished by a wide array of advanced placement courses and electives. It also promotes active involvement in the life of the campus and off-campus communities through a rich co-curricular program. In all they do, students are both challenged and closely supported by an outstanding faculty and staff. The school's extraordinary physical plant is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and provides a breathtakingly beautiful yet state-of-the-art setting for learning and living. Throughout its history, Emma Willard has been committed to enrolling a diverse student body from across the Ca...pital Region, across the country, and around the world. This commitment is honored by significant expenditures in financial aid to assist families who might not otherwise have the opportunity to provide an extraordinary secondary education for their daughters.

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Connections working at Emma Willard School