Since 1920, Mount St. Joseph University has provided an education that is based on interdisciplinary liberal arts and professional curricula emphasizing mission, values, integrity, and social responsibility. Faculty and staff deliver high-quality academics, hands-on experiential learning, and personalized attention to support student success. Join our award-winning team, recognized as a 'Best College to Work for,' and be part of a vibrant culture that places a premium on collaboration and belonging.
Position Summary
The Director, Alumni Engagement provides institutional leadership and strategic direction for Mount St. Joseph University's comprehensive alumni engagement strategy, strengthening lifelong connections with more than 20,000 alumni and advancing the University's strategic priorities. This position develops, implements, and evaluates a multi-year alumni engagement strategy that connects alumni to the University across the full relationship lifecycle-from a student's first day on campus through graduation and throughout their alumni experience. The strategy encompasses local, regional, and virtual engagement; volunteerism; mentoring and career connections; events and programs; advocacy; student engagement; and philanthropic relationships. As a leader within Institutional Advancement, the Director serves as a strategic partner to the Vice President for Institutional Advancement and campus leadership, positioning alumni engagement as an important contributor to advancement, student experience, career readiness, enrollment, philanthropy, and lifelong University relationships. The Director leads the alumni engagement function, establishes priorities and measures of success, allocates resources, and builds strong partnerships across the University.
Essential Responsibilities
Strategic Alumni Engagement Leadership
- Develop and lead a comprehensive, multi-year alumni engagement strategy aligned with the University's Strategic Plan 2030 and Institutional Advancement priorities.
- Establish annual priorities, goals, measures, and work plans, evaluating results and adjusting strategies based on alumni needs, institutional priorities, and emerging opportunities.
- Develop scalable and sustainable engagement models that strengthen alumni relationships across generations, geographic locations, interests, and levels of involvement.
- Serve as a senior resource to the Vice President for Institutional Advancement and other leaders regarding alumni engagement opportunities, trends, and priorities.
Alumni Relationship & Volunteer Development
- Build and sustain meaningful relationships with alumni, with particular attention to high-value, high-potential, and priority alumni audiences.
- Develop segmented strategies for young alumni, regional alumni, volunteers, donors, reunion classes, affinity groups, and other priority populations.
- Lead a comprehensive volunteer engagement strategy, including recruitment, onboarding, development, recognition, and succession planning for alumni volunteers and advisory groups.
- Create pathways that encourage alumni progression from participation to volunteering, advocacy, mentoring, philanthropy, and other forms of meaningful University involvement.
Programs, Events & Engagement Experiences
- Provide strategic direction for alumni programs, events, and engagement experiences, including Homecoming/Family Weekend, reunions, regional and virtual events, Reds Opening Day, and Commencement-related activities.
- Establish the institutional purpose and desired outcomes for major alumni programs and evaluate participation, relationship-building, volunteer engagement, philanthropic opportunity, and other measures of impact.
- Expand opportunities for alumni engagement beyond traditional events through regional, virtual, digital, professional, mentoring, and experiential connections.
Advancement, Student & Career Partnerships
- Serve as a strategic partner to Development, Annual Giving, and other Institutional Advancement functions to strengthen the alumni-to-philanthropy pipeline and coordinated relationship management.
- Identify opportunities to engage alumni as donors, advocates, mentors, volunteers, speakers, career resources, and institutional ambassadors.
- Lead strategies that connect students and alumni, including student-to-alumni transition, mentoring, career connections, professional networking, and engagement opportunities aligned with the University's Career Readiness Model.
- Partner with campus leaders to strengthen the alumni experience from enrollment through graduation and beyond.
Communications & External Engagement
- Establish strategic priorities for alumni communications in partnership with Marketing and Communications and Institutional Advancement.
- Ensure alumni messaging and engagement opportunities are coordinated across email, social media, web, newsletters, digital platforms, and other communication channels.
- Strengthen alumni awareness of University priorities, accomplishments, opportunities for involvement, and ways to remain connected to MSJ.
- Develop relationships with alumni and external partners that enhance the University's visibility and engagement.
Data, Assessment & Resource Management
- Establish and monitor key performance indicators and an assessment framework for alumni engagement, using data to guide strategy, program decisions, and resource allocation.
- Maintain accurate alumni engagement information and ensure appropriate use of CRM systems, including Raiser's Edge NXT.
- Oversee the alumni engagement budget and make strategic recommendations regarding staffing, programming, technology, vendors, and other resources.
- Evaluate programs, partnerships, and services for effectiveness, sustainability, and alignment with institutional priorities.
Team & Cross-Campus Leadership
- Serve as the University's primary strategic connector for alumni engagement, building collaborative relationships across Institutional Advancement and with Academic Schools, Athletics, Admissions, Career Services, Marketing and Communications, Mission & Belonging, Student Affairs, and other campus partners.
- Create shared ownership of alumni engagement across the University and represent alumni interests in institutional planning and initiatives.
- Supervise, develop, and provide strategic direction to alumni engagement staff, establishing clear priorities, accountability, workflows, and professional development.
- Develop effective processes and systems that enable the alumni engagement function to operate efficiently and scale with the University's evolving engagement and advancement priorities.
- Represent Institutional Advancement and the University at alumni, community, and external events as appropriate.