Executive Director of Campaign & Stakeholder Engagement

Duties & Responsibilities

Campaign Strategy, Governance, and Operations

• Manage the strategic and operational efforts that support a comprehensive campaign plan, including phasing, goals, case for support, timeline, budget, milestones, and success metrics, ensuring alignment with the universitys mission and fundraising priorities.

• Partner with AVC-EP and Chief of Staff to build and refine campaign infrastructure, processes, and dashboards to ensure alignment, transparency, and efficiency across teams, including:

• Advising on creation of campaign dashboards tracking activity, pipeline health, dollars raised, pledges, and donor retention; delivering regular analytics reporting to drive course corrections.

• Building robust donor prospect pipelines for senior OVCIA leadership across alumni, parents, friends, corporations, and foundations in alignment with OVCIA enterprise standards on prospect identification, qualification, and segmentation.br

• Incorporating engagement and participation indicatorsdefined by the AVC-EPas leading signals of donor readiness and campaign momentum.

• Serve as a trusted advisor to the Vice Chancellor for Advancement on campaign engagement strategy and execution cadence.

Campaign Volunteer & Stakeholder Leadership

• Identify, recruit, brief, and support external Campaign Cabinet members and other campaign-specific volunteer leaders.
• Manage volunteer meeting preparation, follow-up, prospect review sessions, and ongoing engagement in alignment with AVC-EP owned volunteer governance standards.
• Create guidelines and toolkits to advise units on managing their own campaign volunteer leaders.

Campaign Communications, Recognition & Experiences

• In collaboration with the AVC-EP:

• Develop campaign communications, collateral, recognition, messaging, toolkits, leadership briefings, and talking points in alignment with OVCIA enterprise engagement and branding frameworks.

• Translate OVCIA enterprise donor relations and stewardship frameworks to campaign specific activities, ensuring that campaign donors and volunteers experience consistent, meaningful recognition and impact communication throughout the campaign lifecycle, promoting trust, satisfaction, and long-term affinity.

• Lead planning and delivery of campaign milestone events, including public launch and close, leveraging OVCIA enterprise engagement standards.

• Provide feedback and insights from campaign activity to inform OVCIA enterprise engagement enhancements.

• Coordinate with the OVCIAs University of Illinois Alumni Association liaison to integrate alumni volunteers into campaign activity where appropriate.

Impact in Your First Year

At Advancement at Illinois, we value our employees and provide resources to help you continually learn and grow. We foster a strong, collaborative community of professionals who are driven by their ability to make a meaningful impact.

Within 3 months, youll:

• Build an understanding of the universitys campaign vision, priorities, and organizational structure across OVCIA and unit-based advancement teams.
• Establish relationships with key partners, including advancement leadership, development officers, volunteer leaders, and campus stakeholders.
• Gain familiarity with existing campaign plans, infrastructure, dashboards, and reporting processes.
• Begin supporting campaign coordination efforts, including briefing preparation, stakeholder engagement, and internal communication.

Within 6 months, youll:

• Take ownership of key campaign coordination functions, ensuring alignment across strategy, volunteer engagement, and communications.
• Support the development and refinement of campaign infrastructure, including dashboards, reporting, and planning processes.
• Actively manage and support campaign volunteer leadership engagement, including preparation, follow-up, and ongoing communication.
• Partner across advancement to align campaign priorities with pipeline development, donor engagement, and stewardship efforts.

By the end of the first year, youll:

• Serve as a trusted advisor to the Vice Chancellor and advancement leadership on campaign execution and engagement strategy.
• Drive coordinated campaign activity across units, ensuring alignment, accountability, and measurable progress toward campaign goals.
• Lead campaign volunteer engagement efforts, fostering strong relationships and meaningful participation among key stakeholders.
• Implement or enhance systems and processes that improve campaign tracking, communication, and cross-functional coordination.