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 Director of Development (DoD) 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 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 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 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 a diverse, 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 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 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.

Both the Penn Libraries and Penn Development and Alumni Relations are committed to cultivating a workplace that values equity, diversity, inclusion, and collaboration. We seek talented individuals who will help lead our efforts to create a more inclusive workplace in a community with a substantive institutional commitment to equity and justice. Diversity is prized at Penn as a central component of our mission and helps create an educational and working environment that best supports the University’s commitment to excellence in teaching, research, and scholarship.
Job Description

Specific 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 copyright implications, and often require specialized expertise from within and outside of the University.

Cultivate, solicit and steward the Libraries’ top prospects and manage a pipeline of these top prospects. Engage the Vice Provost, senior staff, board and volunteers in executing the required cultivation, solicitation and stewardship activities to advance the Libraries’ quest for gift and grant support as well as alumni and donor engagement.

Expand and strengthen the Libraries’ fundraising pool and pipeline of potential new donors through sophisticated methods of entrepreneurial prospecting including data analysis, internal prospect research, collaboration with the Central DAR frontline, sourcing leads through board members and other volunteers, etc. Organize practical strategies to secure funding from such sources.