Senior Associate Director, Affinity Programs

The Senior Associate Director, Affinity Programs, is responsible for cultivating and strengthening identity-based alumni groups while managing a diverse portfolio of alumni volunteers and programs. The individual will collaborate with partners within ARD and across the University to increase engagement and giving from alumni, families, and friends, with special emphasis on underrepresented communities.

The job uses best practices and knowledge within Alumni Relations and leads a program designed to engage the alumni community worldwide, increase participation, and advance the objectives of the Alumni Association and the broader University. Researches, executes, and implements best practices in alumni relationship management.

Responsibilities

• In partnership with Director, Global Engagement and Affinity Programs, the Senior Associate Director develops and executes a strategic plan for identity-based alumni groups (e.g. Chicago Women’s Alliance; the UChicago Association of Black Alumni; LGBTQAI+) and related community engagement programs.
• Serves as lead staff liaison to all identity-based alumni groups and for alumni interested in diversity and identity programming.
• Hires and manages one or more staff person(s) to support affinity program growth and strategy.
• Mobilizes and cultivates strong volunteer organizations. Leads volunteers in generating alumni programs. Manages volunteer recruitment, training, and stewardship processes.
• Collaborates with internal and campus partners on initiatives serving diverse audiences.
• Identifies and creates opportunities for alumni to engage with and give back to the University. Cultivates, maintains and strengthens alumni ties to the University.
• Supports giving goals and solicits annual gifts with volunteer base and as assigned.
• Maintains strong partnerships between internal teams to ensure alignment in programming and overall satisfaction in volunteer experience.
• Researches and develops new content and programs as needed.
• Prioritizes reporting, record-keeping, and data management to ensure superior maintenance of volunteerism, data, and visit/contact activity. Prepares correspondence, reports, spreadsheets, informational materials, and presentations.
• Works closely with colleagues to implement goals and objectives related to event participation, attendance, communication, and day/night of event logistics.
• Travels sporadically to build and strengthen engagement and University participation.
• Uses personal visits to assess volunteer interests, wealth factors, giving capacity and other qualifying details and solicit for annual gifts.
• Develops and coordinates production of print and digital communications.
• Manages the annual budget associated for assigned programs. Tracks spending and income on a monthly basis; revises projections quarterly.
• Seeks opportunities for professional development that will enhance job performance, including building networks within the University and with colleagues at peer institutions and with an eye towards broadly diversifying the advancement profession.
• Builds strong working relationships with staff in the College, professional schools, units, and in other departments across campus. May help develop performance standards for the alumni relations staff within a unit. Sets activity goals for the team and maintains the annual operating budget for constituent relations programs.
• Has a deep understanding of strategic planning, data management, the creation and tracking of metrics, and the creation and implementation of new constituent relations programs worldwide.
• Measures, tracks, and reports participation and success of initiatives.
• Performs other related work as needed.