Associate Director of Gift Planning – Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Deadline: May 15, 2014)

Job Title: Associate Director of Gift Planning
Office: Office of Gift Planning
Reports to: Director of Gift Planning
Supervises: Shared supervision of support staff
Personnel Category: Administrative Staff (HR-QG310)

Major Responsibilities:

MIT is reinvigorating the Office of Gift Planning by realigning its staff to be strategic advisors and experts across all gift planning topics who partner with development officers across the Institute to educate and engage donors and prospects via planned gift vehicles. The Associate Director will be assigned as a liaison to a segment of development professionals within Central Resource Development, Schools, or across the Institute to increase the awareness of charitable giving techniques and identify planned gift opportunities for alumni and friends.

The Associate Director will create and implement strategies, develop proposals, and assist development professionals to secure planned gifts. The Associate Director will work with alumni, friends and parents to develop relationships leading to commitments for life income gifts and bequests and will provide collaborative guidance and technical assistance to donors, professional advisors, volunteers and institute advancement colleagues regarding the tax and financial aspects of charitable giving.

Characteristic Duties:

Planned Giving Advisement and Solicitation (90%)

• Build, cultivate, and manage a regional or school-based portfolio of planned giving prospects in order to meet annual goals and metrics. Ensure that newly identified prospects are appropriately assigned to regular portfolios as appropriate.
• Develop and implement strategies, alone or in combination with other development staff and/or other representatives of the Institute, for cultivating, soliciting, closing, and stewarding deferred and outright gifts.  Work with donors, prospects, and their legal and financial advisors in establishing charitable trusts, annuities, bequests and complex gifts to the Institute.
• Initiate gift discussions and effectively respond to inquiries from donors, prospects and personal representatives, lawyers, and financial firms. Collaborate with development officers across campus in gift solicitations, providing expertise with trusts, annuities, and bequests.
• Work closely with development staff to provide technical support to increase awareness of deferred vehicles and to cultivate new donors. Seek to build strong collaborations and effective working relationships with business partners to enhance the strength of MIT’s planned giving operations. Partner with relationship managers across Institute to develop comprehensive gift options for donors and ensure a coordinated approach to prospect- providing counsel on complex gifts, trusts, and tax matters related to blended gifts, deferred gifts and/or bequests.
• Work with planned giving volunteers, including CDC members, and other volunteers assigned to promote planned gifts.

Training and Other Projects (10%)

• Work with the Director to help enhance operational efficiency.  Assist in auditing current and introducing new business systems in order to leverage operational and programmatic synergies — building a stronger service model for relationship managers, evaluating programming, and streamlining operations around stewardship, prospect identification, and bequest programming.
• Assist with development of training programs on gift planning techniques and strategies, helping to put in place a systematic program that ties into overall training initiatives for staff, as well as faculty, volunteers, and campaign leaders. Facilitate training and provide mentoring for regional and school-based development staff and volunteers.
• Assume other duties as required.

Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree required, JD or advanced degree very desirable. Minimum of seven years of experience in gift planning. Demonstrated, successful full lifecycle solicitation experience required. Must have a expert knowledge of the field of planned giving, including estate planning rules, IRS regulations regarding charitable giving, and law related to trusts, charitable gift annuities, and life insurance, etc. Ability to convey to donors and colleagues the tax and financial implications surrounding planned gifts required.  Excellent written and oral communication skills necessary with demonstrable skill in writing persuasively and speaking to individuals and groups. Must possess strong computer skills in different systems, and proficiency with fundraising databases and industry-standard planned giving computer software (PG Calc, Crescendo, or equivalent). Ability and willingness to travel required.

Candidate must display: outstanding interpersonal and organizational skills and a history of working well with others, including donors, advisors, volunteers and fellow staff; ability to work as a strong team player, as well as independently; good judgment; ability to build positive relationships with a wide variety of people; ability to manage several projects in a fast paced, complex environment and perform work on a consistent basis with accuracy, high quality, attention to detail and time sensitivity.