Senior Director, Volunteer Engagement, Alumni Engagement and Development (AED)
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Occupational Summary
The Senior Director of Volunteer Engagement is a key role that leads and informs the management, communication, training, support, and recognition of Duke’s volunteers. This includes partnering cross-unit and cross-functionally to understand a variety of volunteer needs and pipelines and also includes direct leadership and management of the highly selective Duke Alumni Board of Directors. This position will be responsible for developing and executing a best-in-class volunteer and recognition program that supports Duke’s goal of engaging alumni and parents where they are now and that inspires them to share their time and talents with the Duke community. It also includes building out clear pathways and trajectories of volunteerism and communicating and educating volunteers on those in a consistent and scalable manner
The successful candidate will navigate Duke’s complex and highly decentralized structure in order to support school and unit volunteer efforts, including demystifying Duke Alumni Board and Alumni Award nomination processes. S/he will be charged with leading the effort to develop and implement volunteer-focused priorities in the schools and units. In addition, s/he will create a university-wide volunteer structure to optimize the volunteer experience and the impact of these leaders on the university. S/he will also partner closely with others in AED to ensure volunteer representation across the spectrum of volunteer boards to recognition/awards, from various schools. They will also work closely with the schools to understand how to integrate and communicate in those schools’ volunteer opportunities into volunteer pathway/trajectory education and awareness.
Reporting to the Senior Assistant Vice President, Volunteer Engagement Strategy, it will be important to create consistency in establishing volunteer programs across Duke; recruiting, on-boarding, training, managing and stewarding volunteers; creating a shared vocabulary and metrics for success; and developing a personalized and comprehensive volunteer recognition program where “donating” time is celebrated and valued. Thus, this person will have to make proactive and justified recommendations to the SAVP and their peers, who will be leading and shaping other large volunteer board and leadership groups, so that initiatives, trainings, and programs can be built with the larger volunteer group in mind and can be deployed and utilized consistently.
This individual specifically manages a staff of 6-7 when fully staffed. In addition to working with all the schools and units on campus, the Volunteer engagement team collaborates across AED; collaborating closely with the Duke Annual Fund, and all of the Constituent Engagement vertical, including Regional/Global Engagement, Alumni Admissions & Alumni Parent Experience, Multicultural Advancement, Duke’s Forever Learning Institute, Careers and Mentoring, and On-Campus Engagement to ensure a consistently exceptional experience for volunteers. It will also have an integrated, collaborative relationship with its two peer sub-verticals, Regional/Global Engagement and Multicultural Advancement.
If the desired future state of AED is to be the most engaged and committed global network of alumni, students, parents, and friends – and to have the best-in-class volunteer program - we must attract a senior and seasoned professional in this role. The ideal candidate should possess a strong alumni engagement or fundraising background with proven success, excel in a highly decentralized and matrixed environment, have strong understanding of using qualitative and quantitative data, and provide leadership/management support within a collaborative, fast-paced, team environment.
Responsibilities
Job duties may require travel.
Skills
The following behavioral competencies are required for this position:
Education
Work requires communications, analytical and organizational skills generally acquired through completion of a bachelor's degree program
Experience
Work requires six years of experience in alumni affairs, public relations, program administration and analysis, marketing, or related field to acquire the advanced skills necessary to direct the planning and coordination of social, educational, and communityservice activities and events.
Duke is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status.
Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.
Essential Physical Job Functions: Certain jobs at Duke University and Duke University Health System may include essentialjob functions that require specific physical and/or mental abilities. Additional information and provision for requests for reasonable accommodation will be provided by each hiring department.
The Senior Director of Volunteer Engagement is a key role that leads and informs the management, communication, training, support, and recognition of Duke’s volunteers. This includes partnering cross-unit and cross-functionally to understand a variety of volunteer needs and pipelines and also includes direct leadership and management of the highly selective Duke Alumni Board of Directors. This position will be responsible for developing and executing a best-in-class volunteer and recognition program that supports Duke’s goal of engaging alumni and parents where they are now and that inspires them to share their time and talents with the Duke community. It also includes building out clear pathways and trajectories of volunteerism and communicating and educating volunteers on those in a consistent and scalable manner
The successful candidate will navigate Duke’s complex and highly decentralized structure in order to support school and unit volunteer efforts, including demystifying Duke Alumni Board and Alumni Award nomination processes. S/he will be charged with leading the effort to develop and implement volunteer-focused priorities in the schools and units. In addition, s/he will create a university-wide volunteer structure to optimize the volunteer experience and the impact of these leaders on the university. S/he will also partner closely with others in AED to ensure volunteer representation across the spectrum of volunteer boards to recognition/awards, from various schools. They will also work closely with the schools to understand how to integrate and communicate in those schools’ volunteer opportunities into volunteer pathway/trajectory education and awareness.
Reporting to the Senior Assistant Vice President, Volunteer Engagement Strategy, it will be important to create consistency in establishing volunteer programs across Duke; recruiting, on-boarding, training, managing and stewarding volunteers; creating a shared vocabulary and metrics for success; and developing a personalized and comprehensive volunteer recognition program where “donating” time is celebrated and valued. Thus, this person will have to make proactive and justified recommendations to the SAVP and their peers, who will be leading and shaping other large volunteer board and leadership groups, so that initiatives, trainings, and programs can be built with the larger volunteer group in mind and can be deployed and utilized consistently.
This individual specifically manages a staff of 6-7 when fully staffed. In addition to working with all the schools and units on campus, the Volunteer engagement team collaborates across AED; collaborating closely with the Duke Annual Fund, and all of the Constituent Engagement vertical, including Regional/Global Engagement, Alumni Admissions & Alumni Parent Experience, Multicultural Advancement, Duke’s Forever Learning Institute, Careers and Mentoring, and On-Campus Engagement to ensure a consistently exceptional experience for volunteers. It will also have an integrated, collaborative relationship with its two peer sub-verticals, Regional/Global Engagement and Multicultural Advancement.
If the desired future state of AED is to be the most engaged and committed global network of alumni, students, parents, and friends – and to have the best-in-class volunteer program - we must attract a senior and seasoned professional in this role. The ideal candidate should possess a strong alumni engagement or fundraising background with proven success, excel in a highly decentralized and matrixed environment, have strong understanding of using qualitative and quantitative data, and provide leadership/management support within a collaborative, fast-paced, team environment.
Responsibilities
- Create, develop, and execute a best-in-class volunteer engagement and recognition program within Alumni Engagement and Development, and in partnership with school and unit colleagues across campus.
- Determine and document best practices for volunteer engagement from recruitment, onboarding, learning & development, supporting the ongoing work of volunteers, sharing impact, and off boarding
- Develop and articulate clear and consistent expectations for all volunteers and volunteer managers across all AED and share best practices with school and unit colleagues
- Establish and communicate well-defined policies and protocols for volunteers
- Determine process for volunteer evaluation and accountability
- Create and execute volunteer recognition program that consistently and thoughtfully recognizes volunteer for their work and the impact they have on the Duke community—Duke Alumni Awards, events (on campus and in regions), acknowledgement letters, honor rolls, etc.
- Lead creation of Volunteer Board “off-boarding,” including developing a scalable and well-communicated process for volunteer board members to understand potential next steps and how to parlay their volunteer board experience into new Duke opportunities.
- Explore, vet, and make recommendations to implement tools and technology related to managing, tracking, or educating volunteers.
- Convene monthly meetings with campus stakeholders to discuss volunteer engagement best practices, partnership opportunities, etc.
- Collaborate with Talent Development to train AED and campus colleagues on how to work with and support volunteers
- Partner closely as both a thought leader and executional leader with the Duke Alumni Board of Directors
- Foster collaborative partnership with AED Chief Engagement Officer, Duke Alumni Board President, and Board Executive Committee
- Lead Board meeting and Executive Committee retreat planning and delegate execution of implementation. This includes ensuring Constituent Engagement and DA Board President goals are integrated into the meetings and that tactical feedback is consistently applied.
- Ensure Board feedback is appropriately aggregated, communicated, and where possible, implemented across Volunteer Engagement and any other relevant sub-verticals.
- Serve as a member of the Duke Alumni Board of Directors Awards and Recognition Committee and provide strategic oversight over Awards Committee and DEIB Committee.
- Drive engagement data democratization
- Ensure education across AED on components of four dimensions of engagement, including how and when to properly update and record activity from volunteers
- In partnership with their manager, Senior Assistant Vice President, Volunteer Engagement Strategy, advise others across AED on updating benchmarks and metrics for their initiatives.
- Where needed, partner with AED Business Intelligence to implement recommended changes from the Chief Engagement Officer
- Serve as a partner and co-collaborator on major volunteer initiatives across AED
- Includes but is not limited to strategic special events, including those around Centennial, Campaign, affinity group and women’s initiatives (Women’s Weekend, WIN)
- Partner closely with the Duke Annual Fund team to find synergies (and potentially areas for joint sessions and board collaboration) and to stay informed on meeting agendas, themes, speakers, and content for both Duke Alumni Board and Annual Fund Advisory Board.
- Representative Duties - Appropriately represent Duke University as “employer” to direct reports and direct reports as “employees” to Duke University
- Programmatic Duties - Ensure alignment of given programmatic, departmental, and/or organization-wide activities with AED strategic goals, priorities, and expectations
- Financial Duties - Exercise fiduciary responsibility for given individual, programmatic, departmental, and/or organization-wide activities in accordance with Duke’s financial policies, procedures, and standards, and AED expectations
- Personnel Duties: Supervise direct reports in accordance with Duke’s human resource policies, procedures, and standards, and AED expectations
- Personnel Duties: Hire & Onboard new employees (and offboard separating employees) in accordance with programmatic, departmental, and organization-wide priorities, Duke’s human resource policies, procedures, and standards, and AED expectations
Job duties may require travel.
Skills
The following behavioral competencies are required for this position:
- Ability to Influence
- Curiosity and Information Seeking
- Dealing with Ambiguity
- Decisiveness and Judgment
- Organizational Awareness
- Goal and Task Management
- Collaborating with Others
- Expresses Ideas Orally and in Writing
- Flexibility
- Models Integrity and Ethics
- Listening
- Self-Management
- Leadership
Education
Work requires communications, analytical and organizational skills generally acquired through completion of a bachelor's degree program
Experience
Work requires six years of experience in alumni affairs, public relations, program administration and analysis, marketing, or related field to acquire the advanced skills necessary to direct the planning and coordination of social, educational, and communityservice activities and events.
Duke is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status.
Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.
Essential Physical Job Functions: Certain jobs at Duke University and Duke University Health System may include essentialjob functions that require specific physical and/or mental abilities. Additional information and provision for requests for reasonable accommodation will be provided by each hiring department.
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