Department: University Advancement
Appointment Type and Duration: Regular, Ongoing
Salary: Starting at $90,000 per year
Compensation Band: OS-OA09-Fiscal Year 2024-2025
FTE: 1.0
Multiple Positions, Hybrid Eligible
Application Review Begins
July 1, 2025; open until filled
Special Instructions to Applicants
To be considered for this position, applicants must submit a complete application. A completed application includes:
• A cover letter in which you address your experience and identify which region interests you
• A current resume of your educational and professional work experience.
We are interested in finding the best candidate for the position. We encourage you to use your application to let us know what is meaningful to you about the role and what transferable skills or other qualities you would bring.
Department Summary
University Advancement (UA) supports the University of Oregon’s (UO) mission of providing exceptional teaching, discovery, and service by strategically positioning the university to create awareness, build long-term relationships, and secure resources that increase understanding and further its aims. We are committed to fostering equity and inclusion in a welcoming, safe, and respectful environment that recognizes the value of all members of our community.
The Office of Development as part of University Advancement (UA) has a mission to maximize philanthropic impact at the University of Oregon. We do this by identifying, connecting and engaging alumni and friends around the globe with their passions to advance the vision and priorities of the university.
Position Summary
The Director of Development I, Regional Philanthropy (Director) works as part of Development to promote university fundraising priorities and image to alumni, parents, and friends of the university.
This field-oriented position requires frequent travel and direct contact with donors and donor prospects. The Director works collaboratively with colleagues in the assigned team, Development, and across the university to identify new prospects and strategically cultivate alumni, parents, and friends. The Director is responsible for meeting fundraising goals as they relate to the strategic needs of the university and the assigned unit, priority, or region. Productivity will be measured through the growth of individual performance and regional team commitments.
Reporting to a Senior Director of Regional Philanthropy, this position is responsible in supporting key priorities, which could include, but are not limited, to student success, financial aid and scholarships, academic programs, and capital projects by raising gifts from alumni, friends, and parent prospects rated $100,000 - $999,999. The Director is responsible for managing a regional fundraising strategy, including representing a region in development meetings on campus and setting fundraising goals and strategies in conjunction with leadership in UO Portland and Development colleagues.
Critical to the success of the Director will be the ability to effectively collaborate with fellow regional directors of development, the AVP for Central Development Programs, as well as other fundraising leaders in academic schools, Intercollegiate Athletics, the Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact (Knight Campus), The Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health (Ballmer Institute), and Principal Gifts.
Travel within the assigned region as well as to cities in other states up to 75% of the time is an essential expectation of this position.
The Director position will be based in Eugene or Portland, Oregon, with an assigned region of Oregon, California and Hawaii, or Northwest and Southwest states.
Minimum Requirements
• Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Three years of professional fundraising experience or five years combined experience in development and in a closely related field such as corporate sales.
Professional Competencies
• Working with donors and prospects: Extensive experience in prospect identification, cultivation, and solicitation with a demonstrated ability to build relationships with donors and prospects, including those who are hard-to-engage or not well connected to the university. Ability to maximize gift potentials for outright and estate gifts, educate new donors and prospects about major gift philanthropy, and leverage volunteerism towards giving.
• Portfolio management and systems: Ability to identify top prospects and strategies for a portfolio, including organizing by potential, connections, and timelines to optimize activity and portfolio makeup; prioritize prospects and regions while fully engaging with a robust portfolio; and provide constructive feedback on prospect management systems and structures.
• Professionalism and citizenship: Ability to establish and maintain strong working relationships with faculty, staff, and others as appropriate and contribute ideas in interactions and discussions with management, peers, and campus partners. This includes actively collaborating and sharing credit with colleagues as well as communicating in a positive and proactive manner with fellow development officers, leadership, and Prospect Development, and Development Analytics staff.
• Institutional navigation and industry knowledge: Ability to represent the university’s history, mission, demographics, faculty, current programs, departments, and culture, and persuasively articulate how the UO distinguishes itself from peer institutions. Competence in connecting mission and objectives across departments into donor strategies, and extensive knowledge of best practices, trends, current strategies, and other information relevant to philanthropy in higher education major gifts.
• Pipeline strategy and development: Ability to navigate and lead broader pipeline discussions for a program, including segmented strategy for different donor audiences, strategic alignment to maximize the impact of annual philanthropy and alumni association towards the unit’s development goals, and collaboration for shared prospects across campus.
• Strategic planning: Ability to communicate and articulate how individual initiatives and programmatic direction fit into overall advancement strategy; as well as use 12-month and multi-year projections and strategic planning tools to reach goals and anticipate trends, gaps, and priorities.
• Commitment to promoting and enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Ability to interact, communicate, and work effectively with individuals from a variety of backgrounds and cultures.
• Ability to travel.
Preferred Qualifications
• Experience in higher education development and understanding of the nature of a professional school and research university.
• Demonstrated experience working effectively with volunteer boards.
FLSA Exempt: Yes
All offers of employment are contingent upon successful completion of a background check.
The University of Oregon is proud to offer a robust benefits package to eligible employees, including health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off. For more information about benefits, visit https://hr.uoregon.edu/about-benefits.
The University of Oregon is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the ADA. The University encourages all qualified individuals to apply and does not discriminate on the basis of any protected status, including veteran and disability status. The University is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities. To request an accommodation in connection with the application process, please contact us at uocareers@uoregon.edu or 541-346-5112.
UO prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy (including pregnancy-related conditions), age, physical or mental disability, genetic information (including family medical history), ancestry, familial status, citizenship, service in the uniformed services (as defined in federal and state law), veteran status, expunged juvenile record, and/or the use of leave protected by state or federal law in all programs, activities and employment practices as required by Title IX, other applicable laws, and policies. Retaliation is prohibited by UO policy. Questions may be referred to the Office of Investigations and Civil Rights Compliance. Contact information, related policies, and complaint procedures are listed here.
In compliance with federal law, the University of Oregon prepares an annual report on campus security and fire safety programs and services. The Annual Campus Security and Fire Safety Report is available online at https://clery.uoregon.edu/annual-campus-security-and-fire-safety-report.
