Located along the expansive and picturesque Sippican Harbor on Buzzards Bay in Massachusetts, Tabor Academy serves as the premier coeducation, college preparatory boarding, and day school for students grades 9-12. The “School by the Sea” embodies its unique maritime heritage. It provides a wide breadth of academic offerings for students to explore their interests, understand their strengths, and develop their critical thinking and communication skills. In anticipation of Tabor’s 150th anniversary, the school is developing a new strategic vision that will chart a path forward into the next phase of the school’s history.
Tabor Academy is building a sophisticated advancement program and seeks an experienced Director of Advancement Services to provide strategic leadership over the school’s database operations. The Director of Advancement Services will be tasked with implementing best practices for gift processing, relationship management, and performance management. Armed with a strong leadership ethic and keen attention to detail, the Director will develop innovative solutions to transform database operations and architect an advancement services program to support Tabor’s aspirations for the next 150 years. They will collaborate extensively with school partners, including the Associate Head of Finance, to provide effective management of Tabor Academy’s philanthropic efforts.
Ideal candidates will be strategic, data-driven, creative, and motivating. Individuals with a passion for Tabor Academy’s mission and demonstrated success in database administration are encouraged to apply.
Responsibilities
Strategy and Leadership:
• Oversee the Advancement Services team, which is responsible for biographical record
management, prospect research, gift record management, monthly tracking and reporting of
annual and campaign fundraising, event list creation and tracking, event data management, gift
processing and acknowledgment, and departmental budget management.
• Formalize processes and procedures for all areas of Advancement Services and cross-train
team members for timely processing, receipt, and acknowledgment of gifts.
• Develop and manage an 18-month strategic plan for Advancement Services, including metrics
and goals that address the immediate and long-term goals of the Advancement office.
• Develop and maintain a moves management system and dashboards for major gift officers’
portfolios based on annual fund and major gift goals; develop prospect identification
methodologies and regularly update ratings systems to maintain current information for frontline
fundraisers.
• Oversee prospect research and management to expand the donor pipeline and enhance
philanthropic support of Tabor.
• Serve as the Advancement office’s lead Raiser's Edge database manager and interface with
other departments using the Blackbaud platform, including Admissions, Strategic Marketing and
Communications, the Business Office, and Information Technology.
• Develop and maintain a suite of reports to monitor and measure fundraising performance for the
Director of Advancement, the Associate Head of School for External Relations, Business Office, and, as required, other departments in the school.
• Monitor the day-to-day operation of the database; update reports, giving pages, and
software/technology; remain at the forefront of best practices and procedures for database management and development services to ensure the appropriate level of leadership and support.
• Work with the Director of Donor Relations to build and maintain an effective and impactful stewardship systems.
Daily Functions:
• Promote positive donor relations by ensuring the accuracy, integrity, and confidentiality of
biographical and demographic information, gift records, and other important and sensitive data;
institute best practices.
• Create, manipulate, analyze, and interpret data to assist in predictive modeling and goal setting;
develop and distribute regular reports to ensure that research, data, and analytics drive
fundraising and engagement efforts; create multi-year giving and engagement analyses and
multi-year revenue projections.
• Design, execute, and maintain customized database reports, lists, queries, timelines,
documents, and spreadsheets to support annual, major, and alumni relations officers and the
school’s boards, councils, and volunteers.
• Conduct benchmarking exercises as requested.
• Manage the Gifts & Database Manager and all gift-processing activity.
• Oversee quality control of all information and communication conveyed from Advancement
Services, including financial reports, budgets, receipts, tributes, letters, and lists.
• Partner with the Business Office to manage and execute weekly, monthly, and annual gift
account reconciliation and financial reporting on endowment funds, perform special assessments
and audits as needed, and create new fund codes; promptly address other Business Office
needs as required.
• Provide internal and external auditors with necessary reports on donations, in preparation for or
during the annual external audit.
• Lead data-generated facet of annual report production.
• Maintain documentation of database policies and procedures and routinely update and maintain
policies and procedures manual.
• Assist with the training of all Advancement colleagues on the Raiser's Edge/NXT system.
• Perform other duties as assigned by the Director of Advancement or the Associate Head of School for External Affairs.
Qualifications
• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university; a Master’s degree is preferred.
• A minimum of four years of advancement services experience and two years of experience
supervising multiple employees.
• Advanced proficiency with Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge and RE/NXT database systems and the ability
to work effectively with system administrators or programmers.
• Ability to gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from various sources and present information in a
clear and cohesive manner.
• Strong analytical capabilities, including the ability to evaluate complex prospect-related information,
including demographics, financial information, etc., as well as the ability to translate and transmit
that information to staff and fundraising volunteers in analytical reports.
• Experience in a secondary school, higher education, fundraising, or nonprofit setting.
• Ability to build strong collaborative relationships internally with Advancement staff and externally with
school leadership, prospects, benefactors, volunteers, and the larger community
Send cover letter & resume to:
Andrew Machado, Consultant, Lindauer: amachado@lindauerglobal.com
and
Alexandra Barber, Consultant, Lindauer: abarber@lindauerglobal.com