Syracuse, New York, United States
Proud advocate for the arts and someone who's been involved in Education longer than not. I've worked in the classroom as a teacher and outside the classroom as a communicator, marketer, and currently in development/alumni relations for the wonderful College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. From time to time I like to dust off my Adobe skills and freelance as well.
Solicited $8.7+m from by reaching out to hundreds of alumni, donors, and friends, and identifying dozens of major gift prospects while also overseeing the College’s alumni engagement efforts and events. Closed $3.2+M last fiscal year (FY'21) in new business by cultivating and securing cash gifts, multi-year pledges, and planned gifts. Established more than fifteen scholarships and new sources of funding for academic areas for the College. Cultivated a current parent to establish two sources of funding for career opportunities (VPA Career Services Fund and Engaging Careers) with $100k+ in gifts. Created, recruited, and managed the VPA Young Alumni Council, composed of 27 diverse alumni to advocate, provide insight, and assist with achieving the VPA strategic goals and support student’s professional development. Implemented the VPA Alumni Mentoring Program in partnership with the College’s Career Services team which resulted in over 300 alumni volunteers providing career support and guidance to students in its first year. Drafted and implemented plans for achieving annual fundraising and participation goals in partnership with the division of advancement and external affairs. Increased annual giving solicitations for the College through implementing a giving day challenge which strategically promoted matching gifts by VPA Council Members. Scheduled and prepared academic leadership's fundraising schedules to cultivate relationships with selected donors and prospects. Collaborated led a corporate engagement plan in partnership with VPA’s Career Services teams and the University’s Department of Corporate and Foundation Relations to foster a pathway for diverse students into design industry careers. Planned and executed regional alumni events ranging from 20 - 200 guests focused on improving engagement and support for various academic areas. Created and implemented a yearly alumni communication plan in conjunction with VPA's communications team.
Plans, implements and promotes an annual calendar of alumni programs and events to support the College’s strategic plans and advances the University-wide campaign. Establishes and builds relationships with VPA alumni throughout the country. Develops year-round alumni communication plan, including print materials, website and social media activities and collaborates with VPA Communications team to implement the plan. Develops strategies for leadership annual donors in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Identifies opportunities for VPA faculty, students and alumni to participate in university-wide alumni relations programs (such as Stories from Syracuse.) Serves a primary liaison between Alumni Relations office and the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Determines annual giving and alumni participation goals in partnership with central Advancement and External Affairs team. Builds and implements strategic and tactical plans for achieving these goals and leverages resources available through prospect management, donor relations and other appropriate departments. Collaborates with central Annual Giving team to conduct phone campaigns, draft select direct mail appeals and design e-solicitation materials with tailored message for VPA alumni. Analyzes results for each program and provides regular progress reports to Assistant Dean and Dean with recommendations for program enhancements. Manages, in coordination with regional development and research staff, the identification and qualification of potential new gift prospects. Partners with regional development staff to ensure that prospects are qualified in a timely manner. Connects alumni with VPA faculty and staff to provide professional expertise and volunteer service on behalf of the College, including assistance with Admissions programs. Coordinates faculty and student participation in annual giving and stewardship activities.
My primary responsibilities are to assist the Assistant Dean for Advancement, Senior Development Director, and the Dean to determine the appropriate messages and vehicles for solicitations including mail, e-mail, and social media; assist in production of copy for annual fund appeals, and manage the design of collateral materials. I also assist with the management, planning and execution of the school's events including the Mirror Awards, Sundance Ignite on Tour, Glickman Award for Leadership in Sports Media, and the Radio and Audio Summit with a focus on designing event programs, posters and advertisements. Secondary responsibilities include supervising the school’s gift acknowledgment program, coordinating with the Assistant Dean on advisory board giving activity and the receipt of larger gifts. I assist the Director of Communications by producing content for the development portion of the Newhouse website and with content management using the school’s HootSuite, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages. I also process the department's business reconciliation reports, and serve as the primary contact with University Publications.
I was responsible for the design and implementation of the school's first-ever style guide, producing all print and online recruitment materials, maintaining the website, producing the annual report, writing and editing content for social media channels, and developing extended marketing plans. I served as the school's liaison with local printers, video producers, media outlets and promotional vendors. To increase engagement with our families, I converted the newsletter from a bi-weekly printed piece to a weekly email newsletter with photo and video to complement existing classroom summaries. Working closely with the Head of School and the senior administrative team, I produced the school's fundraising events including the annual black tie gala, golf outing, and a speaker series; executed a multi-year campaign and served as interim chair of the Institutional Advancement Committee for over a year. I also was responsible for researching, designing and implementing the school’s Google Apps for Education account; managing user-based permissions, keeping data centralized and protected, along with designing and running all training sessions for faculty/staff to develop ways of enhancing the student experience as new services became available.