Director, Advancement Communications
Description
The Director of Advancement Communications provides strategic leadership for the university’s advancement communications program, overseeing the development and execution of integrated communications strategies that advance fundraising, alumni engagement, donor stewardship, and institutional priorities. Reporting to the Vice President for Communications and Public Relations, the incumbent serves as a strategist and partner with University Advancement leadership and ensures advancement priorities are thoughtfully integrated into the university’s broader communications, marketing, public relations, executive communications, and brand strategies.
The Director leads a high-performing communications team responsible for developing compelling, integrated, multi-channel communications that strengthen constituent relationships, inspire philanthropy, and advance the university’s mission. The incumbent cultivates collaborative partnerships across the institution and fosters a culture of accountability, creativity, innovation, continuous improvement, and service excellence.
Position Specific Responsibilities/Accountabilities
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Lead the development and implementation of comprehensive advancement communications strategies in support of University Advancement priorities and objectives.
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Support university-wide communications initiatives focused on fundraising, campaign communications, donor pipeline development, advancement operations, and board relations.
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Implement and support an integrated visual identity system, communications and social media schedules, and production calendar for all advancement communications activities.
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Partner with University Advancement Operations and appropriate university technology, data, and digital teams to leverage constituent data, communications platforms, automation, and emerging capabilities in support of integrated advancement communications strategies.
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Direct a team of communications and creative professionals. Hire, supervise, and train personnel, freelance, and contracted partners and students to provide services necessary to fulfill responsibilities.
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Coach team members to maximize creativity, productivity, and effectiveness.
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Create a culture of accountability, experimentation, and continuous improvement through evidence-based decision-making, outcome assessment, testing, and process improvement, where individual and team progress, deadlines, and results are reported and evaluated regularly.
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Maintain overall accountability for the quality, effectiveness, coordination, and successful execution of Advancement Communications initiatives, ensuring work aligns with institutional priorities and fundraising objectives.
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Produce, edit, and approve print and digital communications and marketing collateral that support advancement activities, fundraising campaigns, and philanthropic initiatives, and engage identified target audiences and prospective donors.
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Develop and deliver video productions, event promotions, fundraising communications, social media strategies, and awareness and engagement campaigns.
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Lead campaign communications strategy, including campaign messaging, audience segmentation, constituent journeys, and integrated communications across print, digital, web, email, social media, and events.
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Develop personalized communications strategies across the donor and alumni lifecycle, including principal gift cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, and engagement of high-priority prospective donors and other key constituencies.
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Use constituent insights, audience data, testing, and communications analytics to continually optimize segmentation, channel strategy, messaging, personalization, engagement, and fundraising outcomes.
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Assure successful outcomes by adopting best-practice project management methodologies, quality assurance metrics, and risk mitigation plans. Ensure projects are completed by identified deadlines.
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Assure the integrity, accessibility, high quality, and consistency of the university’s image, tone, style, narrative, visual identity, and brand across communications platforms and channels.
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Develop and monitor quality assurance standards that promote accountability and communications excellence across Advancement Communications.
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Act as the primary liaison, point-of-contact, and thought leader with University Advancement on all communications matters. Serve as a strategic communications advisor to University Advancement leadership, providing counsel on fundraising communications, campaign strategy, donor engagement, and communications priorities.
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Partner with university leadership to develop communications strategies for announcing significant gifts, elevating philanthropic initiatives, and strengthening donor visibility.
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Provide communications counsel on reputational considerations and issues related to significant gifts, donor recognition, naming, philanthropic initiatives, and other advancement matters, in coordination with appropriate university partners.
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Collaborate with senior university leaders, internal, and external stakeholders to develop comprehensive fundraising campaigns in alignment with the university's strategic priorities, mission, and vision.
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Coordinate with university communications professionals to integrate fundraising messages and objectives into broader communications and marketing activities, executive messaging, talking points, presentations, reports, social media efforts, and other communications channels, ensuring coordinated planning and execution across divisions.
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Provide strategic leadership in communications innovation and emerging technology.
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Continually assess evolving communications practices, platforms, AI-enabled capabilities, data and analytics tools, and other emerging technologies; identify opportunities to responsibly integrate them into Advancement Communications to improve audience engagement, personalization, effectiveness, efficiency, and measurable outcomes.
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Champion experimentation, continuous learning, and thoughtful modernization of communications practices while ensuring appropriate standards for accuracy, accessibility, privacy, ethics, governance, and human oversight.
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Stay abreast of emerging trends, cultivate professional networks, and share insights and recommendations that strengthen advancement and university communications.
Loyola Marymount University Expectations
Exhibit behavior that supports the mission, vision, and values of the university. Communicate and employ interpersonal actions that model high standards of professional, responsible, accountable, and ethical conduct. Demonstrate a commitment to outstanding service and to communications that build trust, clarity, and shared understanding across the institution.
The incumbent must be able to manage complex projects with dependencies, multiple stakeholders, and shifting timelines; exercise strategic judgment under pressure; and work effectively and independently with internal and external constituencies. The incumbent must be able to initiate ideas, develop concepts, improve processes, build consensus, and review the effectiveness of processes to ensure professional standards and high quality.
The incumbent must possess the ability to strategize, recommend, and implement best practices in fundraising-specific marketing and communications strategies to achieve shared goals among University Advancement and Marketing, Communications, and External Relations.
The incumbent can assess the needs of internal clients and propose appropriate measures to meet them. The incumbent can operate in an environment where skilled relationship management and consensus-building are required to deliver successful outcomes. The incumbent is also expected to embrace innovation in the communications function, including the responsible use of AI-enabled tools and technologies while upholding LMU’s standards for ethics, privacy, human judgment, an