"Alerted.org

VICE PRESIDENT, ALUMNI RELATIONS, COMMUNICATIONS AND ENGAGEMENT, Advancement

Job Description

VICE PRESIDENT, ALUMNI RELATIONS, COMMUNICATIONS AND ENGAGEMENT, Advancement

Category

Charles River Campus --> Professional

Job Location

Boston, MA, United States

Tracking Code

25500897880722

Posted Date

7/22/2025

Salary Grade

Grade 00

Position Type

Full-Time/Regular

Boston University Advancement

With a team of over 270 employees, Boston University's Advancement division plays a vital role in fostering connections between the University and its community of supporters, including alumni, donors, parents, and friends, to elevate the university's academic and research initiatives. We harness the power of philanthropy and engagement to make an excellent education accessible and welcoming to all, and to advance BU's global leadership in research, scholarship, the arts, and professional practice. To support our work, we have built-and are continuing to build-an outstanding team of dynamic, mission-driven advancement professionals who constantly strive to create an environment where everyone belongs.

Boston University Advancement has prioritized staff development and growth, recognizing that a skilled and motivated team is essential to its success. Through ongoing professional development opportunities, tailored training, mentorship programs, and a collaborative work environment, we foster continuous learning and career progression for our staff. This commitment to nurturing talent not only enhances our effectiveness but also ensures sustainable, long-term relationships that benefit the entire Boston University community.

Michele Schiele, Senior Vice President for Advancement

To lead our community, University President Melissa Gilliam has appointed Michele Schiele as Advancement's new Senior Vice President. Michele is a proud Terrier, having graduated from the College of Communication with a degree in journalism. Most recently, she was deputy vice president and campaign director at Stanford University, where she secured more than $1.4B in annual philanthropic revenue, working with advancement professionals at all seven of the university's schools, its multiple centers and institutes, and other administrative units. Before arriving at Stanford, Michele served in various roles at the University of Chicago, including interim vice president for university alumni relations and development and vice president and associate dean for development at the medical center.

Vice President, Alumni Relations, Communications and Engagement

Position description:

The Vice President, Alumni Relations, Communications and Engagement (ARCE) is a senior member of the Advancement leadership team who oversees critical areas within Boston University's Advancement office. The VP-ARCE will provide strategic leadership for BU's worldwide alumni body totaling over 400,000. They will also provide strategic leadership in communications, outreach and engagement, including volunteerism to help BU achieve its bold aspirations.

Reporting to the newly appointed Senior Vice President, Advancement, the VP-ARCE will directly manage central teams in these areas and partner closely with School and Unit advancement leaders to ensure these functions are leveraged optimally. BU seeks to significantly increase its reach, service to and engagement of its alumni and students, as well as its overall fundraising; this position will be a key partner in achieving all of these ambitions.

**Alumni Relations** - Alumni Relations have evolved significantly in the last decade, and BU seeks to be at the forefront of providing lifelong value to its 400,000 alumni. The new Vice President will establish a forward-thinking program that will appeal to alumni through their different stages of life through intellectual and emotional connections. The right leader will have a track record of implementing innovative programming and of taking a data-driven approach to program evaluation.

**Communications** - Communications has never been more important in higher education. The Vice President will lead the strategy to determine the message and most effective forms of communication to advance alumni relations and development messaging. Audiences include alumni, donors, and prospective philanthropists. The ideal candidate will have demonstrated success communicating with these audiences and ensuring that communications align and complement the broader University messaging system. Communication will be across a variety of platforms, utilizing approaches that measurably increase engagement and improve brand perception. As BU prepares for a milestone philanthropic campaign, the Vice President and their team will develop and execute a comprehensive marketing strategy that will include strategic events.

**Engagement** - BU has an opportunity to consider new and innovative ways of engaging its alumni and students and other important community members. The Vice President will be the architect for building engagement opportunities for BU's alumni and other friends. BU also aspires to establish a strong volunteer infrastructure and to ensure that the volunteer experience is best in class across the University. This will require a new way of thinking about BU's volunteer platform, which will be important in advance of a new campaign.

The VP will set the strategic direction for these key areas and foster collaborative partnerships with colleagues across Advancement and BU. The VP will provide direction for the recruitment, selection, orientation, development, and retention of high caliber staff and future additions to the team.

Essential Functions:

Alumni Relations

+ Consider benchmarking and the recent Alumni Relations Task Force Report and work collaboratively with colleagues in development, and with input from alumni leadership, to formulate a strategic plan that will lead to greater alumni participation; innovative and robust programming; and stronger ties between alumni and the university, with one another, and with students.

+ Improve, enhance, and measure effectiveness of existing programs while formulating new initiatives that will resonate with alumni; sunset legacy programs that are no longer serving alumni; provide alumni with meaningful and lifelong engagement, ultimately leading to their participation as volunteers and investors in Boston University.

+ Recognize the changing needs of alumni and how they wish to be engaged by their alma mater; use data to understand how our diverse alumni body wishes to be engaged; formulate and implement plans for affinity programs, education programs, career services, regional engagement efforts, and networking opportunities.

+ Be aware of how alumni with a diversity of identities interact with our current programs to ensure engagement and belonging.

+ Work collaboratively with colleagues across Advancement to create a truly integrated advancement model in which alumni engagement is intentionally synergistic with development activities.

Communications

+ Oversee both Development Communications (DevCom), which creates strategic marketing/branding/customized content for major and principal giving, and the Alumni Relations strategic engagement team and its large-scale marketing efforts, focused on broad alumni engagement and participation.

+ Building strong teams and collaborative partnerships with the SVP, deans, faculty, development colleagues across the 17 schools and colleges, and other key university offices and partners.

+ Manage and support an advancement communications (AC) team, including securing and managing resources to sustain high quality and best-in-class products.

+ Support the AC team in its responsibility for maintaining the highest-quality standards in all outward-facing communications, within the constraints of schedule and budget.

+ Support AC in its efforts (with senior talent management and other relevant teams) to develop and maintain an effective program of internal communications.

+ Support the team responsible for planning and staging signature development-related events.

+ Through AC, manage the relationship with University Relations, and support and collaborate on broader university communications efforts related to alumni relations and development.

Engagement

+ On an annual basis, assess, plan and implement an engagement arc for Advancement audiences around the world.

+ Set metrics to determine the efficacy of outreach efforts.

+ Develop partnerships with student organizations and university units that lead to greater involvement of and/or service to alumni.

+ Establish best practices for volunteer engagement across the University and work to ensure they are implemented.

+ Strategically create volunteer opportunities for alumni, donors and prospective donors with an eye toward creating a pipeline of volunteers that will sustain BU.

+ Ensure continuity, diversity, and capability in the volunteer pipeline.

+ Identify alumni who have demonstrated an interest in supporting the university, are prominent in their fields, and who may be willing to serve on panels, committees, boards, or in other capacities.

+ Convey to volunteers that their service is valued by the university and that their support is appreciated; demonstrate to them the impact of their contributions.

Annual Giving and Alumni Participation

+ Oversee an Annual Giving team as they utilize key data to formulate and execute an innovative, multi-year plan for annual giving that will increase overall giving and meets appropriate alumni participation rates; improve donor retention; and create a robust pipeline of major gift prospects; illustrate to donors the impact of their giving and recognize their support for the university.

+ Participate in the creation and implementation of a marketing strategy that recognizes how different generations and constituencies respond to outreach and engagement efforts; ensure materials for the fund are consistent with messaging and branding for the university.

+ Collaborate with the Vice President for Development to create a plan to ensure that development staff members collaborate on solicitation strategies and outreach efforts for the annual fund and make unrestricted giving part of all relevant gift conversations; reinforce a comprehensive approach to donor engagement.

+ Determine effective ways to reach out to and meaningfully engage key constituencies on the importance of growing alumni participation numbers, particularly among younger alumni, to ensure a strong pipeline well into the future.

Team Leadership

+ Collaborate with Advancement leaders to prepare for and implement the next campaign for Boston University.

+ Manage budgets, strategic operations, and personnel issues for all direct reports and departments.

+ Provide guidance and promote excellence through well-defined and measurable goals for professional staff members and administrative support personnel; ensure staff members understand their work within the context of the university's mission and strategic priorities.

+ Recruit experienced advancement professionals; train and mentor committed and productive staff members who are well prepared and have the skills to meet the ongoing challenges and aspirations of Boston University and who may assume greater responsibilities and advance within the office.

+ Foster a culture of achievement through mastery of best practices and implementation of new ideas in which effective teamwork, collaboration, accountability, and innovation are expected, recognized and rewarded; lead by example regarding professionalism, mutual respect, creativity, entrepreneurship, appropriate risk-taking, and cross-organizational cooperation.

+ Ensure that staff members execute effective strategies that result in meaningful engagement with alumni; in partnership with staff members, continue to build a culture of philanthropy within the Boston University community.

+ Provide professional development opportunities and encourage staff to pursue personal growth targets.

Required Skills

Qualifications & Experience:

+ A bold strategist with experience building effective communities with and for alumni, with and for donors, and with and for like-minded individuals who share BU's values.

+ Experience in creating momentum by building marketing campaigns that drive alumni engagement, philanthropic participation and transformational giving.

+ A track record of creative and entrepreneurial staff leadership; the ability to build, lead, mentor, and motivate staff, and to encourage change and growth in both people and programs.

+ Exemplary interpersonal and communications skills as well as a high degree of comfort and cultural sensitivity engaging alumni throughout the United States and around the world; the ability to serve as a primary face of the university to alumni. Effective presenter who can command, improvise and engage an audience ranging from an intimate venue to an arena of thousands.

+ The intellectual depth, experience, and confidence to work with and command the respect and confidence of the president, alumni, students, faculty, senior administrators, and trustees.

+ A problem solver with the ability to analyze information and think strategically, critically, and creatively.

+ A collaborative leadership style that is well suited to management in a complex organizational setting; the ability to manage effectively in an environment with multiple constituencies.

+ A keen understanding and appreciation for the role annual, unrestricted giving has on the overall fundraising success of an organization and the fiscal health of an institution.

+ The ideal candidate will have personal success identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding individual donors, and the ability to inspire discerning individuals to volunteerism and volunteer leadership in alumni relations and development.

But that's not all we're looking for; we want someone who embodies our values:

+ **Teamwork, transparency, and mutual respect** , because we value every member's contributions and know that leadership can come from anywhere.

+ **Diversity, equity, inclusion** , and a commitment to ensuring that each of us knows we belong here.

+ **Integrity** in how we work and how we treat one another.

+ **Strategic thinking and curiosity** in the relentless pursuit of fresh approaches and measurable results.

+ **Continuous growth and improvement** , both as individuals and as a team.

+ **Joy and shared appreciation** for working hard toward goals that matter.

_We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, natural or protective hairstyle, religion, sex, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, military service, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, or because of marital, parental, or veteran status. We are a VEVRAA Federal Contractor._

_If you require reasonable accommodation in order to complete the employment application process, please contact the Equal Opportunity Office at 617-358-1796_

Required Skills

**Job Location:** Boston, MA

**Position Type:** Full-Time/Regular

**Salary Grade:** Grade 00

To apply, visit https://jobs.silkroad.com/BU/External/jobs/315662 (https://apptrkr.com/6401164)

Copyright 2025 Jobelephant.com Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted by the FREE value-added recruitment advertising agency (https://www.jobelephant.com/)

jeid-78fed1eb9c4d0b4895b4c9744cd5b32e