Key Priorities

As a member of the leadership team of the Foundation and Institute, the Director of Development will pursue the following priorities:

• In collaboration with senior leadership, develop a comprehensive annual operating plan for fundraising to include goals, strategies, tasking, and metrics for measuring performance.
• Execute and oversee the annual fundraising plan to incorporate effective and thoughtful use of contracted talent, travel, professional communication, fundraising events, and stewardship of donors.
• Develop and manage a portfolio of principal and major gift prospects to solicit current use, capital, and endowed support.
• Build constructive working relationships with Foundation board members, staff and contractors, Institute fellows, and other stakeholders.

 

Candidate Profile and Ideal Experience

Compelling candidates will have the ability to understand and clearly communicate the needs of the Foundation and Institute to achieve results aligned with the Institute’s vision and mission. In addition, the successful candidate will ideally possess the following professional qualifications, skills, and personal qualities:

• Demonstrated ability to manage and develop fundraising strategies in collaboration with a leadership team;
• Success in taking a creative and entrepreneurial approach to identifying, qualifying, and cultivating prospects;
• Proven track record of managing portfolios containing major donor prospects to meet fundraising goals;
• A clear thinker with exemplary communication skills and the ability to effectively articulate the organization’s mission, strategic aims, and programs, and especially to make complex realities understandable to investors and partners;
• Experience managing a team; ability to balance managing staff and portfolio; ability to work under tight deadlines and internal and external pressures;
• A Bachelor's degree required; graduate degree preferred
• Proficient in CRM database(s), various organizational systems and platforms, and pertinent Microsoft and Apple applications;
• Minimum of 8 years of professional experience; at least 5 years of previous demonstrated and increasingly successful fundraising experience preferred;
• Experience with fundraising in a university or college is preferred; experience with an academic center or institute is desirable but not essential;
• Ability to spend at least one week each month at the ASCF offices in Watson Manor in Charlottesville, as well as travel and work on nights and weekends as needed.

 

Personal Attributes

• Highest level of integrity;
• Strong interpersonal skills with a high level of emotional intelligence;
• Thoughtful, transparent, and exceptionally collaborative;
• Creative, entrepreneurial, and resourceful;
• Strong writing skills;
• Ability to work with occasional ambiguities that arise in complex academic settings;
• Ability to juggle multiple priorities;
• Self-directed and motivated;
• Committed to a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment.

 

Salary and Benefits

ASCF will offer a competitive salary and benefits package based on the qualifications and experience of the selected candidate.

 

To Apply or Nominate

To apply, submit a letter of interest and resume to: DirectorDevelopmentSearch@advancedstudiesinculture.org.

Confidential inquiries and nominations should be directed to Ty Buckman, IASC Director, at searchinfo@advancedstudiesinculture.org.

Applications submitted by September 15, 2024 will receive full consideration; the position will remain open until filled.

The Advanced Studies in Culture Foundation is committed to building a diverse pool of talented individuals. We are equal opportunity and affirmative action employers. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, color, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, national or ethnic origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, veteran status, and family medical or genetic information.

 

FURTHER INFORMATION

THE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES IN CULTURE

Born in the University of Virginia’s College of Arts & Sciences twenty-eight years ago, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture is a visible expression of the College’s mission “to… advance our collective knowledge through innovative research” by addressing “both the historic challenges of the 21st century and the enduring questions that have fueled human inquiry for generations.” An interdisciplinary research center and an intellectual community, the Institute examines the deep structures of culture—our civilization’s DNA—to understand our times and their consequences; to build a critical mass of engaged scholars, leaders, and practitioners; and to offer our findings for the flourishing of persons and communities.

 

Although many university-affiliated research centers and institutes compete for national influence and for institutional and donor support, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture has been blessed from its founding to occupy a unique space in the academy, supporting research and scholarship and forming early career academics to see beyond the narrow categories of inquiry that define so many academic disciplines, to look deeper into history and wider into the culture to identify the shaping forces at work in determining our present and pointing the way to our future.

 

The Institute’s Contributions by the Numbers

• 225 Institute Fellows since 1995, with representation from 9 academic departments at UVA;
• 108 Postdoctoral Fellows supported since 2001, placing 79% in faculty or academic leadership Positions, 47% of whom landed in Research I or II academic institutions;
• 220 books and monographs, more than 330 journal articles and essays, and 15 National Surveys and Reports supported;
• 225 public lectures and seminars;
• 70 Issues of our award-winning journal, The Hedgehog Review, reaching over 6,000 print subscribers and 20,000 digital subscribers, with more than 1,000 newsstand sales per issue.