Position Summary

Reporting directly to the Associate Vice-President of Finance, the Director of Gift Administration oversees and implements polices, guidelines and business processes for the Gift Administration unit. The position is responsible for leading a collaborative effort with Development, Donor Stewardship, and Finance to make sure charitable contributions are received and processed efficiently and accurately.

The successful candidate will be required to show proof of being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to the first day of employment.

Work Location

The work location for this position is the OSU Foundation Corvallis, OR office.

The Foundation offers a program called Core Work Days, a hybrid approach combining remote and in-office work days. Unless traveling for work, Foundation employees are in office on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and work remotely, if preferred, on Monday and Friday

Key Partners

• Members of the management team, OSUF development staff, external auditors, university units, and staff in the Finance and Planned Giving areas regarding the processing and recording of major and other gifts and other data maintenance activities.
• Advancement Services team as this position is expected to be a significant consumer of advancement data and information delivery needs, as well as a contributor to the analysis of data and trends across the Foundation’s donor base.

Measures of Success

• Ensure donor-focused customer service for external clients and positive collaboration across the entire organization
• Effectively communicate with the team and key partners to ensure gift processing functions efficiently without interruptions
• Increase efficiency of gift processing by balancing accuracy, speed, and volume of donations

Major Duties

Supervise, lead, develop and mentor a team of professionals; provide regular performance feedback and coaching, develop annual plans with measurable outcomes and accountabilities, conduct performance reviews.

Oversee and manages the daily workflow of Gift Administration staff.

Establish staff performance goals, objectives and priorities and continuously monitor and assess staff performance.

Share information and communicate with the team and Foundation and University departments through regular staff meetings and interactions.

Identify and respond to training needs as appropriate to help develop staff and increase work efficiencies and participates in professional development opportunities as appropriate.

Makes responsible decisions related to donor gifts and pledges, exercise judgement and take initiative in creating and interpreting policies and guidelines on all matters relating to the entry and reporting of gifts, makes recommendations to management on gift processing matters.

Interact with staff and management throughout the University, and external University constituents, in a prompt and professional manner, on a wide variety of development and finance related to gift processing and administration.

Coordinate reconciliation and related fund/allocation matters with the Finance office.

Keep apprised of industry best practices, regulation, and compliance, i.e., Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the IRS.

Maintain a working knowledge of all departmental processes and procedures while reviewing and optimizing these on a regular basis. Ensure that all processes and procedures are accurately documented in writing.

Work with the Associate Vice President of Finance and staff to establish and report on productivity metrics and evaluate actual performance against those metrics.

Identify and perform historical giving data cleanup projects as required.

Identify system needs, request and recommend changes, and work with other key partners on procedural changes and enhancements.
Works with Campaign staff and other members of the Development and Management Team on campaign reports and campaign issues.

Perform other duties as assigned.

Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Knowledge of:

• gift processing and receipting procedures
• general accounting practices, procedures, and processes
• Donor relations and stewardship

Skills in:

• Microsoft suite products
• written and verbal communication
• planning, organizing and attention to detail
• customer service and client and vendor relations
• editing, reviewing completed work of others daily

Ability to:

• foster and maintain a positive, respectful, and productive team environment
• analyze data to help determine the strategy and focus toward making process improvements
• analyze, record, and reconcile detailed accounting activity
• handle interpersonal relationships maturely, thoughtfully, and empathetically, including the ability to work with individuals from diverse backgrounds
• prioritize and work efficiently to meet deadlines
• be adept and comfortable working with large sums of money in a high-volume data processing environment
• handle various special projects on an ongoing basis while addressing daily needs for the office
• work under the pressure of time and with frequent requests from multiple sources each having their own timelines and constraints and with all levels of academic and administrative staff

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree and five years of progressively professional work experience in finance including 3-5 years full-time experience leading and coaching a team. Preference may be given to applicants that have prior work experience in client records management in a nonprofit or higher education setting. Education and experience equivalencies may be considered.

Core Values

We strive to be one of the best places to work in the country. We know that our success depends in large part on the people who carry out our mission. It’s what we do –and how we do it - that makes the difference. Our core values reflect our approach to work and to each other, and we are committed to conduct consistent with these values.