Position Classification Title: Director of Gift Administration

Incentive Compensation: 10% of Base Salary

Job Summary:

Responsible for ensuring the accurate and timely processing and receipting of over 20,000 gifts per year, and leading a team responsible for the care and handling of donor gifts and database records throughout their lifecycle. Duties include gift agreement coordination, management of gifts, pledges, and payments, donor receipting, accurate entry and coding of gifts, pledges, and planned gifts for VSE and total commitment counting purposes, ensuring data integrity and database record maintenance, fund set-up and maintenance, gift fund utilization compliance monitoring, training of university faculty and staff to utilize gift funds in a timely manner and according to donor intent, and collection of impact data for stewardship purposes.

About Us:

The New Mexico State University Foundation invites you to apply to join our diverse, dynamic, and welcoming team in Las Cruces, NM. The NMSU Foundation seeks to provide the pinnacle career experience for each member of our team. The Foundation is seeking talented individuals who are passionate about the mission of NMSU and committed to a continual pursuit of excellence. We build strong relationships with alumni, supporters, NMSU partners, and each other while personifying our core values of integrity, teamwork, stewardship, innovation, and fun.

Established in 1959, the New Mexico State University Foundation’s mission is to build a brighter future for NMSU, one relationship at a time. As an independent nonprofit organization, the Foundation is the primary fundraising and alumni relations institution for NMSU. We are charged with raising and managing gifts of all types and coordinating the alumni association. We invest endowed gifts and disburse funding each year for the purposes designated by donors. The Foundation coordinates the efforts of the NMSU Alumni Association, which galvanizes the enthusiasm and loyalty of the NMSU alumni network of over 147,000 graduates to support the mission of NMSU while becoming better connected with each other.

Our team partners with alumni, corporations, foundations, and other supporters who want to match their charitable passions with opportunities for purposeful philanthropy and personal engagement at NMSU. Gifts create scholarships, advance faculty endeavors, enhance student programs, and make new and renovated educational and athletic facilities possible. These generous investments greatly enhance NMSU’s land grant mission to provide the highest quality academic programs, develop new understandings through research and creativity, and provide extension services across our state and region.

We offer a highly competitive salary including incentive compensation, an industry-leading benefits package, and a fun and fulfilling work environment. Qualified individuals with a high level of energy who are looking for a work environment that nurtures vision, performance, productivity, superior quality, and unsurpassed integrity are encouraged to apply for this career opportunity.

NMSU is New Mexico’s flagship land-grant and space-grant institution. Founded in 1888, NMSU is the oldest institution of higher education in the state and is a Hispanic-serving institution and a comprehensive research university dedicated to teaching, research, service, and outreach. NMSU serves more than 14,000 students from 49 states and 89 foreign countries and is among the best universities in the nation at moving students from the lowest income tier to the top. Over 50% of NMSU students are first-generation college students and over 60% are Hispanic, meaning that NMSU is one of the most important and effective drivers of economic mobility in the state. Las Cruces is located 45 miles north of El Paso, TX, and features an average of 294 days of sunshine annually. Situated in the heart of the historic Mesilla Valley between the Organ Mountains, Robledo Mountains, and Picacho Peak, Las Cruces is ideal for job seekers who enjoy hiking, mountain biking, and birdwatching. Las Cruces is New Mexico’s second-largest city and home to 111,000 residents. The median home price in Las Cruces is $285,000, far below the national average of $425,000.

Essential Functions:

• Manages the donor gift agreement process used to establish endowed and annual funds, along with naming agreements. Oversees the gift agreement review and signature routing process.
• Directs the daily operation of the Gift Administration staff, ensuring work reflects knowledge and judgment relative to CASE and VSE standards, methods, policies, procedures, and precedents. Manages a team responsible for recording and maintaining critical business records, financial transition data, and confidential donor data.
• Maintains and manages data acquisition, data integrity, and records management. Establishes, enforces, and monitors business process controls designed to safeguard the integrity of finance-related data and protect assets. Performs ongoing data and process audits.
• Determines staffing needs, designs jobs, writes and updates position descriptions, allocates staff, and assigns duties accordingly, maintaining a budget, organization structure, and workload demands.
• Works closely with the accounting department to ensure the correct recording of assets. Coordinates the reconciliation of gift systems with accounting systems, including year-end closing procedures. Supports the Foundation’s external auditors’ review of gifts and pledges by explaining procedures and providing donor documentation.
• Serves as a liaison to the Information Services & Data Analytics department, internal staff, and campus partners for scheduled data feeds and interfaces.
• Establishes, coordinates, and communicates document policies and procedures that adhere to institutional and federal requirements.
• Trains development officers and support staff in accordance with proper procedures for submitting gifts and pledges.
• Serves as the primary point of contact for units across campus that are implementing new solicitation strategies or designing new forms to ensure that transactions can be processed efficiently and accurately.
• Establish operational goals and objectives that align with the overall Foundation strategic plan.
• Oversees gift administration data quality and transaction accuracy and prioritizes customer service related to the Foundation’s charitable contributions.
• Research and respond to inquiries from internal and external stakeholders regarding products, applications, best practices, training, and guidelines related to gift administration.
• Serve as subject matter expert in the areas of gift processing, data integrity, records management, training, gift fund utilization, and compliance.
• Oversee annual strategic business plan and budget for the unit.
• Design gift and data processing workflows.
• Propose and ensure adherence to policies and procedures for gift processing, donor records, gift fund utilization, compliance, and IRS tax guidelines.
• Ensure staff is compliant with policies and procedures and national standards.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Minimum Required Education, Knowledge, Experience & Certification/License:

• An energetic, well-grounded, innovative, service-oriented personality and calculated risk taker with a bias for action, a record of setting and surpassing objectives, and a proven “can do” attitude and drive to execute strategies and produce results beyond expectations.
• Knowledge of data maintenance best practices and procedures and gift accounting principles.
• Knowledge of IRS, CASE, and VSE procedures and guidelines relative to gifts, pledges, donor-advised funds, and basic finance principles.
• Competencies include collaboration, stakeholder focus, ability to execute timely, accountability, innovation, effective communication, critical thinking, and organizational acumen.

Director Gift Administration:

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Communications, Public Relations, or related field.
• 8 years of experience in gift accounting, comprehensive database management, compliance, or a related field.
• 4 years in higher education preferred. 2 years of experience supervising full-time employees.