Director of Planned Giving

Job Description

Director of Planned Giving

Location: Santa Paula, CA (California Campus)
Department: Advancement Office
Reports to: Executive Director of Development
Employment Type: Exempt; Full Time
Compensation: $100k to $150K salary (commensurate with experience).

Summary
The Director of Planned Giving is responsible for cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding planned gifts to support the mission of Thomas Aquinas College. This role engages active and prospective donors to inspire philanthropic commitments through bequests, charitable annuities, and other planned giving vehicles. The Director oversees the College's Legacy Society, and all planned giving stewardship and marketing initiatives. The Director also collaborates with colleagues to promote a culture of generosity that aligns with the College's strategic priorities.

Responsibilities
• Develop and implement strategies for acquiring new planned giving donors.
• Manage a portfolio of approximately 100 planned gift donors and prospects.
• Provide expertise for planned gift solicitations, including the following: charitable gift annuities, real property and other non-cash assets, charitable remainder trusts, donor advised funds, beneficiary designations, bequests, life insurance policies, endowments, retained life estates, and qualified charitable distributions.
• Administer estate gifts, review gift agreements, and approving annuity contracts.
• Offer tax and estate planning information necessary to help secure planned gifts.
• Prepare and review documents for planned gift opportunities for prospective donors.
• Oversee the College's Legacy Society, and steward its members through strategies such as acknowledging birthdays, having Masses offered for them, etc.
• Provide Legacy Society member biographies and testimonials for the TAC newsletter.
• Plan and host at least two estate planning workshops per year.
• Plan and host at least one annual networking reception for accountants, bank trust officers, estate planning attorneys, and financial advisors.
• Maintain a directory of estate planning attorneys and financial planning advisors for referrals to planned giving prospects.
• Assure that development officers have a working knowledge of planned giving, using wills, trusts, annuities, life insurance and retirement accounts to support the College.
• Using Crescendo and other resources, produce marketing materials that promote planned gifts and explain the benefits of each planned gift vehicle.
• Submit annual reports on annuity reserves to the states that require them.
• Generate reports on anticipated and received legacy gifts.
• Keep detailed action reports following prospect and donor engagements.

Education
• Bachelor's degree required.
• Juris Doctor degree with a specialization in estate planning, trust, and probate law is strongly preferred.

Experience
• 5+ years of fundraising experience in planned giving.

Skills
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Proven ability to build and maintain relationships with donors.
• Excellent organizational and project management skills.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Ability to be self-motivated and self-directed.
• Proficiency in fundraising software and databases.

Attributes
• Passion for Thomas Aquinas College's mission.
• Attentive listener.
• High level of integrity and professionalism.
• Creative problem solver.
• Commitment to excellence.

Benefits
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance plans.
• Life insurance available upon completion of one year of employment.
• 403(b) retirement plan with 5% employer match when employee contributes 5%.
• Accrued PTO and sick days, and some paid holidays.

About the Employer

Thomas Aquinas College believes that to learn is to discover and grow in the truth about reality. It is the truth, and nothing less, that sets men free. And because truth is both natural and supernatural, our academic program aims at both natural and divine wisdom. In particular, we look to our patron, St. Thomas Aquinas, whose extensive writings testify to the natural harmony between faith and reason.

Thomas Aquinas College is unique among American colleges and universities. In place of textbooks, students here study the Great Books of Western Civilization - the works that have shaped the course of history and guided the development of the major disciplines (mathematics and science, language and literature, philosophy and theology).