Bowdoin College

Director of Gift Planning

Deerfield Associates has been retained by Bowdoin College, located in Brunswick, Maine, to conduct a national search for a Director of Gift Planning.

Bowdoin College

Bowdoin is set in the coastal New England town of Brunswick, Maine. Brunswick, a town of 22,000 residents, brings together elements of both city and country living including cultural offerings, a variety of restaurants, and four-season activities for outdoor enthusiasts. Bowdoin’s historic 215-acre campus, comprised of 140+ buildings, is a brief walk to downtown Brunswick, and is 25 miles from Portland and about 120 miles from Boston. Bowdoin’s unique character as “a small college in Maine” reflects its intimate size, strong sense of community, socioeconomic diversity, and deep treasured links with the people, history, and natural beauty of Maine.

The purpose of the College is to engage students of uncommon promise in an intense full-time education of their minds, to explore their creative faculties, and to develop their social and leadership abilities in a four-year course of study and residence that concludes with a baccalaureate degree in the liberal arts.

Bowdoin today is consistently recognized in the academic community and among prospective students as one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges. Bowdoin’s academic offerings are core to the mission of the College. More than two hundred outstanding and dedicated faculty members contribute to groundbreaking work in their fields. The College offers forty-three majors and forty-five minors, new coastal science facilities—unmatched among peer institutions—and a unique nexus of work in Arctic studies, environmental studies, and coastal studies that places Bowdoin at the center of the search for climate change solutions, one of this era’s most pressing needs. Bowdoin’s two thousand students are curious and driven.

The central campus includes modern classrooms and academic spaces, comfortable residence halls, state-of-the-art research laboratories, and athletic facilities. Students train and compete in a wide range of varsity and club sports, and their rich extracurricular life is supported by nearly two hundred clubs and organizations. Students also have ample opportunities to explore civic issues and engage with community on campus, in town, and beyond.

Bowdoin is able to achieve its priorities through responsible budgeting and planning. It is supported by an annual giving program that has participation and giving rates consistently among the highest in the nation and by a robust endowment ($2.4 billion) that ranks among the largest in the country on a per-student basis. The College is in a strong financial position. For more information about Bowdoin College please visit www.bowdoin.edu.

Bowdoin is a highly diverse community of students and faculty from around the United States and the world. A typical entering class will have students from 47 states and 30 countries; more than 13,000 students applied for admission to the Class of 2028.

Development and Alumni Relations

The Development and Alumni Relations Division includes a staff of 55, and the College recently completed From Here: The Campaign for Bowdoin, having surpassed the ambitious $500 million target. From Here | The Campaign for Bowdoin | Bowdoin College. The current alumni population is 23,610.

President Safa R. Zaki

Safa R. Zaki is the sixteenth president of Bowdoin College. She took office in July 2023, after serving most recently as dean of the faculty and the John B. McCoy and John T. McCoy Professor of Psychology at Williams College. She is a renowned psychologist and cognitive scientist, and the first woman to lead the College since its founding in 1794. President Safa R. Zaki | Bowdoin College

Heather Lee Krajewski

Senior Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations

Effective August 1, 2024

In May 2024, President Zaki announced Heather Lee Krajewski as the new senior vice president for development and alumni relations at Bowdoin. Heather comes to Bowdoin from Hampden-Sydney College in Farmville, Virginia, where she has served as vice president for college advancement since 2018. Her appointment followed a comprehensive national search; she will succeed Scott Meiklejohn, who served as Interim SVP in the 2023-24 school year.

Heather’s previous experience includes thirteen years in roles of increasing responsibility at her alma mater, the University of Richmond, as well as at the Library of Virginia Foundation and the University of Chicago.

Director of Gift Planning

The Director of Gift Planning leads and manages all aspects of the Office of Gift Planning team and a comprehensive gift planning program regarding life-income gifts, bequests, and gifts of non-cash assets. The Director serves on the leadership team for the division of Development and Alumni Relations and manages a four-member staff. The Director establishes annual individual and programmatic goals and strategies to align with Bowdoin’s fundraising priorities and positions the department to serve as a gift planning resource for Bowdoin colleagues and constituents.

The Director is responsible for securing irrevocable and revocable planned gifts, in addition to outright annual and capital gifts, and oversees the gift planning marketing and communications program in partnership with the Senior Associate of Gift Planning to maximize the exposure of gift planning opportunities to Bowdoin constituents. The Director develops and manages strategic priorities for Bowdoin’s legacy society, the Bowdoin Pines Society.

The Director oversees the Office of Gift Planning’s relationships with TIAA Kaspick; PG Calc; outside legal counsel; and Bowdoin campus partners, including the finance office. The Director oversees bequest and estate administration.

The Director works closely with Bowdoin’s leadership gift team to solicit and negotiate planned gifts; integrates gift planning into the overall development program through in-house training workshops, webinars, marketing materials, and one-on-one donor strategy sessions with gift officers; and provides technical expertise regarding income, gift and estate tax, and charitable estate planning. The Director prioritizes growing their personal gift planning knowledge base through conferences, webinars, and planned giving resources.

The Director cultivates, solicits, and stewards an individual portfolio of prospects and donors to encourage support of Bowdoin and to find creative solutions to meet donors’ philanthropic goals.

Primary Position Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

Leads the Gift Planning program, encompassing revocable and irrevocable planned gifts, gifts-in-kind, gifts of real estate and other complex assets.
Develops and implements a multi-year conceptual plan and an annual marketing plan to secure planned gifts and provide planned giving resources to Bowdoin constituents.
Oversees the 50^th Reunion Giving program, providing guidance to staff and serving as a gift planning resource to volunteers.
Serves as a resource to Development and Alumni Relations staff regarding gift planning strategies and concepts.
Provides training for fundraising colleagues to keep them current on gift planning and related philanthropic opportunities, including periodic legislative updates.
Sets annual individual and programmatic goals for the Office of Gift Planning. Collaborates with Leadership Gift Officers to meet individual and shared programmatic goals and assists colleagues in the preparation of gift planning proposals.
Establishes policies and procedures that reflect industry best practices related to gift acquisition, documentation, and administration. Serves on the Bowdoin Gift Acceptance Committee.
Prioritizes the value of data to inform compelling strategies for the department and to create comprehensive annual progress reports.
Identifies, qualifies, cultivates, solicits, and stewards a select pool of Bowdoin alumni, parents, and friends in support of the College’s priorities.
Travels as appropriate to meet with prospects and donors for individual meetings and to attend Bowdoin events.
Performs other duties as assigned.

Management

Manages the day-to-day operations of the Office of Gift Planning, workflow and activities of the team, and resources for the program.
Provides effective leadership, supervision, coaching, and models professionalism to staff members in the optimum performance of their roles. Performs periodic evaluations of staff performance against established goals and work plans. Ensures alignment of workflow with the priorities of the Development and Alumni Relations division.

Supervisory Responsibilities

Oversees a staff of 4 direct reports:

Senior Associate Director of Gift Planning
Director of 50^th Reunion Giving
Administrative Coordinator
Administrative Assistant

Education Required

A bachelor’s degree is required; a relevant advanced degree is preferred.

Experience Required

The Director of Gift Planning will be a proven development leader with a minimum of 6-8 years’ experience in gift planning or a related field and have the ability to create a comprehensive vision to implement goals that drive and nurture a successful planned giving program. The individual must possess a deep knowledge of planned and complex gifts, have gift planning marketing experience, and embrace a willingness to develop relationships with Bowdoin constituents as they explore philanthropic opportunities to support the College.

The Director will have a proven record in successfully managing and supervising people and comprehensive programs; will demonstrate integrity and possess outstanding interpersonal, communication, analytical, and listening skills, exceptional judgment, and the ability to establish collaborative relationships with other members of the Development and Alumni Relations team, campus partners, and outside vendors. The individual will understand the value of liberal arts education and have the ability to motivate staff to work toward ambitious goals.

Bowdoin College Benefits

Bowdoin College is committed to diversity, inclusion and equality, and is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage inquiries from candidates who will enrich and contribute to the cultural and ethnic diversity of our College. Bowdoin College does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, creed, color, religion, marital status, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, veteran status, national origin, or disability status in employment, or in our education programs.

Bowdoin College offers a dynamic and supportive work environment, competitive salaries and a generous benefits package including a retirement plan, paid vacations, and medical insurance. In addition, the college recently launched a home buyers assistance program. More information on benefits can be found here: https://www.bowdoin.edu/hr/benefits-perks/index.html

The successful candidate will be subject to a criminal history background and credit check.

Contact

To explore this superb career opportunity on a highly confidential basis please send your resume, letter of interest and contact information for four (4) references (which will only be contacted if mutual interest is determined) to:

Doug Cooney, Executive Search Consultant, DEERFIELD ASSOCIATES Executive Search, Inc.
572 Washington Street, Suite 15, Wellesley, MA 02482 Telephone: 781-237-2800.
Email: jobs@deerfieldassociates.com