Director of The Hill Fund and Reunion Giving

Reporting to the Assistant Head of School for Advancement, the Director of The Hill Fund and Reunion Giving is responsible for designing, implementing, managing, and coordinating a comprehensive annual and reunion program that supports the School’s operating budget with primarily unrestricted gifts. The annual giving program will be a combination of external donor visits with significant Hill Fund donors, an appeal program (digital and direct mail) that reaches the Hill constituency far and wide, as well as an annual giving stewardship program that explains and demonstrates gift impact while encouraging donor retention. The reunion giving program roots in a reunion committee structure that asks class members to determine a class gift, its goal, and then peer to peer solicitation and engagement. The Director partners heavily with the Major Gifts team during the annual and reunion giving cycle to pair major Hill Fund gifts within the annual and reunion giving setting.

The Hill Fund annual giving program comprises gifts from alumni, parents, and other constituencies. The Director leads annual giving strategy and program for all donors to The Hill Fund. The Director will also re-invigorate and assess The 1851 Society, the School’s 16-year-old leadership giving society for donors who support The Hill annually with a gift of $1,851 or greater each fiscal year. The 1851 Society is The Hill’s signature giving society with resonance and recognition within the Hill community. But it needs assessment and rebooting.

The Director must bring a “major gifts” approach to annual and reunion giving, realizing that increased Hill Fund gifts result most from personal outreach and deep, meaningful relationships. Explaining the impact of annual Hill Fund gifts, and within a reunion cycle, and how they will be spent at the School is an essential skill for the Director. The successful candidate is a lead internal Director within the Advancement Office and a “major gift officer” for The Hill Fund. The Director is expected to make significant Hill Fund asks and travel regionally for The Hill Fund from July 1 through June 30 annually.

Hill Fund/Parent Fund and reunion appeal design and messaging are managed through a close partnership of Director and Hill’s Communications Office. The Director works closely with relevant Communications staff, executing appeals annually.

The Director works closely with all Advancement staff and interacts with other prominent and important Hill School leaders, trustees, and faculty as well as current students, occasionally.

The Hill is planning a new comprehensive campaign, launching in late summer/fall 2026. The Director plays a key and substantial role in this campaign and is a consequential voice in its goals, objectives, and strategies.

Hill Fund/Parent Fund

• Work closely with Major Gifts Officers (MGOs) who have Hill Fund donors assigned to them, securing larger gifts on a recurring basis.
• Serve as the “go to” annual/reunion giving leader at the School.
• Manage Hill Fund/Parent Fund mailings/appeals with Communications – mail files, segmentation, data, retention strategies/studies, and reports on results/progress.
• Work closely with the Business Office and Advancement staff to reconcile and report on Hill Fund giving weekly.
• Manage and execute annual Blue Gray Day giving challenge to honor Sixth Form the week leading into Commencement.
• Provide reporting and data to the Board’s Advancement Committee on The Hill Fund three times annually.
• Consider strategies to grow gift minimum from $1,851 to $5,000 in The 1851 Society.
• Oversee domestic leadership parent giving.
• Manage a personal donor pool of 25-30 leadership annual donors (alumni and parents) while also managing day-to-day annual giving operations; regional travel/on-campus meetings with donor pool expected.
• Assess and reboot The 1851 Society with stewardship and donor relations staff.
• Experiment with digital and hard copy annual appeals as well as staff phonathons to bolster The Hill Fund/Parent Fund.
• Bring strategies and new ideas on Hill Fund asks at alumni/parent events and within the Alumni Chapter program.
• Oversee, plan, and manage annual 1851 Society event at Parents Weekend with Advancement event staff; work closely with MGOs to schedule key Parent Fund donor meetings over Parents Weekend annually.

Reunion Giving

• Coordinate and oversee reunion giving program annually; a strong, close partner in reunion giving planning is Director of Alumni Affairs, who oversees social planning/schedule for reunion annually; both teams coordinate reunion schedule and agenda annually so that giving and social experience integrate and complement.
• Manage MGOs with Director of Major Giving to solicit leadership and major reunion gifts and facilitate peer-to-peer fundraising among alumni volunteers and their classmates.
• Set class giving goals for each reunion class using scale of gifts and other projection reports and analytics.
• Update and manage giving priority menus each fiscal year per reunion class, providing a healthy list of Hill Fund, capital, and endowment projects available for selection as class gifts, including naming opportunities for reunion committees.
• Communicate reunion giving tracking and progress monthly with MGOs via bi-monthly prospect management meetings or create standalone meeting(s) to help identify key reunion prospects with MGOs that need solicitation.
• Responsible for meeting and soliciting all unmanaged or pipeline reunion members per class for reunion class gift, with special focus on reunion chairs (secretaries/agents).
• Lead, design, manage, and execute “Esbenshade ‘74” young alumni challenge annually within reunion giving cycle; goal is to increase class reunion giving per cycle from the 5^th through 25^th reunion by 50% in participation and overall giving.
• In partnership with Director of Alumni Affairs, lead recruiting and management of reunion committees (5th – 70th) every fiscal year with Director of Alumni Affairs.
• Meet monthly by Zoom with reunion committees to keep fundraising targets moving while building momentum for Reunion Weekend through unique marketing and communication strategies (i.e., class newsletters, class Zoom/happy hours, meet and greet with Hill senior leadership, pre and post reunion get-togethers, etc.).
• Create digital training materials/toolkits for reunion volunteers that are necessary for reunion giving and engagement success (i.e., scales of engagement, class rosters, affinity/attribute scales, communication examples, photo libraries, archive materials, historical giving records, and other necessary reports).
• Execute senior alumni presentation annually with relevant reunion classes – 40^th through 60^th.
• Special partnership with Class of 1964 exists; partner on annual basis with 1964 class leadership to grow their class giving participation to 50%+ annually.
• Serve as Advancement’s lead for multi-channel reunion communications and assist in the development of reunion giving focused communications within the overall appeal/communications calendar.
• Proactively develop and enhance relationships with all Hill volunteers to begin working ahead for the next year’s Reunion class cycle – attempt to work 1-2 years ahead of current reunion cycle with each class’s secretary.
• Is well-informed of reunion giving best practices, industry trends, and emerging technologies; cultivate a professional network of colleagues at other institutions to serve as a resource (i.e., Mercersburg, Blair, Lawrenceville, Peddie, etc.).

• Commitment to embracing the mission of The Hill School.
• Minimum three to five years’ experience, preferably in independent schools or higher education (or a comparably complex organization), in annual/reunion/parent giving and/or major giving; Previous experience interacting with donors is mandatory and pivotal.
• Knowledge and ability to create, execute and/or support, and oversee a comprehensive School-wide annual giving plan, including advising on complex and carefully orchestrated appeals and external outreach for the School’s Hill Fund and Parent Fund donors.
• Excellent organizational, interpersonal, verbal/written communication skills essential.
• Able to generate creative solutions for soliciting/retaining annual giving donors to advance the School’s efforts to grow unrestricted annual giving meeting operating budget needs annually.
• Ability to think strategically about donor engagement, giving trends, and gift impact that resonates within an annual giving program.
• Excellent social skills, with large groups as well as with individuals, required.
• Proven skills and ability to manage multi-phase projects from inception to completion, including the ability to build consensus among team members and balance multiple concurrent priorities.
• Able to work independently and part of a team.
• Detail oriented, well organized, focused, and goal-oriented, with a high level of initiative and energy, as well as adept at problem solving and using judgment in situations requiring independent initiative and tact.
• Working knowledge of Raiser’s Edge, InDesign, and Excel – or similar programs – is highly preferred and required to succeed; prior use of data analytics to establish and/or evaluate donor retention and giving trends is also highly preferred, if not essential to succeed.
• Displays high level of maturity/personal integrity and ability to understand, develop, and sustain resilient/dynamic relationships with donors, colleagues, and management.
• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree (i.e. MA, MBA, JD or professional certifications such as CFRE, CAP, CFP preferred).
• Must be willing and able to travel regionally with occasional evening and weekend event duties.

Founded in 1851 as The Family Boarding School, The Hill School prepares students from across the country and around the world for college, careers, and life. Within a family school environment and a rigorous liberal arts curriculum, The Hill School challenges students to work hard, think and reason, be fulfilled, serve the common good, and be prepared to lead as citizens of the world, uniquely guided by the motto: “Whatsoever things are true.”  There are currently 527 students at The Hill School in third form (grades 9-12) through post-graduate with a 7 to 1 student/teacher ratio. There is a 79%/21% boarding-to-day student ratio; all students must board for one year. Hill students come from 26 states and 17 countries.

The Hill School’s Office of Advancement is responsible for the outreach to the School’s internal and external constituencies. Through community outreach, relationship building, and general awareness activities, the Department motivates The Hill School’s constituencies and the community-at-large to financially support the School. By obtaining the financial resources required by The Hill School to carry out its educational objectives, the Department plays a vital role in contributing to the overall education and personal development of Hill students and maintaining The Hill School’s position as an outstanding educational institution.

The Hill School completed The Strength of All campaign on June 30, 2023. More than $181 million was raised over eight years. The Director of The Hill Fund and Reunion Giving will play a key role in the next campaign which is projected to get underway in 2026 with a targeted goal of $150 million.

For additional information about The Hill School, please visit www.thehill.org.