Director of Philanthropic Communications

Denton, TX (Hybrid)

$82K/yr – $84K/yrDirector/Executive6+ years expFull time

Posted 2 months ago

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Job Summary

Own and shape philanthropy-focused communications for a university advancement division, driving donor storytelling, major-gift materials, and cross-team brand alignment while guiding a small team and coordinating with campus partners to fundraise impact.

  • Strategic Leadership: set editorial standards and messaging across Advancement and partners.
  • Major Gift & Donor Storytelling: craft high-impact donor materials and lead gifts above $1M communications.
  • Project Management & Analytics: align timelines, approvals, and measurement to improve fundraising outcomes.

Job Description

Responsibilities

  • Strategic Leadership and Oversight
  • Establish and oversee philanthropic communications strategy, editorial standards, and messaging frameworks used across Advancement and partner units.
  • Provide clear editorial direction and final content guidance for donor-facing materials, ensuring consistency in tone, accuracy, and impact.
  • Supervise and mentor two full-time senior communications strategists, supporting professional development, performance management, and strategic alignment across teams.
  • Contribute to oversight and coordination of division-wide communications initiatives to ensure philanthropic messaging is aligned and cohesive.
  • Major Gift Communications
  • Serve as the primary communications partner to the development team for high-level donor engagement and solicitations.
  • Write and produce compelling campaign collateral, proposals, and donor-facing materials that reflect institutional priorities and philanthropic impact.
  • Lead implementation and execution of the Advancement Gift Communications Plan, including coordination with CSU/UBSC partners and management of messaging, approvals, and publication processes for gifts above $1M.
  • Collaborate with college and unit partners to support and review communications for gifts below $1M, providing strategic writing, editing, and design guidance as needed.

Requirements

  • Bachelor's degree in Communications, Journalism, Marketing, Business Administration, Public Relations, or a related field, and six years of progressively responsible professional experience; or any equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
  • Knowledge of communications field.
  • Ability to coordinate and supervise the work of others. to work under pressure, meet deadlines, conduct multiple tasks, and establish and maintain effective working relationships.
  • Ability to build and sustain strategic relationships.
  • Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
  • Ability to conceptualize, write, edit and oversee the creation of strategic, accurate and concise content for internal and external audiences.

Preferred

  • Experience in higher education advancement, development communications, or nonprofit fundraising.
  • Familiarity with CASE standards for donor recognition and stewardship.
  • Experience working with fundraising databases, project management tools, or content management systems.

Benefits

  • For information regarding our Benefits, click here.
University of North Texas logo

University of North Texas

Ranked a Tier One research university by the Carnegie Classification, UNT is the flagship of the UNT System and is located in Denton, Texas. With 242 degree programs and a thriving community of nearly 44,000 students, UNT serves the North Texas region and helps drive the state’s economy through groundbreaking research, educational excellence focused on career readiness, and a spirit of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Across its Denton and Frisco campuses, UNT students earned more than 13,000 degrees last year.

Denton, Texas, USA
13K employees (610 in marketing)

Traffic Signals

Monthly Visitors
3.4M
Monthly Google Ads Budget
$45.1K
Traffic Source Mix
Search
44.8%
Direct
48.6%
Referral
4.9%
Social
1.1%
Paid
0.4%

Headcount Trend

Current headcount: ~12.8K

Marketing Team

Marketing Team Size
375 (3% of company)
Median Career Experience
15 years
Median Tenure
5.5 years

Funding

Total Funding
$30.4M
Last Raise
$20K
Grant, 2 years ago

Funding History

  • Nov 2023
    Grant • $20K
  • Jul 2023
    Grant
  • Jul 2022
    Grant • $100K

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