Program Director, Advancement Communications (VPUR)

Job Description Summary Organization's Summary Statement: The Office of Advancement Communications (OAC) is a new vertical within the Division of University Relations (UR), established alongside the recent public launch of Forward: The University of Maryland Campaign for the Fearless. OAC regularly collaborates with colleagues across the UR division and campus to deliver coordinated constituent-facing communications, marketing, and engagement strategies.

The Program Director of Advancement Communications will play a consultative and collaborative role among internal partners, developing marketing and communications tools and assets that serve the day-to-day work of engagement and fundraising for which UR is responsible. This work fulfills an essential need within the division while nesting within an ecosystem that includes the university’s Office of Marketing & Communications (OMC), school-, college- and unit-based communicators, as well as UR staff serving marketing and communications functions within the UMD Alumni Association, Office of Principal Gifts, Office of Donor Relations, Office of Annual Giving, Office of Gift Planning, Maryland Athletics and others.

The Program Director will play an integral role in defining UR’s strategic approach in, as well as its ongoing governance and high-level administration of, implementing Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) as a centralized, integrated solution for constituent communication across advancement audiences. As UR pursues a division-wide Salesforce CRM implementation, the realization of strategic and sound processes and procedures, as well as roles and responsibilities will be essential to the project’s success and that of its ongoing governance.

This will be a multi-year effort, introducing and optimizing SFMC through data extensions, segmentation, automations, journeys, roles and permissions, integrations, deliverability and reporting. The Director will rely on supportive partnership with OAC and UR leadership and colleagues in bringing SFMC into our environment and continuing to refine it as a significant tool in advancing fundraising and engagement goals at UMD.

They will also support alignment with university-wide administration and governance practices for SFMC and related platforms. Also essential to OAC’s role in UR, the Director will partner closely with the Assistant Vice President for Strategic Outreach (AVP-SO) to ensure that OAC provides thorough, coordinated and intentional communication strategy and messaging architecture connected to advancement priorities, particularly those identified for the Forward campaign.

They will drive cohesive alignment with the campaign’s marketing and communications strategy, and will convene subject matter experts across UR to promote unified campaign and advancement content creation and promotion workflows, from gift announcements and donor impact storytelling to staff and volunteer engagement tools and event strategy. In summary, the Director will offer leadership in five key areas: (1) defining strategy for implementing and sustaining long-term governance of SFMC across UR teams; (2) contributing to the strategic implementation of our Forward campaign marketing and communications plan to activate and sustain fundraising and engagement momentum; (3) fortifying internal communication infrastructure for UR in support of the division’s strategic priorities; (4) manage OAC staff as well as freelance and vendor partnerships; and (5) positioning the OAC as an interdependent and collaborative partner to colleagues across the division, OMC and campus, and as a committed contributor to campus-wide communication priorities.

The Director will serve as a strategic thought partner for the AVP-SO and assist in building the OAC, adding new employees to the team as well as managing vendor and freelance staff relationships for the office. In working with colleagues across UR, they will offer direction, strategic insights and/or high-quality d