Executive Director of Development, Geisel School of Medicine
Dartmouth College
A complete application in a minute
Tailored resume and cover letter, ready to send.
Job summary
Dartmouth College seeks an Executive Director of Development for the Geisel School of Medicine to lead and grow the institution's fundraising programs. You will guide the development team, build donor pipelines, and translate academic priorities into philanthropic investments.
Reporting to the CDO/Vice-President of Development and Alumni Engagement, you will manage a portfolio and collaborate with Geisel leadership to pursue multi-year gifts, including substantial gifts in the 5–10 million+
Qualifications
- Ten years of fundraising experience and five years of management.
- Experience communicating priorities in education and biomedical research to multiple stakeholders.
- Comfort with the intricacies of business travel.
- Capital campaign and major gifts experience preferred.
- Writing and communications experience in higher education or non-profit environments preferred.
Responsibilities
- Lead Geisel development team and shape Dean and school priorities into philanthropic investments.
- Build prospect pools through constituency development and engagement strategies.
- Maintain portfolio of key prospects and volunteers to secure and steward gifts up to $5–$10 million+.
- Represent the CDO and MHA in internal and external meetings.
- Develop budgets and monitor fundraising activities.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
Dartmouth College has a Tobacco-Free Policy. Smoking and the use of tobacco-based products (including smokeless tobacco) are prohibited in all facilities, grounds, vehicles or other areas owned, operated or occupied by Dartmouth College with no exceptions. For details, please see our policy. https://policies.dartmouth.edu/policy/tobacco-free-policy
Posting date 06/12/2025
Open Until Filled Yes
Position Number 1127109
Position Title Executive Director of Development, Geisel School of Medicine
Hiring Range Minimum $207,300
Hiring Range Maximum $259,100
Union Type Not a Union Position
SEIU Level Not an SEIU Position
FLSA Status Exempt
Employment Category Regular Full Time
Scheduled Months per Year 12
Scheduled Hours per Week 40
Remote Work Eligibility? Hybrid
Is this a term position? No
If yes, length of term in months. NA
Is this a grant funded position? No
This position, reporting to the Chief Development Officer Dartmouth Health (DH) and Vice-President of Development and Alumni Engagement for the Geisel School of Medicine ( CDO /VP) will serve as a part of the Medical and Healthcare Advancement ( MHA ) senior leadership team. The Executive Director will lead the Geisel School of Medicine (Geisel) development team playing a strategic role in team management and shaping the Dean and school’s priorities into philanthropic investments. The executive director will do this by strategically building prospect pools through constituency development and thoughtful engagement strategies and translating those into action items for members of the Geisel, MHA and College development teams. Further, the executive director will also maintain their own portfolio of key prospects and volunteers working to secure and steward gifts up to $5-$10 million+. As with all members of the MHA senior leadership team, the executive director will represent the CDO and MHA in various internal and external meetings.
Required Qualifications - Education and Yrs Exp
Required Qualifications - Skills, Knowledge and Abilities
- Ability to effectively manage, motivate and coach a team
- Ability to work with and command the respect of senior officers, faculty and administrators, and high-level volunteers.
- Excellent oral, written, and project management skills.
- Excellent organizational skills.
- Strong interpersonal skills and adept at both negotiating and listening.
- Ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously and to set priorities.
- Proficient and confident working in a fundraising database and with various Web-based software applications.
- Ability to handle sensitive and confidential information with discretion.
- Strong commitment to diversity.
- Creative, imaginative and original thinker
- Bring a sense of humor and joy to the workplace.
- Minimum ten years of fundraising experience and five years of management experience.
- Experience in effectively developing and communicating priorities in education and biomedical research to multiple stakeholders
- Understanding of and comfort with the intricacies of business travel
- Experience in a major gift capacity and with management responsibilities preferred.
- Previous capital campaign experience and experience fundraising in a complex university, or medical center development operation with a proven record of successful fundraising strongly preferred.
- Writing and communications experience in higher education or non-profit environment preferred.
- Bachelors plus 10+ or more years’ experience or combination of education and experience.
- Master’s degree or equivalent professional experience.
Dartmouth College is an equal opportunity employer under federal law. We prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, veteran status, marital status, or any other legally protected status. Applications are welcome from all.
Employment in this position is contingent upon consent to and successful completion of a pre-employment background check, which may include a criminal background check, reference checks, verification of work history, conduct review, and verification of any required academic credentials, licenses, and/or certifications, with results acceptable to Dartmouth College. A criminal conviction will not automatically disqualify an applicant from employment. Background check information will be used in a confidential, non-discriminatory manner consistent with state and federal law.
Is driving a vehicle (e.g. Dartmouth vehicle or off road vehicle, rental car, personal car) an essential function of this job? Yes
Dartmouth College has a Tobacco-Free Policy. Smoking and the use of tobacco-based products (including smokeless tobacco) are prohibited in all facilities, grounds, vehicles or other areas owned, operated or occupied by Dartmouth College with no exceptions. For details, please see our policy. https://policies.dartmouth.edu/policy/tobacco-free-policy
- In close partnership with the Dean, CDO /VP and Geisel leadership crafts philanthropic plans that will elevate and promote key school priorities to a variety of donor constituencies. These priorities will represent both short and long-term plans to achieve overall objectives.
- Utilizing philanthropic plans, will formulate and lead a comprehensive strategy to provide opportunities to cultivate, engage, and steward top prospects for Geisel.
- As a member of the MHA senior leadership team, serves as the primary source of knowledge and key point of contact regarding Geisel development activities.
- Manages day-to-day operations of fundraising activities for Geisel.
- Works with the CDO /VP to establish team and program performance goals; monitors progress and devises strategies to ensure success.
- Works closely with the Vice President of Principal Gifts and Venture Philanthropy to craft and execute on key strategies that elevate opportunities for significant investment in the educational and research enterprise at Geisel.
- Partner with Alumni and Strategic Engagement teams to craft philanthropic strategies surrounding special moments for alumni, like reunion, to solicit significant gifts from alumni.
- In partnership with other members of the development team and in close collaboration with the Strategic Engagement team, develops communications, events and programming for Geisel and College alumni and friends in support of fundraising and volunteer objectives.
- Consults with annual giving and planned giving leadership to develop comprehensive strategies to grow current use and planned and life income gifts while also building and diversifying a pipeline of engaged donors with the capacity to make significant gifts.
- Helps develop and execute annual budgets necessary to support Geisel fundraising activities; seeks creative ways to provide necessary resources and infrastructure.
- As a member of the MHA senior leadership team serves as a partner and counsel to other members of the senior leadership team, as well as institutional leadership at Geisel and DH, providing expertise based on their experience and knowledge of the profession.
Percentage Of Time 50
- Identifies, qualifies, cultivates, solicits, and stewards a portfolio of 50-75 Geisel and Dartmouth alumni and friends, with an emphasis on medical school alumni (MD, Master’s, PhD) with the capacity to make multi-year gift commitments between $250,000 and $5M+.
- Devises and implements donor-centric fundraising strategies to support the educational and biomedical research missions of Geisel to meet personal and team activity and revenue goals through development and promotion of key philanthropic priorities, portfolio planning and moves management.
- Collaborates with colleagues in Dartmouth’s Advancement division to identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward Dartmouth alumni with an interest in supporting the priorities and vision of Geisel.
- Travels with consistent frequency to meet with individuals and achieve annual fundraising and engagement targets.
Percentage Of Time 30
- Manages a budgeted team of four major gift officers for Geisel.
- Hires, coaches, supports, and evaluates staff responsible for identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of Geisel prospects.
- Establishes and monitors relevant assignments and metrics to assess individual performance.
- Leads by example to ensure a culture where effective teamwork, collaboration, innovation, and high standards of conduct are expected, recognized, and rewarded.
- Develops and maintains collaborative working relationships with Development colleagues, Geisel leadership and faculty, Dartmouth Development staff, and Dartmouth-Health partners as appropriate.
Percentage Of Time 20
-
--
Demonstrates a commitment to diversity, inclusion, and cultural awareness through actions, interactions, and communications with others.
--
-- Performs other duties as assigned.
Required fields are indicated with an asterisk (*).
- * How did you learn about this employment opportunity?
- Current Dartmouth employee (Please specify full name below)
- Word of mouth
- Mentioned on social, digital, or print media (e.g. LinkedIn feed, VOX, Valley News, listserv)
- jobs@dartmouth.edu email outreach (includes Job Alert notifications, marketing emails from Talent Acquisition)
- Recruiter (Please specify full name or event below)
- abilityJOBS
- Chronicle of Higher Education
- Glassdoor
- Handshake
- HigherEdJobs
- HigherEdMilitary
- Indeed
- Inside Higher Ed
- LinkedIn’s Job Board
- RecruitMilitary
- Dartmouth’s Job Board (searchjobs.dartmouth.edu)
- Other (Please specify below)
- If you would like to add more information to your answer, please specify here:
(Open Ended Question)
Required Documents
- Cover Letter
- Resume
Optional Documents
Dartmouth College Office of Human Resources | 7 Lebanon Street Suite 203 | Hanover, NH 03755 | Ph 603.646.3411 | jobs@dartmouth.edu
'/%3e%3cpath%20d='M101.744%2012.4726L102.894%2016.1947L99.0021%2013.2201L101.744%2012.4726ZM105.3%208.40937H100.488L99.0026%203.59473L97.5116%208.41047L92.7%208.40385L96.5965%2011.3834L95.1055%2016.1942L99.0021%2013.2196L101.408%2011.3834L105.3%208.40992V8.40937Z'%20fill='white'/%3e%3cdefs%3e%3clinearGradient%20id='paint0_linear_5593_1381'%20x1='90'%20y1='9.44471'%20x2='99'%20y2='9.44471'%20gradientUnits='userSpaceOnUse'%3e%3cstop%20stop-color='%2300AD70'/%3e%3cstop%20offset='0.998594'%20stop-color='%2300B67A'/%3e%3cstop%20offset='1'%20stop-color='%23DCDCE6'/%3e%3c/linearGradient%3e%3c/defs%3e%3c/svg%3e){kind=small}
