Vice President for Institutional Advancement Saint Michael s College seeks an advancement professional who is experienced in higher education and who has the organizational, analytical, and leadership skills to take the Office of Institutional Advancement to the next level. The new vice president will be expected to organize the office for maximum effectiveness, to prepare for a major fundraising initiative, and to enlist the whole campus community in order to increase the level of support for the College. To assist in these responsibilities, the new vice president will have the support of a very capable group of directors and staff in advancement eager to take on new challenges, an engaged faculty desirous of playing a stronger role in advancement, an effective and collegial senior administration, the president, the board, and a large number of engaged alumni. With the institution s history of healthy finances; recent record enrollments; extraordinary sense of campus community; student-centered and effective academic and student life programs; and focused, successful, and long-term planning process, the advancement effort at Saint Michael s has a solid institutional foundation and a compelling message. The College History and Mission: Saint Michael s was founded in 1904 by a small group of French priests of the Society of Saint Edmund who were committed to Catholic education, the enhancement of the human person, the advancement of culture, and social justice. Taking their name from a 13th-century English saint, Edmund of Canterbury, the Edmundites shaped the mission and identity of Saint Michael s as a residential liberal arts college with a strong commitment to social justice and the Catholic intellectual tradition. Faithful to its Catholic, Edmundite heritage, Saint Michael s is committed to the development of the whole person as an individual and as a member of a larger community; an expectation of high academic standards; advancement of values-based education; the practice of open and civil discourse; respect for the fundamental dignity and worth of each person; and fulfillment of the responsibility of good citizens in an age of cultural diversity and internationalization. The founding values of the Edmundites are exemplified in some of the major events of the College s history. In 1911, Saint Michael s admitted its first African-American student. In 1926, it added its first graduate program. In 1947, Saint Michael s Playhouse was opened, bringing the first professional summer theatre to Vermont. In 1954, the College began a program to teach English to international students, which has become one of its signature programs. In 1970, Saint Michael s admitted women and became fully coeducational.
Students: Saint Michael s enrolls 2000 undergraduates and 450 graduate students, representing 30 states and 36 countries. Eighty-seven percent of its students come from outside Vermont; 29 percent come from outside New England. Ten percent of the students are ALANA; an additional four percent are international. Forty-seven percent of first-year students identify themselves as Catholic. Over 40 percent of the graduates have had a study-abroad experience. The mean SAT score for first-year students is 1173. The College has a first-year/sophomore retention rate of 90 percent. Its six-year graduation rate is 80 percent and consistently exceeds the College s predicted graduation rate. Students of Saint Michael s have been recognized for their work by receiving the most prestigious fellowships offered, including the Rhodes Scholarship, the Pickering Undergraduate Fellowship, the Fulbright Scholarship, and the Goldwater Scholarship. Academic Program: The heart of Saint Michael s is its commitment to liberal education. Its Liberal Studies Curriculum requires of all students a firm grounding in the liberal arts and sciences and proficiency in a second language. All majors are structured to develop oral and written communication skills as well as ethical decision making. Saint Michael s offers over 30 academic majors and an Honors Program. In 2003, the College was granted a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, one of only four Catholic colleges and universities in New England to receive this distinction. It also offers graduate degrees in clinical psychology, education, and teaching English to speakers of other languages. The average class size is 19, and the College s 174 (FTE) faculty are very student-centered and set high academic standards as well as offer a great deal of support. Strategic Planning: The focus of the College s strategic efforts over the past decade has been to strengthen both its national reputation and its academic program. This has included adding greater diversity to its course offerings, restructuring the curriculum to a four-course-per-semester model, increasing the level of academic engagement and challenge, increasing academic support, and expanding student/faculty research. The College s five-year strategic plan, developed in 2010, continued this direction. It called for increasing the academic quality of recruited students, developing holistic retention strategies, increasing the level of academic rigor, implementing pedagogies intended to help students master a higher level of academic challenge, expanding experiential education (including student research, study abroad, internships, and service learning), and introducing more diversity into the curriculum. The result of these efforts has been a demonstrable increase in student engagement, as measured by the National Survey of Student Engagement. Currently, Saint Michael s students are comparable to students at high-performing liberal arts colleges in the level of academic challenge they experience, the degree to which they participate in enriching educational experiences, and the degree to which they experience a supportive campus community. While being held to higher academic standards, Saint Michael s students have persevered at a higher rate. First-year/sophomore retention has increased from 85 percent in 2010 to its current 90 percent. Following the successful completion of the 2010 strategic plan, the College recently developed another five-year plan that continues to strengthen the academic reputation of the College and further enrich academic and student life. Vice President for Institutional Advancement 2
Student Life: With all of its students required to live on campus, Saint Michael s boasts a strong residential and student life program. Students at Saint Michael s support some 40 student organizations devoted to academics, the arts, community involvement, and sports and fitness. A strong and active Edmundite campus ministry program and an extensive community service program, Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts (MOVE), result in 70 percent of the students engaged in service of some type. Saint Michael s also has its own full-service, student-staffed fire and rescue squad, which operates as a battalion of the Colchester Fire Department. In 2013, the College completed construction of the $30 million Dion Family Student Center and Quad Commons Residence Hall. The new facility also serves to connect four of the College s existing residence halls. The striking fourstory facade of the Dion Center has become the new front door of the campus. To create even more residential living options, the College is currently constructing a new 188-bed, apartment-style residence hall. The Saint Michael s athletic program is well-integrated with the central educational mission and values of the College. It sponsors NCAA Division II competition in 21 men s and women s sports. Its athletic program achieves a 98 percent NCAA II academic success rate, making it a national leader among Division II schools. The athletic department also sponsors a strong intramural program and club teams in men s and women s rugby. Its Wilderness Program includes a variety of outdoor sports for all seasons as well as a skiing program at Smugglers Notch Ski Resort, less than an hour from campus. Twenty-five percent of the students participate in athletics; another 40 percent participate in recreational programs. Enrollment: The College has had a long history of stable enrollments. Over the past few years the number of first-year students has grown gradually; the largest entering class in the College s history was in 2014. Enrollment from outside New England has grown modestly. Standardized test scores have risen over the last two years. The number of ALANA students has increased dramatically in recent years. Finances: The College is in a very healthy financial condition. It has a history of strong operating performance, generating annual surpluses. Its annual budget is $79 million. Its endowment is $90 million and supports a 4.5 percent annual spending rate. The College uses a five-year budgetary planning model and projects continued operational strength. The Burlington Area: Saint Michael s is located in Colchester, Vermont, just minutes from Burlington, the state s largest city, widely recognized for the quality of life it affords. With a population of some 215,000, the Burlington area is economically robust and offers a rich array of cultural activities. The largest employer is the University of Vermont Medical Center. The Burlington area is also home to Keurig Green Mountain and Ben & Jerry s as well as GlobalFoundries, Blodgett, Burton Snowboards, Dealer.com, Lake Champlain Chocolates, Rhino Foods, and Seventh Generation. Both GE and General Dynamics have facilities in the area. The University of Vermont, Burlington College, and Champlain College are located in Burlington, creating with Saint Michael s a student population of some 15,000 students and a vibrant student life. Ideally situated between Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains, Saint Michael s offers its students an abundance of options for outdoor sports and recreation and opportunities for environmental education. Burlington is 3.5 hours from Boston and 90 minutes from Montreal. Vice President for Institutional Advancement 3
The Office of Institutional Advancement The vice president for institutional advancement reports to the president, is a member of the president s cabinet, and supports the Institutional Advancement Committee of the Board of Trustees. The Office of Institutional Advancement consists of four units: Individual Giving; Annual Giving; Alumni, Parent, and Corporate Relations; and Advancement Services. There is also an Office of Foundation Relations and Sponsored Programs, which reports to the vice president for academic affairs and works with the advancement staff on a number of specific tasks. Office of Individual Giving: There are three individual-giving-officer positions; two are filled and one is in an active search. Each gift officer manages a pool of approximately 175 alumni and parents annually. They develop strategies to visit, assess, cultivate, solicit, and steward their donors for annual, special, major, and planned gifts. This team collaborates regularly with the vice president as well as the directors and other department colleagues to ensure that annual visits and financial goals are met. The gift officers have an active hand in organizing reunions, soliciting gifts, and managing key reunion classes. Office of Annual Giving: The annual giving staff is focused on broad-based cultivation and solicitation of Saint Michael s alumni, parents, and friends. The department consists of the director, assistant director phonathon, assistant director young alumni, and a shared administrative assistant. The Annual Giving Office has as its main goals raising more than $2 million in revenues for operational support and increasing the alumni participation rate beyond its current 18 percent. The Annual Giving Office staff also works in close coordination with the staff of the Individual Giving Office to develop and execute strategies and solicit annual leadership and major gifts. Together, they play a key role in developing a consistent message, voice, and look for all advancement communications. Office of Alumni, Parent, and Corporate Relations: The staff, consisting of a director, an associate director, and an assistant director, is responsible for programming, volunteer management, and engagement strategies for the 20,000 members of the Alumni Association. The staff supports club/alumni chapters in Albany; Boston; Burlington; Fairfield County, Connecticut; New York City; Portland, Maine; and Washington, D.C. It plans more than 50 events on and off campus annually, including reunion and Alumni and Family Weekend. The office manages the Alumni Association s Board of Directors, a working and advisory board that supports the goals of the admissions, career development, alumni relations, and other institutional advancement offices. The staff partners regularly with colleagues in admissions, career development, and athletics to provide volunteer opportunities to assist the College with recruitment, internships, job shadowing, mentoring, and networking. The office has partnered with an outside vendor to create an online alumni directory that harnesses the power of LinkedIn to better connect alumni for career prospects. Office of Advancement Services: Consisting of a director, an assistant director, a gift processor, a prospect researcher, and a data management coordinator, the office acts as the primary support for all operations undertaken by the Office of Institutional Advancement. It processes more than 9,000 gifts and pledges annually and makes updates to constituent records, including making more than 6,000 address alterations annually. In addition, the Office of Advancement Services provides data files for virtually every advancement correspondence request, including phonathon cards, direct mail pieces, surveys, and event invitations. In July 2010, the office converted to the Colleague advancement database. This conversion involved the merging of all institutional advancement records with academic and applicant records, thereby enabling all parts of campus to work collaboratively to achieve a more cohesive, all-inclusive records management database. Office of Foundation Relations and Sponsored Programs: The director is responsible for a variety of grant and donor activities connected with the academic program and maintains relations with several donors who have endowed programs in academic affairs. In addition, the director supports faculty in preparing grant applications, setting up budgets for grants received, and ensuring regular reporting to donors, foundations, and federal agencies. The office works closely with the advancement staff, communicating academic needs and lining up student and faculty speakers for advancement and alumni events. Vice President for Institutional Advancement 4
The College has a total of 20,038 living alumni. Its mailing list consists of 26,728 alumni, parents, trustees, and friends of the College. This past year (FY15), the College received a total of $3,581,148 in cash gifts. The last major campaign, Visions A Campaign for the Saint Michael s Student, was completed in 2005 at the Centennial Celebration of the College and raised a total of $52.8 million in pledges. Since then, the College has focused its energies on a $5 million fundraising effort for the Dion Family Student Center, completed in 2013, and the current fundraising effort, Campaign for Opportunity, whose goal is $6 million, to be devoted to scholarship aid. Leadership Priorities In addition to being a successful fundraiser and providing effective leadership and administration, the new vice president will be expected to focus on the following priorities. Assess, Strengthen, and Organize the Institutional Advancement Staff The Office of Institutional Advancement has very effective staff members. However, there are existing vacancies, most notably a director of development. Given the major fundraising initiatives on the horizon, staffing will have to be assessed in relation to fundraising goals. Consequently, the new vice president will need to determine the staffing levels necessary for the College to meet its advancement goals, develop the most effective organizational structure, ensure that capable staff members are in positions that most effectively use their talents, develop more effective means of internal communication, and support staff with appropriate professional development and mentoring. Communicate Effectively with the Campus Community The campus community especially the faculty is eager to be engaged appropriately to assist with advancement activities. The new vice president will be in a position to create more effective means of communication, help the campus better understand the work of the Office of Institutional Advancement, and partner with other constituents to better identify their needs and the opportunities they present to advancement. Nurture a Strong Culture of Philanthropy Saint Michael s has an extraordinary sense of community. Students have a very positive college experience, and their relationships with one another and the faculty continue to be significant well after graduation. However, these strong and ongoing connections do not translate into institutional support to the degree one would expect. What is more, the College has a large number of international alumni who have not yet been engaged in support of the College. A new athletic director was hired in 2015 who is eager to work in concert with the advancement staff and significantly increase athletic fundraising. Consequently, the new vice president will have to work with the board, the advancement staff, the faculty and staff, the athletic department, and most importantly, the student body to create a stronger culture of philanthropy. Plan, Organize, and Execute a Major Fundraising Initiative The College s largest and most recent capital campaign, Visions A Campaign for the Saint Michael s Student, was completed in 2005. Since then, the College has focused its energies on smaller advancement projects. With the Vice President for Institutional Advancement 5
completion of a new strategic plan, the time is now right for a more significant fundraising effort to support the priorities of the plan. The new vice president will be expected to work with the president, the Board of Trustees, and the campus community to develop appropriate major fundraising initiatives. Qualifications Saint Michael s expects its new vice president to have: Significant leadership experience in college advancement and a record of successful fundraising An understanding and appreciation of liberal arts education Strong organizational, analytical, and planning skills The ability to build a strong team and to work collaboratively with members of the campus community Excellent oral and written communication skills An appreciation of the history and culture of Saint Michael s An understanding of and support for the Catholic, Edmundite mission of Saint Michael s and an understanding of the Catholic intellectual tradition A strong work ethic Inquiries, Nominations, and Applications To apply, candidates must submit a letter of application in which they specifically address the leadership priorities and qualifications listed in this profile, a current vita, and contact information (telephone number and email address) for five references in an MS Word or PDF document to: SaintMichaelsVPIA@agbsearch.com For fullest consideration, applications should be received by November 30, 2015. Inquiries and nominations should be directed to: Robert Holyer, Ph.D. Senior Consultant AGB Search rkh@agbsearch.com 804.359.9370 804.402.6736 (c) For more information about Saint Michael s College, please visit www.smcvt.edu Saint Michael s College is an equal opportunity employer. Inspired by its Edmundite Catholic mission, Saint Michael s is committed to diversity and inclusion across the campus community. It is committed to attracting and supporting a staff that fully represents the racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity of the nation, and it actively seeks applications from underrepresented groups. Vice President for Institutional Advancement 6