Assistant Director of Stewardship

A Graduate School of Education, Health & Psychology

Posting Summary:

The Office of Institutional Advancement is seeking an experienced Assistant Director of Stewardship to design and deliver timely, accurate, and meaningful donor communications. The Assistant Director is responsible for building and strengthening stewardship processes, and will serve as a key partner to gift officers, advancement services, academic departments, and the Office of Financial Aid; in service of enhancing the TC donor experience.

Job Summary/Basic Function:

Reporting to the Director of Donor Relations and Special Projects, the Assistant Director of Stewardship advances philanthropic engagement for Teachers College, Columbia University (TC) by ensuring donors are consistently and effectively informed of the use and impact of the initiatives they have supported. This role provides essential stewardship infrastructure to support donor trust, satisfaction, and long-term engagement. 

CHARACTERISTIC DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Manages the narrative reporting of all endowed and expendable funds for donor stewardship under the standards set by the Director of Donor Relations and Special Projects.
• Partners with faculty and academic departments to gather impact content and ensure reporting deadlines are met.
• Collaborates with the Office of Financial Aid to ensure funds are awarded annually per the donors’ documented intentions and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
• Coordinates the collection of student biographies, thank-you letters, photo submissions, and profile details from scholarship recipients for reporting, annual fund materials, and other stewardship communications.
• Manages and refines the gift acknowledgement process, including workflow, messaging standards, and quality control.
• Drafts high-level executive correspondence on behalf of the College President, Vice President of Institutional Advancement, and senior leadership as assigned.
• Partners closely with the frontline fundraising team to organize meetings between scholarship recipients and donors, and develops a briefing process to prepare students for these meetings.
• Collaboratively supports donor events by identifying, conducting outreach to, and coaching student speakers and participants.
• Provides on-site event setup and execution support, serving as a representative for Institutional Advancement and TC.
• Manages donor relations data, including accurate record-keeping, tracking, and donor data integrity in Raiser’s Edge NXT.
• Executes ad-hoc special projects and duties as assigned by the Director.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Minimum 3 years of experience in stewardship, donor relations, development, marketing communications, or related fields.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Prior experience in a higher education or complex non-profit institutional advancement setting.
• Excellent communication and organizational skills with a track record of setting priorities, managing multiple responsibilities, and meeting deadlines.
• Ability to work well as a member of a team and to collaborate effectively with colleagues cross functionally and in other university departments.
• Ability to apply good judgment; tact and discretion are required to deal with highly confidential information.
• Excellent research, writing and editing skills as well as demonstrated grammatical and proofreading skills.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, etc.), Google Suite (Docs, Sheets, etc); Adobe Creative Suite preferred; Raiser’s Edge or other Constituent Relationship Management software.
• Database management and reporting skills using advancement CRM systems and Microsoft Excel functions are a plus.

Salary Range:

$77,000 - $87,000

Work Modality:

Hybrid

Competitive Compensation and Benefits: 

The salary range reflects the College’s good faith and reasonable estimate of the compensation for the position at the time of the job posting.  Salary decisions are dependent on several factors including but not limited to market and organizational considerations, experience, and qualifications of a selected candidate as well as internal and external equity.

Our benefits contribute significantly to the total compensation package that includes medical, dental, vision, and supplemental insurance plans; flexible and hybrid work schedules; tuition remission; life insurance; short and long-term disability insurance; an exceptional employer retirement matching program; health savings accounts (HSA), flexible spending accounts (FSA), Public Service Loan Forgiveness eligibility, and a robust Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

Hybrid/Remote:

Teachers College maintains a hybrid work environment, which provides employees with flexible work arrangements while ensuring we preserve the important aspects of our unique in-person college-campus culture. Depending on role and business needs, colleagues will either work onsite or in a hybrid model (a combination of in-office and virtual days). Employees are expected to live within a 150-mile radius of the College.