Managing Director of Alumni Engagement

February 2021 | Danvers, MA
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St. John’s Prep seeks a Managing Director of Alumni Engagement to meet ambitious goals to increase and deepen the engagement with the school’s more than 14,000 living alumni.

About St. John’s Prep

St. John’s Prep (the Prep) is an inclusive, Catholic, Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School for young men in grades 6 through 12. Founded in 1907 on the Xaverian values of compassion, humility, simplicity, trust, and zeal, the Prep educates students to be, do and stand for good in the world.

Today, 1,500 students from more than 60 communities thrive at the Prep as part of a culture that encourages students to “become their best selves, pursue excellence in all endeavors, and open hearts and minds to transformational encounters with diversity of people and experiences.” The school reopened in September 2020 under the innovative Prep Hybrid Education Learning Model (HELM), a specially designed program to ensure safe, in-person learning, extracurricular programming and interscholastic athletics.  In this model, campus is open, and students are split into two groups and rotate between on-campus and at-home learning.

Students at The Prep benefit from a rigorous academic program, which includes 23 AP courses and a 1:1 iPad program as part of a wireless campus. Students are taught to question everything and to seek a deeper understanding – of themselves and their classmates. Outside the classroom, students take part in a wide range of extracurricular activities, currently both in person and through digital platforms. Student opportunities span from the Ryan Shaw ’15 Entrepreneurial Education Program, to Mountain Biking, to Model UN, to Latinos Unidos en Acción (or L.U.N.A.), to the multiple-state-championships Performing Arts program. In Campus Ministry, the boys explore their faith and leadership potential through service—on domestic and international trips and retreats, as part of brotherhood-building service programs such as PULSE, and through their local impact in their own Boston and North Shore neighborhood communities—and consider what kind of men they’ve been called to be. 

The Prep’s athletic tradition is rooted in the founding of the school, and The Eagles have earned dozens of championship titles. Student-athletes have played in front of thousands of people at Fenway Park and Gillette Stadium and many have gone on to compete professionally in a variety of sports and have even competed and medaled several times over in the Olympics. At the local and national level, Prep graduates can also be found coaching and managing all levels of athletes including in most of the major professional sports. At the Prep, through unique opportunities such as the O’Brien Family Student-Athlete Leadership Initiative, students and coaches develop lifelong skills, play with honor and fairness, and become confident in themselves—all while forming habits of excellence that extend far beyond the realm of competitive athletics.

Inside and beyond the classroom, students at the Prep are encouraged to develop their personal spiritual, intellectual, moral, physical, and creative potential in a highly supportive community that celebrates the diversity of the school community and the world beyond St. John’s Prep. A commitment to educate the whole person has led in years to expand resources to ensure that all students have an opportunity to experience transformational opportunities. These opportunities challenge the young men to take risks, try new things, and even fail and try again, all in a highly supportive environment under the guidance of skilled, committed educators. 

All members of the faculty and staff are expected to value the mission of St. John’s, as well as its identity as an inclusive, Catholic, Xaverian Brothers Sponsored School.  In addition to regular faculty and staff responsibilities, St. John’s encourages all members of the faculty to be involved in the life of the school beyond the classroom and offers a wide range of co-curricular, intramural and interscholastic programs. 

About Alumni Engagement and the Position

The Managing Director of Alumni Engagement (the Alumni Director) will serve as an integral leader in the Office for Institutional Advancement and across the Prep school community. Under the direction of the Chief Advancement Officer (CAO), the Alumni Director will be responsible for managing all aspects of the Alumni Office and the engagement strategies of the school’s more than 14,000 living alumni, providing leadership, creativity, strategy, and execution of a comprehensive program that advances the mission of the institution among its largest stakeholder group.

The Alumni Director will coordinate with key offices across campus to provide partnership and alumni connections to advance student-facing initiatives, including ongoing collaboration with the Center for Mission and Research to help plug alumni into cross-disciplinary initiatives led by the Center’s four directors. Additionally, they will lead efforts to engage students in philanthropic initiatives that prepare them to become loyal donors after graduation through programs such as the Senior Class Gift and Spire Society (student philanthropy group).

The Alumni Director will also be responsible for the execution and success of key legacy events and committees such as the Bro. Linus/John Carnevale Scholarship Golf Tournament, Carey Scholarship Golf Tournament, Bro. Sullivan Lecture Series, Homecoming, Athletic Hall of Fame, Reunion, Alumni Board, and Thanksgiving Celebrations. In addition, the Alumni Director will advance successful new initiatives that have been growing quickly such as the school’s Live Since You Asked interview series; Prep2Pro internship and career development programming; and PrepConnect, the alumni community’s digital resource and online directory maintained by the Alumni Office.

This role will work in lockstep with the Managing Director of Annual Giving to strategize and grow the impact of alumni involvement and giving at the Prep.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead all Alumni Office communication, marketing, and event strategies to grow engagement and giving among the school’s more than 14,000 living alumni
• Proactively reach out to alumni to cultivate and steward relationships
• Increase reachable base of alumni by researching, networking, and updating alumni records
• Implement ongoing programs to engage alumni with a goal of significantly increasing alumni participation
• Manage and maintain constituent engagement, retention, and stewardship through a data-driven approach
• Manage portfolio of approximately 50 prospects
• Contribute to success and engagement of Advancement Committee work through guidance of and collaboration with CAO
• Work closely with Senior Managing Director of Leadership Giving, and Managing Director of Annual Giving, as well as key student-facing leadership, to provide insights and strategies to advance school priorities across a variety of initiatives
• Work closely with Assistant Head of School for Marketing and Communications to connect institutional messaging to alumni interests
• Represent the Office for Institutional Advancement and its priorities, as well as the school’s interests and mission, on and off campus at events, in meetings and through committee work
• Set strategy, manage and lead event logistics, communications, and committees for specified events
• Ensure effective telephone and mail/email communications to support internal and external constituent management
• Oversee hiring and management of additional position(s) in the future
• Attend and help staff events as assigned by CAO

Key Qualifications

• 5-7 years’ experience working in a constituent management and/or alumni engagement leadership role
• Experience creating, implementing, and tracking engagement events
• Enthusiasm for building and sustaining relationships
• Volunteer management background
• Raiser’s Edge experience
• Enthusiasm for the mission and identity of St. John’s Prep and the desire to strengthen Advancement priorities
• Excellent planning and organizational skills
• Strong writing and interpersonal communication skills
• Ability to manage staff and set priorities accordingly
• Ability to prioritize work assignments and juggle many projects concurrently in a fast-paced office environment
• Enthusiasm for working with a variety of people school-wide including students, parents, staff, faculty, and school leadership
• Donor-focused mindset
• Willingness to work weekend and evening hours as needed

St. John’s Prep is committed to building a diverse and inclusive campus community. We welcome applications from underrepresented groups. All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

If you are interested in being considered for this search, please email your cover letter and resume in confidence to:

sjp.MDAR@developmentguild.com

Tracy Marshall

Senior Vice President, Principal

Development Guild DDI