Director of Principal Gifts Strategy

The University of Missouri’s Principal Gift and Donor Strategy team seeks a strategic, highly collaborative, and infrastructure-minded project manager and donor strategist to help drive the university’s most ambitious philanthropic efforts. This role will support the development and execution of highly customized donor strategies and experiences, ensuring seamless coordination across advancement, academic, and administrative leaders.

Working in close partnership with advancement leadership, academic units, the Chancellor’s Office, and frontline fundraisers, this position will support cross-campus strategy coordination, oversee a principal gifts pipeline and tracking system, and help conceptualize transformational giving opportunities and personalized donor experiences at the $5M+ level.

Mizzou is entering an exciting era of philanthropic growth through its comprehensive campaign. The Principal Gifts and Donor Strategy team leads this effort by building enduring, transformational partnerships with the university’s most generous supporters. This position offers a unique opportunity to help shape the future of Missouri’s flagship land-grant university through strategy, storytelling, and bold donor engagement.

The ideal candidate brings a sophisticated understanding of major gift fundraising in a complex academic environment and a natural ability to think strategically about donor engagement.  This role is uniquely suited for an individual with former experience as a fundraiser who can be a partner in strategy design and bespoke experience creation, who thrives on creativity, collaboration, and translating big ideas into meaningful donor engagement.

Key Responsibilities:

Operational and Tracking Support
•    Drive operational excellence by developing and maintaining internal systems and workflows that ensure principal gift strategies are executed with precision and accountability.
•    Establish and manage tracking infrastructure for principal gift prospects, including customized pipelines, dashboards, and reporting tools that monitor progress toward strategic, campaign-aligned goals.
•    Oversee internal project management for donor strategies—ensuring that timelines, next steps, deliverables, and ownership are clearly defined and actively advanced across stakeholders.
•    Synthesize complex information into clear, actionable updates and reports for leadership, highlighting milestones, gaps, and opportunities to optimize strategy or accelerate movement.
•    Ensure continuity and momentum by documenting strategic plans, donor touchpoints, and evolving engagement approaches, supporting long-term relationship-building across leadership transitions or staff changes.
•    Collaborate closely with prospect development, donor relations, and campaign teams to integrate tracking systems into broader institutional fundraising infrastructure, ensuring transparency, alignment, and data integrity.
Principal Gift Strategy & Campaign Integration
•    Manage the end-to-end coordination of principal gift strategies and donor journeys—including timelines, deliverables, communications, and follow-through—ensuring alignment with campaign and university-wide priorities.
•    Serve as a strategic partner in gift development and donor engagement, contributing to strategy sessions, briefings, and proposals that translate donor values into bold, compelling opportunities for investment.
•    Collaborate across Advancement, academic units, and the Chancellor’s office to support cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship efforts for Mizzou’s highest-level philanthropic partnerships
Bespoke Donor Experience Design
•    In collaboration with the Senior Manager of Principal Giving Engagement, conceptualize bespoke engagement strategies for high-net-worth individuals and families, including campus visits, private events, recognition experiences, proposals, and personalized communications.
•    Ensure every touchpoint reflects the scale, values, and significance of principal-level philanthropy.
•    Serve as a thought partner in designing compelling cases for support and narratives for visionary projects and interdisciplinary initiatives
Cross-Campus Collaboration & Relationship Management
•    Work across advancement functions and academic units to move strategies forward with clarity, momentum, and urgency.
•    Work closely with communications, prospect development, donor relations, and academic units to develop or coordinate the creation of customized content—cases for support, proposals, stewardship reports—that capture institutional vision and donor impact.
•    Collaborate with University leadership, communications, and academic partners to develop materials that are both strategic and emotionally resonant.