Vice President, Institutional Advancement

About Curry College

With over 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students, Curry College, located just outside of Boston, educates and supports thoughtful, bright, and driven students to learn and to forge their future personal and career paths.

Curry College believes in nourishing student passions and empowering students to build their future and provides students with personal attention to help achieve their individual goals. With more than 90 academic paths available at Curry, students turn their unique dreams into a reality.

The College’s curriculum and programs focus on the two hallmarks of the Curry education: a high respect for the individuality of every student and a developmental approach to learning that maximizes opportunities for achievement.

Curry College offers academic majors in liberal arts disciplines and in the professional fields. Alternatively, an individually initiated major may be designed when a student’s academic and career ambitions are not best served by prescribed majors. The College awards the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Master of Arts in Criminal Justice, Master of Education, Master of Business Administration, Master of Science in Nursing, and Master of Science in Accounting degrees.

Many academic and social programs enrich and facilitate the Curry education. The Program for Advancement of Learning (PAL), Social Achievement in Learning (SAIL), and Continuing Education and Graduate Studies are representative of that focus on special interests and diverse learning needs. Mindful of each student’s unique combination of abilities and potential, Student Life professionals promote a climate in which individuals and groups are empowered to be creative and socially responsible. The College’s Division III athletic programs develop student-athletes who regard scholastic and athletic achievement as congruent and complementary avenues to individual fulfillment.

Curry’s beautiful Milton, Massachusetts campus, is a 131-acre New England setting just seven miles from downtown Boston. Curry class sizes are small, with an average of 20 students, so students have the opportunity to foster supportive, steadfast relationships with one another and with professors. Curry College encourages students to take advantage of experiential learning opportunities like internships, traveling to conferences, student teaching, emergency medical technician training, and more.

For more information on Curry College, please visit www.curry.edu.

Leadership

Jay Gonzalez | President

In 2023, Jay Gonzalez was appointed as the 15th President and the first Hispanic leader of the College. Gonzalez has a deep breadth of experience in the law, government, education, politics, advocacy, and business leadership.  

Most recently, Gonzalez served as a partner at Hinckley Allen, where his primary practice was representing cities, towns, and other governmental entities in financing and developing capital projects and other governmental programs. His work included providing legal and strategic advice to the Massachusetts State College Building Authority in connection with its financing of projects at the state university and community college campuses and to the City of Salem in connection with the development of its port to serve as a terminal for offshore wind development.

Gonzalez began his career as a public finance lawyer and eventually became a partner at Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge (now Locke Lord). After the election of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, he left the legal profession to work in state government and was appointed to serve as the Secretary of Administration and Finance. In that role, Gonzalez successfully managed a $32 billion state budget during the Great Recession and oversaw over 3,500 employees in 18 state agencies including the Department of Revenue and agencies responsible for state facilities, human resources, information technology, procurements, and other administrative functions. In this role, he also served on various state boards and commissions.

After his time in state government, Gonzalez served as the president and CEO of CeltiCare Health Plan of Massachusetts and New Hampshire Healthy Families, which provided health insurance coverage to low-income people in state Medicaid programs. Following his time in health care, Gonzalez was a Democratic candidate for Governor of Massachusetts and was elected to be the Democratic nominee for the 2018 general election. From 2020-2022, he was an adjunct lecturer at Northeastern University School of Law. Gonzalez has been actively engaged in a number of public, civic, and charitable causes, including serving on the boards of various nonprofit organizations. In 2021, he served as a co-chair of the committee overseeing Michelle Wu's transition into the office of mayor of Boston.

Gonzalez was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his bachelor’s in arts from Dartmouth College in 1993 and his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1996. He moved to Boston in 1998. Gonzalez is married to Cyndi Roy Gonzalez, and he has two daughters, Isabel and Abby.

Curry College Strategic Plan

Curry College is starting the second year of a transformative three-year strategic plan designed to enhance its distinctive educational offerings, differentiate the College, foster new partnerships, broaden its revenue streams and strengthen its community engagement. Under the leadership of President Gonzalez, the Strategic Planning Steering Committee led an academic year-long process in 2023-2024 to identify key strengths and new opportunities. The Committee proposed several critical initiatives reflecting the institution’s commitment to innovation and excellence in higher education.

The Five Strategic Plan Initiatives:

Neurodiversity Center for Excellence

Goal: Leverage the College’s expertise, experience, and reputation for supporting students with learning differences to broaden its impact by reaching new markets, generating new revenue, and strengthening its position as a leader in supporting neurodivergent learners and workers.

The Curry Commitment

Goal: Address the number one interest of students and families investing in a college education today – career readiness. Central to this initiative is the Curry Commitment job guarantee program, which ensures that all participating undergraduates acquire the skills and experiences needed to secure meaningful employment within six months of graduating.

Athletics

Goal: Strengthen and expand our athletics programs and staff to boost enrollment, enhance recruitment and retention of student-athletes, and generate revenue through facility rentals.

Center for Innovation

Goal: Create new revenue sources by leveraging Curry’s academic resources to serve new markets.

First-Year Experience

Goal: Provide first-year students at Curry College with an experience that promotes student success and growth through meaningful guidance and support for academics, co-curriculars, and extra-curricular activities. The focus will be on fostering self-discovery, building community connections, and enhancing academic engagement.

The Opportunity

Curry College seeks candidates for the role of Vice President, Institutional Advancement (VPIA) to provide overall vision, leadership, fundraising expertise, and transparent, collaborative partnership to assist the President in attaining the College’s fundraising and alumni relations goals. Reporting to the President, the VPIA will provide impactful, direct, and inspirational leadership to enhance the fundraising and alumni relations functions of The College. The VPIA will serve on the President’s Executive Team and implement plans to ensure the College's strong financial footing, enabling it to reach and exceed its strategic plan and ambitious yearly goals.

The VPIA will lead the Institutional Advancement division that is responsible for building relationships with alumni, corporations, foundations, and friends, and for generating revenue to support College programs. The VPIA will work collaboratively with the Executive team, senior leadership, faculty, Trustees, alumni leaders, and other stakeholders across the College community. The VPIA oversees an Institutional Advancement team comprised of seven staff, including the following direct reports: Philanthropy Engagement Officer; Assistant Director of Advancement for Athletics; Director Annual Fund and Alumni & Constituent Engagement; Director of Advancement Operations & Prospect Development; Director of Grants & Partnerships (currently vacant); Data Reporting Specialist and an Events Coordinator (currently vacant). Additional staff are contemplated in the College’s FY26 budget and multi-year forecast.

The VPIA is charged with expanding the donor base and markedly increasing contributed revenue and will be empowered to examine and evolve all dimensions of the Institutional Advancement division in consultation with the President, including the organizational design and functional alignment thereof and bringing new levels of sophistication, precision, and analytical rigor to fundraising processes and infrastructure.

Other key priorities for the next Vice President include the following:

• Growing the College’s contributed revenue with a focus on major and principal individual giving and grants.
• Working in partnership with Deans and key stakeholders across the campus continuing to develop relationships with foundations and funders to advance and elevate the academic mission of Curry College.
• Working to optimize alumni engagement activities so event-based fundraising and engagement is appropriately balanced and integrated with other strategies to energize, deepen, and expand opportunities for alumni engagement and support of Curry College.
• Collaborating with the President and others to explore a comprehensive fundraising campaign in support of College priorities and opportunities.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

The following describes the essential duties of the person assigned to this position. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all job duties and responsibilities.

Executive Leadership and Planning

• Provide vision and leadership in developing and implementing integrated strategic plans for Institutional Advancement in concert with the College’s strategic plan, setting measurable goals and objectives in the areas of major giving, annual giving, institutional grants, foundation and corporate relations, special events, and alumni relations.
• Collaborate with the President, Executive Team members, and other academic and administrative leaders to identify a full range of philanthropic and alumni engagement priorities. Ensure effective strategic partnerships with academic and administrative leaders to deliver on their priorities for Institutional Advancement. Drive a culture of philanthropy, exemplifying an approach defined by transparent communication and collaboration.
• Set clear and attainable goals and metrics for Institutional Advancement to measure success and drive performance e.g. dollars raised, efficiency and effectiveness measures, number of prospects, visit goals, solicitations, and stewardship.
• Ensure strategic management of activities for identification of giving prospects, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship, and model best practices in prospect strategy, approaches, and techniques, as well as transparency and collaboration, serving as a resource to colleagues on related matters.      
• Lead and oversee donor cultivation and solicitation opportunities that involve the President, Board members, Executive Team, and other high-level volunteer leaders.
• Manage the Development Committee of the Board of Trustees.

Fundraising and Alumni Relations

• Ensure strategic management of activities for identification of giving prospects, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship, and model best practices in prospect strategy, approaches, and techniques, as well as transparency and collaboration, serving as a resource to colleagues on related matters.      
• Personally manage a select portfolio of high priority major and principal gift prospects, including individual and institutional sources, from cultivation through solicitation and stewardship.
• Lead and oversee donor cultivation and solicitation opportunities that involve the President, Executive Team members, Board of trustee members, and other high-level volunteer leaders.      
• Ensure ongoing prospect discovery and engagement at all levels of giving, including both traditional and non-traditional sources, as well as examination of existing donors that may have greater capacity.      
• Align alumni relations efforts with fundraising activities, increasing alumni participation in giving and identifying and cultivating all potential prospects for annual leadership gifts and major gifts.
• Oversee development and execution of a strategy for recording, prioritizing, and pursuing government, foundations, and corporate grant opportunities.   Collaborate with other cams stakeholders in pursuing such grants and managing compliance with any grant requirements.
• Conduct travel regionally, and nationally, to support Curry College priorities, including donor cultivation and solicitation, alumni engagement, and strategic communications.
• Launch and oversees the development and executions of a comprehensive campaign.
• Lead the development and articulation of key institutional messages to prospective donors, corporations and foundations.
• Oversee the development and production of monthly and quarterly reports on fundraising, including revenue sources, major gifts, foundations, and contacts with alumni, friends of The College, and businesses.
• Actively support he President to most effectively leverage their time to further Institutional Advancements fundraising goals and strategies.

Management and Oversight

• Hire, manage, inspire, mentor, and evaluate a dynamic, innovative, high-performing, and diverse Institutional Advancement team. Guide and motivate team members in the ongoing evolution of all aspects of a best-practices Institutional Advancement program, ensuring clear expectations and accountability. Set appropriate annual goals and monitor progress on a regular basis to maximize staff performance, ensuring the utilization of appropriate metrics on a team and individual basis.      
• Oversee comprehensive Institutional Advancement operations, including related messaging and special events that build relationships with a growing constituency base. Ensure that efficient processes, management controls, policies, and data-informed decision-making guide the work of the Institutional Advancement team.
• Ensure sound fiscal responsibility, including budget development, and management.
• Ensure and oversee a robust, high-quality donor stewardship program including acknowledgements, impact reports, annual endowment fund reports and other engagements.
• Lead the Institutional Advancement team to ensure annual plans and budgets are executed and met for campaigns, alumni relations, annual fund, major gifts, gift planning, corporate and foundation relations, stewardship, and advancement services.
• Oversee the training and evaluation of staff to ensure performance objectives and stretch goals are met.
• Ensure the division adheres to donor agreements and intentions and implements strong donor stewardship practices that more closely tie them to the life of The College, coordinating stewardship initiatives with colleagues throughout the institution as needed.
• Serve as a subject matter expert in philanthropy and fundraising, staying current with trends, best practices, and innovations in the field.
• Oversee outside vendors and consultants engaged to support a comprehensive campaign, grant opportunities and applications or other providers of services to ensure cost-effective delivery of high-quality services.

Candidate Profile

While Curry College will consider a broad range of backgrounds, the ideal candidate will have the following qualifications/experience:

• Ten or more years of experience in nonprofit fundraising, serving in roles with progressive levels of responsibility, including a sophisticated understanding of the following: individual giving, institutional giving, major gifts, annual giving, planned giving, capital and comprehensive campaigns (planning, execution, closure), grant applications, fundraising operations, stewardship, board relations, alumni relations, and events. Demonstrated success in setting and achieving ambitious fundraising goals. Preference for experience in higher education or another nonprofit environment of similar complexity.
• Knowledge of and fundamental adherence to the principles, ethics, and best practices of modern fundraising and alumni relations, including the integration of various programs to deepen and expand constituency engagement and cultivate greater donor commitments.
• Deep knowledge of soliciting philanthropic support within a private, liberal arts institution and a strong appreciation for working within a culture that values access and community engagement.      
• Demonstrated ability to provide strategic and operational management, leadership, and coaching, including developing a diverse, multi-disciplinary team of advancement professionals, with an approach to management that brings out the best in staff and yields pride, ownership, and a sense of team effort.
• Track record of setting strategic direction, establishing goals, benchmarking, and shared accountability, as well as working across divisional/departmental lines when necessary to achieve results. Experience in building and enhancing advancement infrastructure as well as effectively leveraging technology to streamline or integrate processes and expand the team’s reach.
• Demonstrated commitment to, and understanding of how to build diversity, equity, and inclusion in fundraising and alumni relations functions; competent with respect to issues such as racial, cultural, religious, sexual, and gender identity.
• Demonstrated success in developing and establishing innovative strategic plans and executing those plans to grow fundraising and engagement.
• Demonstrated experience working in partnership with the President to develop and execute strategies and the ability to successfully collaborate with senior staff, programmatic leaders, and volunteer leaders on advancement-related activities, providing them with quality support and intelligence and increasing their comfort with and success in fundraising.
• Proven ability to personally cultivate, solicit, and steward major gifts from individual and institutional donors at six and seven-figure levels. A high level of comfort and effectiveness working with high-net-worth individuals and corporate business leaders, domestically and internationally.
• Demonstrated strength in prospect discovery and in building effective strategies to compel new major donor investment. A forward thinker with a track record of utilizing new methods of donor engagement and connectivity, who will be driven by innovation in developing philanthropic best practices.
• Capacity to extract and analyze data to make effective, efficient decisions about donor strategy and process. Working knowledge of modern data management practices.
• A keen eye for operational efficiency and optimal use of resources; the ability to plan, monitor, and tightly manage a budget.
• Ability to travel on behalf of Curry College.

Additional Personal Characteristics

• Unimpeachable integrity and commitment to the highest standards of professionalism; mature judgment in handling sensitive material with confidentiality and respect. Values-driven, committed to personal and professional development. Leads by example and with humility. Elevates institutional goals and values beyond personal gain, ensuring efforts are mission-focused and quality driven.
• Collegial, approachable, emotionally intelligent leader, with the interpersonal skills to develop and sustain impactful relationships with an array of diverse constituencies. A sense of humor and perspective, and a penchant for transparency, consultation, and collaboration.
• Good listener with superior communication (oral and written) and negotiation skills, and presence to engage all constituents with empathy, warmth, and energy in order to serve as an effective, highly visible ambassador of the College.
• An energetic self-starter who is organized, detail oriented, resilient, agile, and creative in adapting to changing circumstances in a dynamic environment.
• Contribute to the College's culture by being a team-oriented, supportive, communicative, respectful, and collaborative member of the Leadership team. 
• Model and promote an ethos of ambition, calculated risk-taking, and diligent follow up in Institutional Advancement activities.
• Exhibit a high degree of initiative in bringing tasks to successful completion and achieving stated goals. 
• Develop positive working relationships with internal agents of the College and external clients built on trust and integrity. 
• Proactively identify problems, obstacles, and opportunities, implementing decisive actions appropriate to the position. Assess workplace environment needs and concerns to address current or future challenges, acting prudently within the bounds of position authority. 
• Initiate, foster, and maintain mission-productive, favorable associations while developing networks with internal and external constituents as appropriate. 
• Inspire, motivate, and provide an example to others in pursuit of excellence. 

Compensation and Benefits

Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience. The salary range for this role is $200,000 - $240,000 with a generous benefits package.

Curry College provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, age, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, disability, military status, genetic information, pregnancy or a pregnancy-related condition, or membership in any other legally protected class.

Curry College complies with all applicable federal, state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which The College operates. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment. We encourage individuals from all backgrounds and identities to apply.

Contact 

DSG | Koya has been exclusively retained for this engagement, which is being led by Molly Brennan and Ian McCray. Express interest in this role by filling out our Talent Profile or emailing the search team directly at [email protected]. All inquiries and discussions are strictly confidential. 

DSG | Koya is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals living with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual living with a disability and need assistance expressing interest online, please email [email protected]. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.

About DSG | Koya

DSG | Koya, a DSG Global company, is the nation’s premier search firm dedicated to mission-driven leadership. Since its founding in 2004, DSG | Koya has had an exclusive focus on mission-driven clients and was founded on the belief that the right leader can transform an organization and have a deep and measurable impact on our world. DSG | Koya works with nonprofits & NGOs, responsible businesses, and social enterprises in local communities and around the world.

DSG Global is consistently recognized by Forbes on its top 10 list of “America’s Best Executive Recruiting Firms” and is an industry leader in recruiting transformational leaders for a changing world. The firm is deliberately different in its approach, with best-in-class teams who have decades of experience in cultivating inclusive leaders, understanding the dimensions of diversity, and building equitable teams.

Learn more about DSG | Koya via the firm's website.