Senior Director, Recognition & Stewardship

Overview

The Senior Director, Recognition & Stewardship, Donor Experience and Engagement, leads the strategy, oversight, and delivery of Dana-Farber’s donor recognition and stewardship ecosystem for a VIP donor base (Trustees, individuals, foundations, corporations, and legacy supporters). This leader builds and continuously improves the policies, processes, and quality controls that underpin donor-facing commitments—ensuring work is accurate, timely, consistent, and scalable amid increasing volume and complexity. Responsible for assisting the entire Division with reaching financial goals.

A central focus of this role is enabling Dana-Farber’s comprehensive campaign, including the Future Cancer Hospital project, by ensuring recognition and stewardship offerings and commitments (especially complex naming opportunities, gift agreements, fund reporting, and executive communications) are clear, compelling, executable, and delivered with excellence—strengthening donor confidence and accelerating philanthropic momentum.

The role reports to and partners closely with the Assistant Vice President, Donor Experience & Engagement, and supports senior Dana-Farber leadership by demonstrating strong judgment, executing crisp executive communications, and delivering confident cross-functional leadership.

This position’s work location is fully remote with occasional time on-campus in Brookline, MA. The selected candidate may only work remotely from a New England state (ME, VT, NH, MA, CT, RI).

Located in Boston and the surrounding communities, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a leader in life changing breakthroughs in cancer research and patient care. We are united in our mission of conquering cancer, HIV/AIDS, and related diseases. We strive to create an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment where we provide compassionate and comprehensive care to patients of all backgrounds, and design programs to promote public health particularly among high-risk and underserved populations. We conduct groundbreaking research that advances treatment, we educate tomorrow's physician/researchers, and we work with amazing partners, including other Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospitals.

PRIMARY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Stewardship and recognition strategy and oversight

• Lead and oversee recognition and stewardship strategy and framework for campaign priorities (especially the Future Cancer Hospital), including major naming opportunities, milestone communications, and long-term stewardship plans; benchmark peer practices and recommend enhancements to build donor trust and sustain momentum.
• Partner with frontline fundraisers and campaign leadership to translate donor motivations into clear, compelling recognition and stewardship plans that align with donor preferences, institutional policies, and operational realities.

Policy governance and systems thinking

• Own and evolve Division-wide recognition/stewardship policies and governance, including documenting standards and exceptions, and recommending updates to support campaign priorities and increasing volume.
• Build an integrated stewardship “system” across touchpoints (agreements, naming, acknowledgements, fund reporting, announcements, executive communications), ensuring policies and processes interlock cleanly and reduce rework.

Gift agreements

• Oversee the gift agreement process and draft complex gift agreements independently using approved templates, tailoring terms to donor intent while ensuring clarity, feasibility, and alignment with policy.
• Coordinate reviews efficiently; maintain version control and documentation standards; and continuously improve templates and intake tools in partnership with key stakeholders including Fiscal and Regulatory Management and Office of General Counsel.

Naming opportunities

• Manage donor naming and giving opportunities, including those tied to the Future Cancer Hospital and other campaign priorities: named space, signage and recognition displays, named programs/centers, named faculty positions, endowed and restricted funds, and additional strategic initiatives.
• Coordinate cross-functionally (e.g., Facilities/Operations, Faculty Engagement, Communications, Finance) to ensure naming commitments are approved, accurately implemented, and stewarded over time.

Stewardship reporting and executive communications

• Oversee VIP acknowledgement processes and stewardship/financial reporting for endowed funds, ensuring deliverables are accurate, timely, and donor-centric.
• Oversee stewardship writing for the President and CEO and SVP and Chief Philanthropy Officer; review gift announcements, executive correspondence, and speaking points to ensure communications are clear, inspiring, and aligned to donor motivations.

Process design, efficiency, and team leadership

• Design and continuously improve end-to-end, integrated workflows (intake → approvals → execution → documentation → follow-up), establishing roles/responsibilities and quality controls to handle increasing workload efficiently.
• Lead, coach, and develop a team of stewardship/recognition professionals; set standards, provide actionable feedback, and create a culture of accountability, excellence in execution, and continuous improvement.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Supervises a team of 13, including three direct reports: one Director, one Associate Director, and one Assistant Director.

MINIMUM JOB QUALIFICATIONS:

• High school diploma or equivalency required; Bachelor’s degree preferred. 8+ years’ relevant work experience such as philanthropy stewardship/recognition, advancement operations, donor relations, development communications, or similarly complex donor-facing environments.
• Previous direct report and personnel management experience required.
• Experience working with high-net-worth/VIP stakeholders, volunteers, and senior executives preferred.
• Experience supporting comprehensive campaigns and/or capital projects preferred.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES REQUIRED:

• Demonstrates enterprise leadership and systems thinking: anticipates downstream impacts and ensures policies/processes align across teams.
• Advanced process design and change leadership skills; able to implement standards in a matrixed organization.
• Exceptional writing and editing for senior audiences; ability to produce communications that are clear, precise, and error-free.
• Demonstrated ability to draft highly complex, technical written gift agreements independently, with sound judgment about when to escalate for legal review.
• Highly developed attention to detail, judgment, and follow-through on complex, high-visibility, high-stakes work.
• Executive presence: confident, authoritative communicator who can align stakeholders, including the highest level of Dana-Farber constituents and senior members of Dana-Farber leadership, and move decisions forward.
• Donor-centric mindset with understanding of donor motivations, stewardship expectations, and recognition dynamics.

PATIENT CONTACT:

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At Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, we work every day to create an innovative, caring, and inclusive environment where every patient, family, and staff member feels they belong. As relentless as we are in our mission to reduce the burden of cancer for all, we are committed to having faculty and staff who offer multifaceted experiences. Cancer knows no boundaries and when it comes to hiring the most dedicated and compassionate professionals, neither do we. If working in this kind of organization inspires you, we encourage you to apply.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is an equal opportunity employer and affirms the right of every qualified applicant to receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, national origin, sexual orientation, genetic information, disability, age, ancestry, military service, protected veteran status, or other characteristics protected by law.

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Pay Transparency Statement

The hiring range is based on market pay structures, with individual salaries determined by factors such as business needs, market conditions, internal equity, and based on the candidate’s relevant experience, skills and qualifications.

For union positions, the pay range is determined by the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

$146,500.00 - $177,500.00