Clarkson University’s Development & Alumni Relations (DAR) team is pleased to announce organizational changes effective July 1st as part of DAR’s five-year strategic planning process to align the structure of the team with five key initiatives: fundraising, communication, technology, assessment, and policies/procedures. These changes expand responsibilities for current team members and best align skills, experience, and development with University fundraising and engagement.
Teresa Planty will be promoted from Director of Alumni Relations to Associate Vice President of Engagement & Operations. In her new role as Associate VP, Teresa will continue to oversee Alumni Relations while adding responsibility for Donor Engagement & Stewardship and Development Policy, Research & Operations. Throughout the past fourteen years, Teresa has served in various positions within the Development and Alumni Relations division.
Planty began her Clarkson career working in regional chapter development for the Alumni Office. She then went on to serve the institution in a fundraising role as a major gift officer for more than six years and then advanced to lead the Alumni Office for another six years. She has experience in volunteer management, project-based fundraising and e-marketing.
Steven Smalling will be promoted from Director of Major Gifts to Associate Vice President of Development. In his new role as Associate VP, Steve will continue to oversee the Major Gifts program while adding responsibility for The Annie Clarkson Society and Annual Giving.
Steve began his career at Clarkson as a gift officer and has exhibited sustained success across all areas of the fundraising including implementing Salesforce as the CRM platform for gift officers, instituting a pipeline management process, and taking the major gifts program from $10 million to $14 million over the past year. Steve will continue to work closely with key donors while setting the strategic direction for donor life-cycle management.
Nichole Thomas will be promoted from Director of Annual Giving to Director of Development. In her new role, Thomas will continue to oversee all annual giving while taking on responsibility for the management of the major gifts process. Working closely with the Associate VP of Development, she will set, implement, and assess individual strategies for the complete portfolio of donors. Thomas brings a wealth of experience to this role having consistently met/exceeded the annual Clarkson Fund goal.
Donor Relations will now be known as Donor Engagement & Stewardship.
The department name will change to better reflect current and future activities around engaging and stewarding all donors for the University with a focus on retention. The department will now report to Teresa Planty to provide additional linkage to alumni engagement while maintaining existing stewardship practices.
Development Research and Development Operations are now merged under Development Policy, Research & Operations. Under the leadership Hillary Vaillancourt, we are combining Development Research with Development Operations to best support and expand on our abilities to find, manage, and proactively use data to drive decision making. As part of this transition, Jeff Wellings, former Director of Operations will now be 100% focused on the continued implementation of Salesforce as the Director of Salesforce and Tanya Sevey will expand her responsibilities as Operations Coordinator to oversee the digitization of all paper records and operations staff.
Carol Parker will be promoted from Coordinator to Program Manager of the Annie Clarkson Society. As the Annie Clarkson Society celebrates its 25th Anniversary in 2019 and continues to expand in scope and importance for University success, Carol will move from Coordinator to Program Manager with added responsibilities including donor engagement. The Annie Clarkson Society will move from the second floor of Woodstock Lodge to the first floor as part of the upcoming renovation.
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