Cabrini College is currently looking for a new vice president of Institutional Advancement, after the last vice president resigned in mid-August.
The interview process for the position will take place throughout November and the position is set to be filled by January.
“The search is critical to the long-term success of the college,” Dr. Donald Taylor, president of Cabrini College, said in an email. “For smaller private faith-based institutions, this position has the highest turnover in the administrations of college and universities nationally.”
“I heard a recent statistic that for the last about 15 years, the median time in the position is 1.8 years,” Taylor said.
The office of institutional advancement works to find financial and other resources through connecting with alumni, friends of the college and other foundations that may be interested in supporting the college. These resources are then used for student scholarships, projects throughout campus, academic programming and many other initia- tives.
Catholic Relief Services is an institution that has been partnered with Cabrini for 10 years.
Advancement Director, Peter Castagna, said, “The vice president oversees the whole operation.”
The online job description, which can be found on many websites including Simply Hired, reads, “Reporting to the President and serving as the senior administrative officer for the College advancement program, the Vice President is responsible for designing, executing and evaluating all advancement programs including major gifts, annual fund, phonathons, planned giving, corporate and foundation giving, alumni relations, stewardship programs and events.”
In this job hunt, administrators are looking for a candidate who they believe will stick with the college for a longer period of time. Castagna said, “You want to hope this person stays and helps the college grow so that these programs can advance and our students have the best opportunities they can have, both undergraduate and graduate popula- tions.”
Brian Eury, interim vice president, agrees that it can be helpful for longer position terms.
He said during a phone interview, “Institutional advancement and fundraising is all about relationships; starting relationships, maintaining relationships and being able to pick up the phone and have a conversation with the contributor or foundation.”
However, he worries that most candidates will not stay in the position for long. “It’s not just Cabrini. In institutional advancement, there’s always a lot of turnover,” Eury said. “[We] have to start acknowledging the fact that some employees don’t foresee jobs of beings in the same position or the same place for more than five to 10 years.”
