WISCONSIN FOUNDATION AND ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
BACKGROUNDER | 1
Associate Vice President and Managing Director,
College of Letters & Science
Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association Madison, WI
http://www.wisc.edu/
https://www.supportuw.org
Send Nominations or Cover Letter and Resume to:
Zena Lum
Search Director
617-262-1102
The Opportunity:
The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association
(WFAA) is dedicated to encouraging the interest,
Madison. In 2014, WFAA was created by the
merger of the UW Foundation and the Wisconsin
Alumni Association. The Foundation is the official
fundraising and gift-receiving organization for the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. It is an
independent, nonprofit, tax-exempt organization.
donors and friends of the University of Wisconsin-
engagement and financial support of alumni,
WISCONSIN FOUNDATION AND ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
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An elected Board of Directors oversees its assets and activities. The Foundation works closely with the
University’s leadership to determine and support fundraising priorities and nurture lifelong relationships
with alumni, donors and friends.
A highly selective public research university and land grant institution, the University of Wisconsin-Madison
is widely recognized as one of the finest universities in the world. Founded when Wisconsin achieved
statehood in 1848, UW-Madison is the flagship
campus of the University of Wisconsin System.
UW-Madison is organized into 13 Schools and
Colleges that enrolled 29,536 undergraduates, and
13,802 graduate and professional students in
2016-17. It employs 21,750 faculty and staff. Its
comprehensive academic program offers over 200
undergraduate majors and certificates, and over
250 master’s, doctoral and professional programs.
The University ranks 10th in U.S. News & World
Report’s list of best public universities, 3rd in number of doctorates granted among U.S. universities and 7th in
number of patents recorded among U.S. universities. There are over 435,000 living alumni of the UW-
Madison.
UW-Madison is a founding member of the Association of American Universities. In 2016, it ranked sixth in
total research expenditures among U.S. universities, with over $1B in annual expenditures.
The Wisconsin Badgers compete in 25 intercollegiate sports in the NCAA Division I and Big Ten Conference.
For 15 consecutive years, the Badgers have been invited to both the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament
and a post-season football bowl game, the longest
simultaneous streak on record. In 2016, Madison
was named one of “America’s Best College
Football Towns” by Travel & Leisure magazine.
The Associate Vice President and Managing
Director for the College of Letters & Science is the
primary Advancement officer for UW-Madison’s
largest unit on campus. The competitive candidate
will be a seasoned major and principal gifts
fundraiser, a demonstrated strategic driver, and a
WISCONSIN FOUNDATION AND ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
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results-oriented team leader who values staff growth and development. This is a superb opportunity for a
senior leader committed to success. Ideal qualities include a natural intellectual curiosity, a genuine passion
for the value of a liberal arts education, and proven savvy in navigating a complex, fast-paced and
sophisticated organization.
Position Overview Associate Vice President and Managing Director,
College of Letters & Science
The Associate Vice President and Managing Director (AVP) is an employee of the Wisconsin Foundation and
Alumni Association. S/He reports to the WFAA Vice President and Managing Group Leader, with a dotted
line to the Dean of the College of Letters & Science. The AVP is the strategic lead in all aspects of the
College of Letters & Science (L&S) development program, including campaign planning and execution,
principal and major gifts, leadership annual giving ($1,000+ gifts) and stewardship initiatives. S/He will have
11 direct reports: 9 Major Gift Officers; an Associate Director of Development; and a Program Manager for
whom s/he will provide leadership, coaching and prospect strategizing, goal setting, accountabilities,
reporting, resources and support.
In addition to managing a personal portfolio of high-capacity L&S prospects, the AVP will oversee plans for
L&S top prospects and the Dean’s relationships with top prospects, and will coordinate and prioritize the
Dean’s portfolio. S/He will serve as the WFAA lead liaison with the L&S Dean’s office and advancement
team, facilitating cross-team collaboration and effective information flow between teams.
As a key member of the WFAA development management group and serving as the L&S unit leader, the
AVP is expected to contribute to the growth and refinement of the University’s overall development
operation. Along with other senior managers, s/he will identify issues for attention, craft policies and
procedures, provide input on organizational goals, expectations and report results. The AVP will be expected
to support organizational initiatives and facilitate change management efforts in a leadership capacity.
Core Responsibilities:
I. Program Leadership
• Design, implement and manage all development activities, including campaign plan and
implementation, major gifts, leadership annual gifts and stewardship. Also oversee the broad-
based annual giving activities implemented by WFAA Marketing/Communications and L&S
advancement teams.
• Serve as development strategist and advisor to the Dean on all development activities and donor
strategies.
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• Establish and monitor L&S campaign goals and annual fundraising goals. Regularly report on
progress to L&S leadership.
• Develop and maintain systems to support L&S development activities. Work closely with and
strategically align efforts with WFAA colleagues in Gift Planning, Corporate/Foundation, and
Regional Development, as well as with colleagues in Alumni Relations and Engagement,
Research/Prospect Management and Marketing/Communications.
• Collaborate with colleagues in the L&S Office of Advancement to ensure a well-aligned and
integrated fund development and engagement program.
• Work proactively with chairs of the L&S departments that partner with WFAA and L&S to invest
in assigned development staff. Work together to set appropriate expectations and goals for
development directors, communicate regularly on progress and address challenges and
opportunities.
II. Team Leadership
• Lead, manage, empower and support a team of development professionals in meeting team and
individual goals.
• Hire, train, mentor, evaluate and motivate direct reports. Guide and support their professional
career growth.
• Set individual goals and track progress toward meeting targets.
III. Prospect Management
• Actively manage a portfolio of major and principal gifts prospects.
• Support the Dean’s role as lead fundraiser and prioritize the Dean’s development-related
activities.
• Oversee strategies for expanding and strengthening the L&S donor base, with a specific focus on
major and principal gifts development around L&S funding priorities.
• Develop and implement effective personalized strategies (cultivation, solicitation, stewardship)
for major gifts donors and prospects, including oversight of Dean’s prospects, often in
collaboration with WFAA President, and CDO.
• Lead comprehensive stewardship strategies in partnership with the L&S Program Manager and
the L&S Office of Advancement.
• Work closely with the L&S Board of Visitors and leadership volunteers to increase engagement
and philanthropic support.
IV. Support a service-oriented atmosphere in accordance with WFAA mission, values, and philosophy.
a. Strategic beliefs:
WISCONSIN FOUNDATION AND ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
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• The University of Wisconsin-Madison has a transforming impact on students, alumni
and society;
• Authentic, lifelong relationships and engagement with alumni, donors and friends are
fundamental to sustaining the reputation and continued success of the University;
• Philanthropy has an essential and growing importance on the future progress of UW-
Madison;
• The highest level of stewardship and fiduciary responsibility in financial, investment,
data and gift administration is vital to maintaining trust with stakeholders; and
• Diverse views, experiences and perspectives strengthen WFAA and the University
community.
b. Organizational values:
• Serious about delivering results;
• Work together and with campus partners as a team;
• Committed to alumni, donors, volunteers and others;
• Be open-minded; and
• Create a positive work environment.
Required Experience/Skills
• Minimum of eight years’ experience in complex development organizations, including a minimum of
three years managing a team of development professionals, preferably within higher education.
• Strong leader with successful record of experience managing people and programs.
• Supervisory and management skills and a demonstrated ability to build, manage, mentor and
motivate an effective team. Establish effective processes, metrics and accountabilities.
• Expertise in strategy development and proven ability to execute on a plan.
• Experience working in a comprehensive campaign, including a strong track record of closing major
and principal gifts from VIP donors.
• Ability to navigate a complex academic community, and to build bridges and strong collaborative
relationships with a range of internal colleagues and external stakeholders.
• Exemplary interpersonal and communication skills.
• Ability to champion the liberal arts, and to articulate the vision and case for L&S philanthropy.
• Strong ethical sense and exemplary integrity in decision making.
• Ability to meet travel requirements (approx. 20%)
______________________________
The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association (WFAA) is the “doing business as” name of the merged
organization comprising the University of Wisconsin Foundation (www.supportuw.org) and the Wisconsin
Alumni Association (www.uwalumni.com), whose legal corporate name is registered as the University of
Wisconsin Foundation.
WISCONSIN FOUNDATION AND ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
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Development Overview
UW-Madison launched its fourth comprehensive
fundraising campaign in 2013, with the goal of
attracting $3.2B by 2020 to support University
funding priorities. As of June, 2017 the All Ways
Forward campaign has raised $2.08B (65%) toward
this goal. Approximately $334.5M of this has been
designated for the College of Letters & Science in
support of its $508M goal (66%). You can learn
more about the campaign on the All Ways
Forward website.
In calendar year 2016, WFAA raised $295.6M in new gifts and pledges for UW-Madison, with $51M of this
designated for the College of Letters & Science.
WFAA manages an endowment currently valued at $2.5B. Total assets under management at WFAA are
approximately $3.5B.
College of Letters & Science:
The College of Letters & Science (L&S), the largest unit on UW-Madison’s campus, graduates more than
3,000 students each year and teaches more than 60 percent of all the credits offered at UW-Madison. L&S
has 34 academic departments, 13 non-academic departments, 5 professional schools, and 73
interdisciplinary research centers and institutes. For students, it offers 69 undergraduate majors, 33
undergraduate certificates and 106 graduate majors. Almost every undergraduate student at UW-Madison is
touched in some way by this College during their matriculation.
L&S Faculty
The faculty are some of the finest in the world. Forty-seven L&S faculty are members of the American
Academy of Arts & Sciences. Forty-one are Fellows in the American Association for the Advancement of
Science. There are two MacArthur Fellows and 36 John Simon Guggenheim Fellows. This year, two L&S
faculty became Carnegie Fellows. Every year, faculty win major awards, such as the Maxwell Prize for Physics
(received by Astronomy Professor Ellen Zwiebel this year).
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L&S Alumni
There are 200,000 living L&S alumni and they are considered the College’s greatest asset. Most of them
achieve success and job satisfaction upon graduation. Two recent comprehensive alumni surveys,
administered in 2015 by the UW Survey Center, revealed that nearly 90 percent of L&S alumni are employed
fulltime, attending graduate school, or both.
L&S alumni go on to do amazing things, across a wide spectrum of fields. They become leaders in
entertainment. Media. Finance. Marketing. The creative fields music, art, poetry and novel-writing.
Nonprofit management. Government work. L&S Badgers are go-getters who find that a liberal arts degree
from UW-Madison opens doors and launches careers.
L&S Students
Every year, L&S can boast student winners of at least a few of these prestigious scholarships: Rhodes,
Truman, Goldwater and Churchill. But its students are also known for their “change-the-world” mindset, with
hundreds of L&S students volunteering to help the community through UW’s Morgridge Institute for Public
Service. L&S students often study abroad via a variety of programs and opportunities, and have the option
of learning one or more languages through its internationally renowned foreign language program (UW
graduates more students with language majors than
any university in the United States). One of the
biggest benefits to studying at a large public
research university like UW-Madison is the access to
unique opportunities in the lab. Many L&S students
get to work alongside top-notch faculty on
groundbreaking science, thanks to the L&S
Undergraduate Research Scholars program. High-
impact learning opportunities abound in L&S, and
are life changing for students.
The L&S Career Initiative
In 2013, the Letters & Science Career Initiative was launched an effort funded entirely through private
donations. The goal: to radically transform career services by giving liberal arts students the resources to
explore, plan and act strategically early in their college careers. The results have drawn other great public
research universities to the campus to see how it’s done. Through the L&S Career Initiative, the College aims
to lead the nation in career services among public universities.
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Alumni have stepped up in large numbers to act as mentors and support the program. An effort to secure
$20M by 2020 has been launched to position the initiative for long-term success by bolstering staffing,
expanding career-prep courses for students, envisioning a new career center, and supporting internships.
This is a program that positions L&S as a leader in preparing liberal arts students (prized by employers, but
too often underprepared to articulate their unique skills) for success in life and work.
The Location - Madison, WI:
Spanning 936 acres along the southern shore of
Lake Mendota, the UW campus is located in the
city of Madison, the state capital with a
population of approximately 245,000. Total
population of the surrounding metro area
exceeds 600,000.
Against a backdrop of high-tech businesses and
acclaimed academic institutions, Madison,
Wisconsin exudes the casual, down-to-earth feel
you'd expect in the capital of America's
Dairyland. On a given night, Madisonians can
dine on food prepared by award-winning chefs and take in performances by national and international
musicians and actors. The next morning, Madisonians can buy produce, meats and baked goods at the Dane
County Farmers Market, often grabbing breakfast and coffee there or at hot spots like Marigold Kitchen and
Michelangelo's Coffee House.
A hotbed of the healthcare, biotech, and information technology industries, Madison has steadily welcomed
new residents over the past decade and is growing to accommodate and entertain these transplants.
Developers are quickly erecting mixed-use luxury housing with ground floors occupied by trendy
restaurants and coffee shops. Options for fine dining, microbrews and craft cocktails in Madison are
constantly expanding.
Much like in New York City, it's somewhat rare to encounter a native Madisonian. Some who have relocated
permanently attended UW-Madison and never left. Others relocated to Madison for work. Nevertheless, the
small-town vibe of Madison shines through.
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The city tops many “best” lists, including:
• America's Best College Football Towns
Travel + Leisure, August 2016
• 30 Most Fun Places to Live in the U.S.
U.S. News & World Report, July 2016
• #3 in Top 100 Best Places to Live 2016
Livability.com, February 2016
• Top Ten Happiest Cities in the World
National Geographic, January 2015
• #1 Best City for Quality of Life
NerdWallet, August 2014
The University’s location in south central Wisconsin makes for convenient access to Milwaukee (80 miles),
Chicago (150 miles) and Minneapolis (270 miles). Daily buses serve all three cities.
Related Websites:
• City of Madison
• Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Dane County
• State of Wisconsin
• Visiting Wisconsin
Background Checks:
Prior to submitting your resume for this position, please read it over for accuracy. LLLS does verify academic
credentials for its candidates, and our clients frequently conduct background checks prior to finalizing an
offer.
WISCONSIN FOUNDATION AND ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
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To learn more, call
Zena Lum, Search Director at
617-262-1102
or send nominations or cover letter and resume to
All inquiries will be held in confidence.
Setting the Standard in Development Search
LOIS L. LINDAUER SEARCHES, LLC
420 Boylston Street, Suite 604, Boston, MA 02116
617.262.1102
www.LLLSearches.com
WISCONSIN FOUNDATION AND ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
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Appendix
Leadership:
Rebecca M. Blank
Chancellor
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Rebecca M. Blank became Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-
Madison in July 2013.
Leading Wisconsin’s flagship university represents a return to academia for Blank. From 2009 to 2013, she
served in top positions at the U.S. Department of Commerce. She started as undersecretary for economic
affairs, and then was named deputy secretary and acting secretary of the agency, managing nearly 45,000
employees and a $10B budget. During her time at the agency, Blank not only led a large and complex
organization, but also worked to promote economic development with an emphasis on connecting research
and innovation with job creation and economic growth.
Blank brings strong academic credentials to the position of Chancellor. She served as dean and professor of
public policy and economics in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan from
1999 to 2008. Earlier in her career, she was a member of the faculty at Northwestern University and
Princeton University, as well as an assistant visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
She also spent two years, from 1997 to 1999, as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.
John Karl Scholz
Dean
College of Letters & Science
John Karl Scholz is the Dean of the College of Letters & Science at UW-Madison.
Prior to this, he was the Nellie June Gray Professor of Economic Policy in the
department of economics, which he joined in 1988. In 1997-98 he was the Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis at the U.S. Treasury Department, and from
1990-91 he was a senior staff economist at the Council of Economic Advisors. He
directed the Institute for Research on Poverty at UW–Madison from 2000-2004.
Professor Scholz writes on diverse topics, including household saving, the earned income tax credit and low-
wage labor markets, financial barriers to higher education, and bankruptcy laws. His research has appeared
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in leading economics journals, including The American Economic Review, The Quarterly Journal of Economics,
Journal of Political Economy, and the Review of Economic Studies. In 2007, Scholz and his colleagues Ananth
Seshadri and Surachai Khitatrakun were awarded the twelfth annual TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award for
Outstanding Scholarly Writing on Lifelong Financial Security for their paper "Are Americans Saving
'Optimally' for Retirement." He is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His
undergraduate degree is from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota and his Ph.D. is from Stanford
University.
Michael M. Knetter
President and CEO
Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association
Michael M. Knetter joined the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association as
President and Chief Executive Officer on October 16, 2010 after eight years as Dean
of the Wisconsin School of Business. As Dean, he orchestrated the novel $85M
Wisconsin Naming Gift, the expansion of Grainger Hall, and the restructuring and
improved national standing of the fulltime MBA. In addition to leading the
business school, Knetter worked with the campus leadership team to develop
strategies to increase revenue as Vice Chancellor for Advancement beginning in 2010.
Prior to joining UW-Madison in 2002, he was associate dean of the MBA program and professor of
international economics in the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He also served as
senior staff economist for the President’s Council of Economic Advisors for former Presidents George H.W.
Bush and Bill Clinton.
Knetter completed his undergraduate studies in economics and mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-
Eau Claire and his Ph.D. in economics at Stanford University.
Anne Lucke
Vice President and Managing Group Leader
Anne Lucke is Vice President and Managing Group Leader at the Wisconsin
Foundation and Alumni Association, providing strategic leadership to, and overall
supervision of, the Development teams responsible for the fundraising programs
of six academic units at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: the Wisconsin
School of Business, College of Letters & Science, College of Engineering, College
of Agriculture and Life Sciences, School of Education and the School of Human
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Ecology. Collectively these six Schools and Colleges recorded $119M in new gift commitments in 2016.
With 17 years of Development experience in higher education, Anne leads the Foundation’s Development
Leadership Team and plays a key role in shaping the organization’s fundraising strategies, policies, and team
performance and accountability measures. She also works closely with University leaders to cultivate and
solicit leadership gifts from some of the institution’s most prominent and generous alumni.
Anne joined the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association in 2000 as Director of Development for the
College of Letters & Science, and in 2008, she was promoted to Managing Senior Director of Development
and assumed overall leadership of the Letters & Science Development team. In 2011, she took on
responsibility for overseeing the Development teams working on behalf of the School of Education and
School of Human Ecology, and in 2013, she was promoted to her current position as Vice President and
Managing Group Leader overseeing the development work of six Schools and Colleges.
Prior to joining the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association, Anne held management and marketing
positions in the bookselling, tourism and information technology industries. She earned her Master of Arts
degree in English Literature from UW-Madison and Bachelor of Arts in English from Holy Cross College in
Worcester, MA.
Organization Chart