Join Our Team

Vice President, Morehead-Cain Community

The Morehead-Cain Foundation, home of the first merit scholarship program in the United States, seeks an engaging professional to support the Morehead-Cain Scholars and coordinate its enrichment programs.

The Opportunity

Morehead-Cain seeks a creative, organized, entrepreneurial, and energetic leader to craft and deliver an ambitious plan for the alumni experience for a lifelong community of extraordinary leaders. Working alongside a strong team, the Vice President will define, develop, and implement a plan that weaves our community of leaders across the world to positively impact our mission of identifying, investing in, and empowering a community of dynamic, purpose-driven leaders.

Working with a talented and motivated team, the Vice President will:

• Inspire and connect a community of over 3,000 alumni to the magic and values of the Program and our collective impact on the university and world.
• Strengthen the leadership development engine at Morehead-Cain by engaging alumni in our work to identify and develop future leaders on campus.
• Secure the future of the Program and expand our impact.

The Vice President joins the Foundation at a pivotal moment in its history, with a new President, two energetic and dedicated boards, a highly engaged alumni and donor base, a bright and dynamic scholar body, and a talented and committed staff. The Vice President will guide a team of devoted and invested professionals in the alumni and development departments with proven success records. Morehead-Cain Alumni include the Governor of North Carolina; the CEO of Habitat for Humanity; the prosecutor of Derek Chauvin; the founder of Indiegogo; and the recently retired Director of the National Institutes of Health. Our alumni are leaders on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley, and in communities across our state and around the world.

The Vice President will build community and foster investment across our diverse community of alumni. They will define strategy with input from the Morehead-Cain Scholarship Fund (MCSF) board (a board of directors/advisors, the vast majority of whom are Morehead-Cain Alumni) and determine the appropriate benchmarks and growth metrics for a best-in-class alumni community. They will build a pipeline of annual giving and major gifts in partnership with our director of development and will work with the director of alumni programming to develop and implement programs that will facilitate lifelong learning and dialogue among the alumni, the current scholars, the Foundation, and the University.

This is a highly visible and collaborative leadership role that provides a results-driven leader the ability to impact an extraordinary community for years to come.

Indicators of Success

• Deeper relationships with, and increased engagement among, the 3,300+ Morehead-Cain alumni across the world.
• Enhanced alumni input and impact on the Foundation’s work of identifying and developing future leaders on the UNC campus.
• A leadership position in higher education alumni engagement and development, consistent with our position as the first and leading merit scholarship program in the United States.
• A growing annual fund and growing pipeline of philanthropic gifts that will support new initiatives that can impact our scholars, our alumni, and the world.
• Expanded alumni impact on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• Clear benchmarks and metrics to assess alumni engagement, fundraising success, and community impact.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide vision, leadership, and oversight to our alumni community and development functions.
• Build partnerships within and beyond the Morehead-Cain community to execute the strategy and maximize our collective impact on our university, state, and world.
• Engage alumni in the life of the Foundation and Program through consistent and positive communication using electronic, print, and social media; exceptional service; and meaningful opportunities for lifelong learning, volunteerism, service, personal and professional development, and social events and programs.
• Directly supervise the development and alumni engagement teams, providing thoughtful management, advice, support, and guidance of day-to-day operations.
• Oversee management of alumni records and our online alumni platform, ensuring that we are consistently able to locate and connect with our stakeholders.
• Build collaborative relationships and partner with other Foundation departments, including scholar recruitment and selection, scholar advising, communications, events, and administration.
• Take on other responsibilities as required to maximize the collective impact of our small, mission-driven team.

Qualifications

The Vice President should model the personal characteristics that Morehead-Cain has sought in its scholars for the past seven decades: an innate curiosity about the world; a lifelong love of learning; and exemplary character, including integrity, empathy, and optimism.

Experience:

• The Vice President will bring years of experience defining and executing strategy, working with advisory or governing boards, and managing a professional team and budget.
• Others should describe the Vice President as an initiator, weaver, and community builder.
• A four-year undergraduate degree required; master’s degree preferred.

In addition, they will need:

• Superior communication skills, both written and oral (clarity, brevity, authenticity, spelling, grammar).
• Personal authenticity, dignity, and an ability to build sincere relationships with scholars, alumni, fellow staff members, and all Foundation constituents.
• Self-starter, motivated, high achiever.
• Flexibility, creativity, intelligence, dependability.
• A knack for storytelling and public speaking.
• An enthusiasm for working with a collaborative, engaged team.
• Sharp attention to detail and excellent organizational skills.
• An appreciation and respect for the Foundation’s history, mission, values, and brand; an appreciation for and understanding of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• A great sense of humor.
• Willingness to travel to build relationships and host events for alumni across the world.

Supervision and Location

• The position reports to the President and supervises the development and alumni teams.
• The role is based at the Morehead-Cain Foundation in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

To Apply

Please send a cover letter and resume to Hannah Hannan: hannah@moreheadcain.org.