May 17, 2021

This paid piece is sponsored by Dakota State University.

Dakota State University is welcoming another new face to the Foundation and Alumni Association.

Samantha Zoss was born and raised in Beresford. She attended the University of South Dakota and graduated in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and political science.

While there, she took influential courses that spoke about communicating impact and understanding the human experience in applying justice to the world.

“Had it not been for the philanthropic support I received, I wouldn’t have been able to go to college, let alone have the freedom to explore my passions through education,” she said.

After graduation, she took a job as an engagement coordinator with the USD Foundation. There, she saw annual giving, stewardship and donor relations, communications, events and alumni engagement on a firsthand basis. Her work in these areas inspired Zoss to move into a role creating and leading student and young alumni initiatives and coordinating a national events campaign.

Working at her alma mater gave Zoss the chance to give back to the place that set her career on its path. Though she loved her job, she decided to see what she could make of this career outside of what she has always known. In 2019, she took a job as the associate director of donor engagement for Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Tasked with working on individualized stewardship and donor engagement, which included strategic project management of individualized donors, Zoss took industry standards by storm, creating a team approach to manage over 100 households versus the typical 25 to 30. In the midst of it all, she began work on her Master of Business Administration degree, with a joint finance and marketing emphasis, at Miami University’s Farmer School of Business.

But when opportunity knocks, Zoss answers.

Now, she’s the new executive director for constituent services and engagement at Dakota State University and is moving back to South Dakota.

Zoss took time for a virtual interview to tell us about her new position at DSU and the plans she has for the future.

How did you discover DSU?

During my time at USD, I was honored to be student body president. I worked with the student federation and helped lobby the Board of Regents and then the state Legislature. So I’m really familiar with the regental system and have even been to the Madison campus a few times for meetings. The search committee was awesome in the process as well and really gave me a rich welcoming.

What inspired you to apply for this position?

I believe in my abilities and am excited to take what I learned in my previous position at Miami and apply it here. I love the idea that we can set the standard high and prove to the world that we can reach our goals and keep on going.  I am also eager to work for Dr. Griffiths, who has an amazing vision for Dakota State University.

How is this position comparable to any previous positions?

My professional expertise lies in stewardship, alumni and donor relations and external engagement. My educational background also consists of experience in organizational and leadership development, marketing and finance.

With those experiences, I am confident in my abilities. These areas are certainly my bread and butter and give me a good perspective on what works right, what doesn’t. I’ll be able to apply that to a state I’m familiar with, to a constituency I’m familiar with. With that being said, I have no issue learning what I need to do, then doing it well, as well as learning it once and learning it right.

I also love the creativity and the relationship aspects of this job. The partnerships we already have are beautiful, so I’m looking forward to nourishing those relationships even more, and extending relationships to new partners.

Give us a glimpse into your day-to-day schedule as the new executive director for constituent services and engagement.

I help oversee, strategize and run all of the nonrevenue-generating operations for the Foundation. Anything that has an extended ROI will run through me. I’ll help the Foundation with streamlining and automation to ensure we’re the most innovative and engaging school around.

What are some of the strengths you’re bringing to the Foundation?

I’m fortunate to bring a lot of strengths to the Foundation, specifically in stewardship, donor relations and external engagement. I’m religious about studying this industry and want to ensure that we are matching, if not exceeding, industry standards. It’s my job to come in and encourage innovation and extend it to the rest of our staff.

Outside of measurable skills, I have an energy that is hard to ignore. Jon, our vice president for institutional advancement and CEO of the DSU Foundation and Alumni Association, has that same energy. It’s a refresh for our office and will continue to spread throughout DSU as we continue to build a culture of philanthropy.

What are your plans and goals in your new position?

I’ll focus on streamlining, automating and innovating. We can’t get caught up in the new, shiny thing. Inversely, we can’t continue with the way things have always been done. Intentional, strategic reasons for our actions and initiatives will be the core of what we do. We also will continue to communicate and emulate the one-DSU mindset.

Personally, I’ll strive to be the best leader I can be for not only the teammates I oversee, but the greater team at the Foundation. I also plan to service the people around me as best I can. A good day for me is much more about the success of my teammates than it is about my own success.

What are some challenges you foresee with this position, and how do you plan to overcome those challenges?

We have a small team, but we’re all bought in. We’re able to engage with each other faster and have more connections with each other. But that could present challenges when everyone’s running at 110 mph. Although it’s the pace we like, it means that we need to be mindful and understanding about each other’s capacities and not overdo it for one another. It’s my job to prioritize tasks to ensure we’re not dedicating our time to pieces of the puzzle that may not fit.

What relationships do you hope to form in this position?

For me, one of the most important relationships I can form is with those who share the values of DSU. My colleagues and I will be creating and nurturing relationships with our donors as well as those in and around the Madison community.

We will be very present and collaborate with those on campus as well, so that everyone knows we are a supportive partner. Our relationship with the institution has to be that of inspiring a culture of philanthropy across the board. It starts with us forming respectable partnerships and the need to make sure we are servicing the institution and everyone in it as best we can.

What are some of the ideas you have to reach out to DSU’s diverse constituent base? For example, alumni who attended DSU before the mission change in 1984 to those after.

We have an ethical duty to lift up the voices of diversity within the Trojan community. We have internationally renowned programs that allow us to experience culture and life views in ways very few others in our area of the country can. We will never ever shy away from that; it makes us who we are.

We are a culmination of everyone that walks through our doors and on our campus.

It doesn’t matter what part of history you belong to; you are valued here, and we want you involved. We are all Trojans, we are one institution, we are one alumni body, we are one DSU.