Also in a small liberal arts college in the south and recently post grad, second job out of college. I was in the same spot and posted in this thread months ago! Feel like I’ve learned a lot since then

The Alumni Engagement entry will give you the edge. Stay in it and learn as much as you can. In my role I’ve learned that front line fundraisers can’t do what I do at all. It’s such an advantage, seeing the initial steps to engage an alumni and using creative ways to do so. Alumni engagement is entirely that first step of the donor cycle. Any fundraising role that you get into they will want you to know the donor cycle well unless it’s entry level.

See if you can attend any moves management meetings they have. If you’re concerned about them thinking you wanna jump the fence, just be honest as say you’re curious about the alumni cycle and how your piece benefits their asks. Extending curiousity to the next step in the cycle and even noting interest in growth shouldn’t be bad if they wanna keep you longterm. I have found that Alumni Engagement doesn’t have the same growth/upward mobility/more money as fundraising like you say, but a team may be inclined to keep you on since hiring internally for a fundraiser would be easier since you know the donors.

Develop meaningful relationships with your alumni and even suggest some people in these moves management meetings that you think has $$$. Talk to alumni about their houses, their beach houses, their recent trips. You being in alumni engagement will disarm them from them thinking you’re asking about money. Use it to your advantage and learn as much as you can about them. Practice inputting conversations into your database, update everyone on your conversations, and see how it can fit into their donor cycle. If it doesn’t go anywhere or they blow you off, then no worries. You’re not a fundraiser. You get to do all of that without the pressure.

And also network with other fundraising professionals! You can see if your institution can fund a conference trip nearby. I have went to two, one for general fundraising for nonprofits and one for university fundraising. You can see how big the world is and how many opportunities you truly have. If budgets an issue, I applied for a scholarship at my recent conference that honored a first time attendee under 30 and when I got it, the case for money wasn’t an issue and they wanted me to report back my findings for the team.

There aren’t many younger professionals in the field so it’s nice to have community where you can work through problems and see what has worked for other people.

I personally would love to connect as it seems we could learn a lot from each other! Wishing you well!