Assistant Director for Philanthropy

UW Medicine Advancement has an excellent opportunity for an Assistant Director for Philanthropy to join their team.

At UW Medicine, we work to improve health for all people through excellence in clinical, research, and education and training programs. As the only comprehensive clinical, research and learning health system in the five-state WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho) region, UW Medicine provides the most up-to-date care for each individual patient, leads one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive medical research programs, and provides innovative learning programs for students, trainees, and practitioners in the health professions.

The passionate, 86-person team at UW Medicine Advancement works collaboratively to connect donors with meaningful opportunities to enhance patient care, expand educational opportunities and advance research at UW Medicine. This inspiring, challenging and rewarding work provides team members an opportunity to grow their careers, while making a difference in people’s lives, in our community and around the world. In the 2025 fiscal year, UW Medicine Advancement raised $381 million in gifts and private grants (44 percent of the University of Washington’s total) from over 30,000 donors to support the mission of UW Medicine. You can find out more about UW Medicine Advancement’s priorities and office culture on our career website: https://give.uwmedicine.org/careers/

The Assistant Director for Philanthropy (Assistant Director), as part of a dynamic major gift fundraising team, generates philanthropic support for UW Medicine with a focus on education programs within the School of Medicine. This role has a primary focus in discovery of new prospective donors who have both the capacity and inclination to give, but have not yet been deeply involved with UW Medicine. The Assistant Director will collaborate with UW Medicine Advancement’s Pipeline Team, Alumni Team, faculty, and peer-major gift officers to research prospects, initiate conversations to understand their areas of philanthropic interests, and qualify them for further cultivation.

The Assistant Director collaborates with major gift officers and Advancement teams across the university to conceptualize, develop and plan strategies for activities and special events for qualification and solicitation efforts to support key education programs within the School of Medicine and UW Medicine. This position also maintains their own portfolio of major gift donors.

The Assistant Director will have a secondary focus on planned giving, which includes responding to donor inquiries, facilitating meaningful stewardship, and helping to support related outreach strategies on behalf of UW Medicine Advancement in partnership with the Office of Planned Giving.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Direct Fundraising Responsibilities – 85%

• Partner with UW Medicine Advancement’s Pipeline Team to identify potential major and planned giving prospects to education using grateful patient data, research tools, faculty referrals, and donor history.
• Partner with UW Medicine’s Alumni Team to identify alumni prospects who are celebrating milestone reunion years or are otherwise engaged as alumni volunteers.
• Serve as a qualification officer, assessing major gift prospects and determining their philanthropic interests and capacity.
• Conduct monthly donor visits to cultivate relationships, solicit gifts, and steward donors, identifying prospects for annual, major, and planned giving as appropriate.
• Develop and execute cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies in collaboration with fundraising colleagues, faculty, and academic leaders.
• Maintain donor records and track engagement using the University’s prospect management system.
• Work across Advancement teams to plan and execute events and activities that support qualification and solicitation efforts.
• Manage a portfolio of prospects with a focus on those who can make gifts of $100,000 or more. Develop and present 5-7 major gift proposals annually, with a target of securing an average of $500,000 in new commitments
• Lead strategic fundraising campaigns for key constituent groups.
• Identify longtime annual donors with planned giving potential and coordinate outreach with the Planned Giving team.
• Align individual qualification and solicitation strategies with the broader annual philanthropy plan.

Activities in Support of Direct Fundraising – 15%

• Support the development of annual operating plan including quantitative and qualitative goals and objectives. Plan should include a list of prospects who will be asked in the next 12-18 months. Prepare monthly reports to track and assess progress.
• Prepare written proposals, gift illustrations, and informational materials needed to secure major gifts.
• Develop basic knowledge of and information resources for all areas of UW Medicine, focusing on research, patient care and education activities within the School of Medicine.
• Ensure that all fundraising activities involving patients are compliant with the HIPAA federal privacy regulations.
• Seek appropriate professional development opportunities
• Complete annual performance self-assessment as key component of Annual Review.
• Complete other duties as assigned.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor’s degree and three or more years of increasingly responsible experience in institutional advancement with a preference for experience cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding leadership gifts.

Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license/certification/registration.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

• Aligns with UW Medicine's Executive Order 31 Nondiscrimination and Affirmative Action by valuing diversity and inclusion. Is committed to building and sustaining a community in which all employees achieve the knowledge, skills and attitudes that value and embrace inclusiveness, equity and awareness to unleash creativity and innovation.
• UW Medicine employees are expected conduct themselves in a professional manner in accordance with UW Medicine Policy on Professional Conduct. An assessment of professionalism is a factor considered in performance reviews, salary adjustments and promotion.
• Experience with face-to-face cultivation and solicitation activities.
• Ability to write clearly and concisely in order to distill complex scientific/medical information and data; ability to multi-task and complete assigned projects in a timely manner with the utmost attention to detail.
• Strong interpersonal skills and customer service orientation. Poised, professional manner and the ability to communicate clearly, directly and empathetically in all interactions: verbal and written communications, one-on-one conversations and in groups, etc.
• Ability to make decisions in ambiguous situations, exercise good judgment based on information and analysis in a fast-paced, dynamic, deadline-driven environment in an organized and professional manner.
• Demonstrated ability to maintain confidences and protect confidential information.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office applications, including Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Development experience in a health care, medical research and/or higher education setting is preferred.