Assistant Director for Donor Relations

UW Medicine Advancement has an excellent opportunity for an Assistant Director for Donor Relations to join their team

POSITION PURPOSE

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 2024 fiscal year, UW Medicine Advancement raised nearly $305 million in gifts and private grants (48 percent of the University of Washington’s total) from 14,300 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 Donor Relations (Assistant Director) is a member of the donor relations team at UW Medicine Advancement. The Donor Relations team is responsible for delivering creative and inspiring stewardship offerings to UW Medicine’s donors at all levels to illustrate how gifts have impacted the work of UW Medicine and to convey appreciation and gratitude. Team responsibilities include cultivating and stewarding long-term relationships with annual and major donors, gift acknowledgment, donor recognition, membership management of giving clubs and stewarding donors that use UW Medicine’s health system. This position reports to the Director for Donor Relations and does not have a direct report.

The Assistant Director will specifically be responsible for developing and executing benefit and recognition activities for our lifetime giving clubs (Benefactors and Laureates), planned gift club (The Heritage Society), The President’s Circle and UW Medicine Compass. They will ensure that “benefits” provide high-impact and personalized opportunities for members to engage with UW Medicine. They will focus on building donor affinity and making sure that our offerings meet our advancement and donor goals. There is a big emphasis on innovation, creativity and quality in the work of the Assistant Director.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Partner with UW Medicine Front-Line Fundraisers (50%)

• Manage front-line fundraiser teams, providing strategic guidance and conducting monthly one-on-one meetings to support and enhance donor engagement efforts.
• Serve as the primary liaison between fundraising staff and UW Central Advancement teams to ensure the creation of compliant and effective donor gift agreements.
• Develop innovative and personalized stewardship strategies to communicate the impact of donor contributions.
• Support in the preparation and completion of annual impact reports for Endowed Chairs, Professorships and Faculty Fellowships within UW Medicine.
• Oversee the creation of ad hoc stewardship reports, including content collection from faculty, copy editing, and report design.

UW Medicine Compass (15%)

The Assistant Director will be responsible for program development and management of UW Medicine Compass – a membership program with facilitated courtesies for UW Medicine’s most generous donors within the health system.

Projects Include:

• Responsible for oversight and development of the Compass program, with a goal of building affinity between UW Medicine and our philanthropic supporters.
• Manage the day-to-day elements of Compass including checking EPIC for current and future patient admissions, monitoring the lines of communication (phone and email), arranging patient visits as needed and working with clinical staff on any member needs that arise.
• Develop and maintain positive relationships with Compass stakeholders and partners by providing leadership, accountability, good judgement and positivity.
• Oversight of the member onboarding process and affinity building including developing collateral material, communication plan and web presence.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for all members and clinical teams with regular communication with hospital leadership. Represent Compass program interests at meetings with stakeholders, fundraisers and other partners.
• Manage all elements of member courtesies including parking, call center and navigation services ensuring that all services are tracked. Develop system for communication program success and data to advancement and clinical leadership.
• Develop presentations and educational material for fundraisers, leadership, stakeholders and clinical teams in order to provide program support and build awareness of the program.

Manage Medicine Specific Giving Clubs (Heritage Society, UW Medicine Laureates, UW Medicine Benefactors) (20%)

It is the responsibility of the Assistant Director to ensure that UW Medicine specific giving clubs continue to grow and maintain relevancy with the targeted constituency. They will manage the benefits, member onboarding, recognition and roster for the UW Medicine giving clubs with a keen eye toward building long-term affinity for UW Medicine.

Projects Include:

• New member onboarding and benefit delivery tracking for all giving clubs.
• Work with UW Medicines planned giving partner to track stewardship efforts for current Heritage Society members, welcome new members and audit planned gift progress on an ad hoc basis.
• Ensure realized bequests have been properly allocated and send acknowledgements as appropriate. When bequests create endowment funds, track and provide ongoing stewardship to next-of-kin.
• Manage follow-up activities including tracking stewardee information for realized bequests.
• Report regularly to team members and fundraisers regarding new UW Medicine lifetime donors and help ensure that subsequent thanking and recognition is received by the donors in a timely manner.
• Partner on thank you letter customization for new members.
• Develop and evaluate “benefits” and recognition opportunities for all gift clubs.
• Determine marketing and affinity building plan for gift clubs.
• Play a collaborative role in the development and execution of Individualized stewardship plans for Medicine’s top donors.
• Work with Engagement team on the development of the annual donor recognition event.
• Manage yearly donor awards including the nomination process, selection and awarding ceremony.
• Manage the annual donor wall and other special donor recognition pieces including assisting with plaques and special awards.

Coordinate with Central Donor Relations and Institutional Partners (15%)

The Assistant Director will play an integral role in ensuring that UW Medicine donors are well represented and stewarded through UW Advancement’s gift club offerings for Benefactors, Laureates and The President’s Circle (TPC) members. The Assistant Director will regularly coordinate with the Central Donor Relations office and our institutional partners to ensure a unique and customized experience for Medicine donors that is specific to their UW Medicine giving.

Projects Include:

• Integration with TPC ensuring customization and special opportunities for Medicine donors.
• Liaison with Central for donor recognition special events and activities.
• Work with the team on the Consolidated Endowment Report to make sure that information is targeted toward Medicine specific donors.
• Work at the University level to provide input and feedback about membership levels and benefits.
• Ensure donors have a seamless experience between UW and UW Medicine.
• Serve as a liaison with institutional partners such as Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center to ensure seamless coordination and stewardship of dual gift club donors.

POSITION COMPLEXITIES

The Assistant Director will have interactions with diverse constituencies (faculty, high level administrative and academic staff, alumni, major gift donors, annual giving donors, patients, community leaders and volunteers) with diverse goals and expectations.

The Assistant Director should be flexible and patient; the team’s work often involves intensive project juggling and priority re-setting. The position also requires a high level of confidentiality, discretion and the use of good judgement to solve problems and answer inquiries.

Our giving clubs serve many different purposes and have a variety of goals and objectives. The AD needs to be able to fully understand how the giving clubs fit into the larger fundraising strategy at UW Medicine and move between strategic thinking and tactical implementation.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor of Arts or Science degree in any field.
• Three years’ experience in an office setting working on programs and projects. Experience working in fundraising preferred.

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 to 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 working with a variety of stakeholders including faculty, donors, senior leadership and other colleagues.
• Demonstrated project management ability, efficiency and strong attention to detail.
• Demonstrated ability to work on a team: mindfulness of deadlines, respect for varying skill sets, ability to juggle priorities, and willingness to do a variety of tasks, including administrative ones.
• Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to communicate clearly and professionally.
• Proven writing skills: excellence, precision, persuasiveness, creativity.
• Demonstrated ability to maintain confidences and protect confidential information; acts in a selfless manner and models the ethical values of the UW.
• Values the UW’s commitment to inclusiveness. Demonstrates respect and commitment to diversity.
• Proficiency with personal computing environment, Microsoft Office suite (Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint), and the internet.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience in philanthropy.
• Experience in working with colleagues across complex and large organizations.
• Experience in higher education.
• Experience with InDesign