Annual Giving Program Specialist

Do you excel at organizing and process improvement? Thrive on efficient task management and independent work?

If you're a detail-oriented, proactive individual with great communication skills, then get ready to showcase your talents in a dynamic and fast-paced environment.

In this role, you'll be a crucial part of our team, bringing your customer service mentality, professionalism, and ability to prioritize tasks. Experience in annual giving or marketing is a plus!

Join us and make a real impact with your passion for improving processes and keeping the team moving forward.

Want to learn more? Read below.

The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association (WFAA)*, the private fundraising and alumni relations organization for UW-Madison, is recruiting for a Annual Giving Program Specialist. This position is dedicated to delivering comprehensive customer service to our campus partners who wish to send their own solicitations, as well as to our alumni and supporters interacting with our annual giving team. Additionally, this role involves facilitating best practices training, managing data flow and campaign creation, supporting annual giving programs, and coordinating office administration activities that contribute to achieving team goals and objectives. This is a hybrid position that will require you to work weekly in our Madison, WI office location.  

Who is WFAA?
The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association is a private, nonprofit corporation that encourages individuals and organizations to make gifts to the university and to connect with the UW. In 2014, the UW Foundation merged with the Wisconsin Alumni Association® to better serve a growing population of UW alumni and donors. We believe that private support grows out of good relationships between campus leaders, faculty and program staff who need support, and the alumni and friends who want to invest in UW–Madison. We provide important engagement opportunities to link UW–Madison alumni to each other and to their alma mater, building a strong community of Badgers.

Diversity and Inclusion:

Just as the university community benefits from differing viewpoints, perspectives, and experiences, inclusion and diversity are imperative for the success of our mission. WFAA values people and the differences that they bring to the organization, and creates an environment in which all staff members and constituents feel respected and have opportunities to thrive.  

Campus Solicitation Administration 

• Support campus partners in following solicitation best practices by providing regular training.
• Facilitate the campus solicitation process by working with other internal partners to ensure all best practices are met.
• Update and maintain documentation on solicitation best practices.
• Implement process improvements to increase adoption.

Program Support & Administration 

• Provide support to program leads, which could include documentation, coordination with campus partners, quality control, and event planning and facilitation.
• Suggest areas for process improvement and assist in improvement implementation.
• Coordinate communications about annual giving programs for internal and campus audiences.
• Support team meeting management through agenda setting, note taking, and tracking next steps.
• Manage expenses and facilitate the payment of invoices.
• Provide support for advanced administrative needs.

Donor Relations

• Provide timely responses to communications with alumni and supporters through the help desk.
• Manage the annual giving help center requests and triage questions to the appropriate team member.
• Maintain organization and prompt replies to Annual Giving Inbox.
• Log interactions with alumni and supporters in the CRM.

CRM & Campaign Management 

• Create Campaigns in the CRM.
• Understand and adhere to best practices for Campaign creation, working closely with the Data Specialist.
• Import data from our CRM into our engagement platform and from campus partner lists into the CRM.
• Document policies, processes, and procedures.

Required Qualifications:

• 2+ years of relevant work/internship experience.

 Other Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent combination of education and work experience.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and strong attention to detail.
• Ability to judge the relative importance of issues and act independently to address them, applying the appropriate level of urgency to achieve results.
• Strong customer service mentality.
• Curiosity, a proactive nature, persistence, flexibility, dependability, tact, poise, professionalism, and diplomacy.
• Ability to work effectively with a team in an entrepreneurial environment and interact well with all internal and external constituents.
• Ability to remain calm under pressure; prioritize and manage many, sometimes competing tasks, and maintain confidentiality.

At WFAA, we are dedicated to creating an inspiring, creative, and respectful work environment for our employees. We offer competitive pay and an outstanding benefits program, including a generous 10% 401k contribution after just one year of service! Join us and be part of a team that values your growth and well-being. Click here to learn more about our employee benefits! 

*The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association is an Equal Opportunity Employer *The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association (advanceuw.org) is the “doing business as” name of the merged organization comprising the University of Wisconsin Foundation (supportuw.org) and the Wisconsin Alumni Association (uwalumni.com). Its legal corporate name is registered as the University of Wisconsin Foundation.