Temporary Alumni Affairs Professional

Cornell University•City of Ithaca, NY

29d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Temporary Major Gifts Associate serves as an integral member of the development team, providing critical support to at least four gift officers, each of whom manages a portfolio of donors or prospective donors with the potential to make gifts between $250k and $10 million. Utilizing excellent writing and organizational skills, the Major Gifts Associate ensures timely and robust communication, project management, research, proposals, donor briefs and letters of agreement as well as gift tracking. The Major Gifts Associate works collaboratively with gift officers, development colleagues, faculty, students, and staff, and plays a vital role in the effort to secure significant support for research programs and Lab priorities from individuals and their personal foundations. This role will ensure that commitments are entered correctly in both Raiser’s Edge and Peoplesoft. Working with the fundraising team, ensure that RE7, Peoplesoft, are correctly updated with donor activity. Creativity, flexibility, and a proactive approach are vital in this role. Major Gifts Associate has excellent communication skills—verbal and written—and demonstrates exceptional integrity. With access to sensitive and confidential information, the Major Gifts Associate maintains a keen sense of accountability, sound judgment, and ethical professionalism in a deadline-driven, high-performing environment. This is a full-time, temporary position at 100% FTE. This is a 6-month appointment with the possibility to extend up to one full year. This position is eligible for a hybrid or in person work arrangement. The university reserves the right to modify, suspend, revoke, or terminate the hybrid work arrangement at any time. Visa Sponsorship is not available for this position. Relocation assistance will not be provided for this position.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and 3 to 5 years relevant experience or equivalent combination
Superior writing skills
Demonstrated experience in producing high-quality deliverables in a deadline-driven, high-performing environment
Ability to communicate clearly and diplomatically with a variety of domain experts
Ability to work with the team and to deliver work on schedule
Ability to translate data and background information into actionable products
Must be self-motivated and able to work independently and be equally capable of working with the supervisor to prioritize projects and to regularly communicate status and progress.
Ability to work in a fast-paced, multi-tasked, team-based environment, to manage multiple competing deadlines

Responsibilities

Under the direction of gift officers, contribute to the cultivation of Major Gift donors
Plan, manage and deliver key action items, follow-up, and project management in the delivery of prospect strategies
Track and document prospect activities, including contact reports, correspondence and stewardship touches as needed
Review list requests from AAD for non-academic donors and ensure timely responses to requests
Ensure accurate tracking in PeopleSoft, Raiser’s Edge and local storage
Understand process for proposals and provide support for creation of documents (LOAs, LOUs, SOIs, and Solicitation Review)
Maintain files of proposals and agreements (LOAs, LOUs, SOIs)
Working with gift officers, request drops/moves to other gift officers and following up if not completed
Processing new donor tracking requests, managing and following
Creating tracking of event/webinar attendees and updating as necessary
Updating proposals and status updates in RE and PS as requested
Closing PeopleSoft Asks, linking gifts, updating expected commitments