Philanthropy Specialist, Foundation and Corporate Relations

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston is one of the world's most respected centers focused on cancer patient care, research, education, and prevention. It was named the nation's No. 1 hospital for cancer care in U.S. News & World Report’s 2022-2023 rankings. It is one of the nation's original three comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute.

As an important member of the Foundation and Corporate Relations administrative support team, the Philanthropy Specialist provides high level administrative support and executes on various process-oriented tasks for a group of gift officers. Utilizing self-direction and strategic thinking, this administrative professional will balance simultaneous requests and projects for multiple gift officers, prioritizing and executing in appropriate sequence on a variety of administrative responsibilities and tasks associated with fundraising portfolio management. The ability to manage task switching across multiple, competing projects for varied stakeholders and bringing all work to resolution with timeliness and a keen attention to detail and completeness are core requirements for this position. 

Central to all activities is to support the gift officer’s donor engagement activities through facilitating internal and external meetings, site visit preparation and providing thorough follow-through on all related follow up deliverables for the assigned gift officers. Additionally, this team member will not only leverage partnerships with division service lines such as Donor Communications, Donor Relations and the Data Analytics and Business Processes teams on engagement tasks and projects, requiring the comprehension of project content and deliverables, but also with external relationships with faculty and their teams on the execution of donor-related activities.

The Philanthropy Specialist will support data integrity and data stewardship, recording all relevant correspondence, actions and tasks in the CRM in agreement with established business processes and procedures. This team member will utilize strong anticipatory and critical thinking, independent judgement and problem-solving skills. It is essential that this team member have strong customer-service skills to successfully interface with internal and external constituencies, such as faculty members and foundation staff.

The ideal candidate will be available to work a hybrid (onsite/remote) position that requires onsite work based on business need.

KEY FUNCTIONS

Philanthropic Business Support (60%)

Support of donor relationship development activities (including site visits), tracking and delivery of strategy. Knowledge of donor stages and life cycle, moves management and engagement activities. Ability to anticipate next steps and prepare accordingly, proactively approach work, ability to effectively communicate with internal and external stakeholders. Possess organizational, time management and event coordination skills. Detailed focus with proficient writing and proofreading skills. Ability to prioritize the care of donors. Knowledge of when and how to request and coordinate services from internal partners for report generation, donor prospect research, donor prospect management and donor communications.

·         Operate additional databases beyond CRM for grant-related activities, including reviewing institutional databases to cross-reference and audit our CRM entries on funded grants submitted by the FCR team staff. 

·         Coordinating site visits for donors/prospects at the institution in collaboration with the Philanthropy Administrator and team members; prepare meeting materials, complex calendaring, logistics, as needed. 

·         Create and monitor research requests and maintain confidential information on donors/prospects and ensure proper filing and use of information. 

·         Submit grant application forms as required by foundation and corporations. 

·         Complete special projects, as needed. 

Administrative Support (20%)

Department or donor moves management administrative support (narrow component of data entry), patient schedule monitoring and lookup, calendar and meeting schedule management (external and internal stakeholders) across multiple gift officers or professional staff.

·         Schedule appointments and effectively manage multiple calendars.  

·         Work with internal and external constituents to arrange meetings, appointments and maintain complex meeting schedules, especially recurring events. 

·         Complete all service-related request forms, such as for changes in the CRM, donor communications requests related to proposals or letters to donors, stewardship reports, and others as appropriate.

·         Prepare/proofread/edit correspondence, as needed. 

·         Maintain filing systems (electronic and hard copy-based documentation), generate/authorize/track routine forms and correspondence; handle incoming/outgoing mail. 

Administrative Portfolio Support (20%)

Portfolio activity and donor outreach support (portfolio mass mailings with correlating data entry and mail merge, individualized donor outreach by portfolio [birthday cards, donor anniversaries and other milestones, donor summary reports, etc.], CRM updates, readily completes Philanthropy Operations support request according to portfolio activity need [research, prospect management, business solutions requests, gift designation account changes) across multiple gift officers. Travel and expense management as needed. Possesses knowledge of appropriateness, timing and urgency.

·       Create/update/maintain detailed constituent profiles on foundations, corporations, and their related staff in our donor constituent relationship management (CRM) database. Intensive data entry is expected of this role to follow guidelines, policies and procedures as established by data governance team in the division. 

·       Provide support to a team of Foundation and Corporate Relations fundraisers in entering contact reports, site visit related notes in our CRM. 

·       Manage accuracy of donors/prospects information entry into database to ensure the integrity of system and collaborate with Prospect Research and Management to ensure accurate and timely data input. Assure that pertinent donor/prospect and faculty interaction information is entered in a timely manner. 

·       Manage travel and meeting related expenses for the team, including managing invoices, submitting expense reports and helping with travel-related bookings for visits with foundations and corporations.