Advancement Services Associate

Position Summary

The Advancement Services Associate (the Associate) plays a key role in enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of North Central College’s fundraising and engagement activities. Reporting to the Director of Advancement Services, this position ensures donor and gift data integrity in the CRM database. The associate will track and ensure that the contributions to the College, primarily monetary and from a variety of channels, are promptly and accurately recorded, processed, and acknowledged. The associate will regularly provide the Advancement staff with the current status of fundraising efforts and interact with other institutional offices to represent their activities using best data practices. The person in this position will provide recommendations to solve data issues to ensure alumni and donor data integrity. The Associate will coordinate prospect research, proposal development, pledge agreements, gift processing, and stewardship. Operationally, the Associate will assist in standardizing best practices and core processes across the department. Additionally, this role will support other initiatives to help the College achieve its fundraising goals.

Description of Key Responsibilities

1. Maintain an efficient and effective data-driven philanthropic activity management system, and support key fundraising initiatives and campaigns.
2. Perform data updates for alumni, parents, friends, corporations, foundations, and churches within the appropriate systems. Updates are sourced from returned mail, address change requests, and information provided by other college departments.
3. Maintenance of the CRM database including data accuracy, integrity, and protection, and identify challenges and solutions that may lead to training appropriate college staff.
4. Recognize and identify key campaign and contribution data elements and assist in Institutional Advancement tracking and reporting initiatives, such as the Day of Giving.
5. Perform gift-related entries, provide reports on a daily basis, link gifts to existing proposals as well as develop thank you letters, receipts, and correspondence.
6. Assist with the matching gift program, comprising of form submissions and report execution through a variety of third-party portals and company platforms.
7. Partner cross-functionally with campus offices, including the Business Office and Financial Aid, to identify electronic payments, accounting accuracy, and reconcile outstanding items from various sources and payment methods.
8. Process online contributions from third-party sites through the creation of new giving form pages, and provide insight on the usage of the sites for numerous campaigns and events.
9. Partner with internal constituencies regarding mail pieces and other data requests pertinent to gift entry as part of the department’s annual and campaign communication/solicitation/engagement sequences.
10. Communicate with constituents of the College to satisfy various donation-related needs, including but not limited to annual giving statements.
11. Leverage wealth screening, research tools, and industry best practices to research and analyze prospects for annual and major gift cycles.
12. Evaluate and synthesize research results to develop thorough and accurate donor profiles for gift officers and college leadership to inform strategic donor pipeline development.
13. Monitor news, trends, and wealth events to maintain up-to-date intelligence on high-net-worth individuals and potential donors.
14. Ensure discovery research is completed regularly, accurately, and according to ethical, APRA, and NPF standards; ensure research is documented in the CRM.
15. Oversee processes and procedures for the hard copy filing system relating to constituent groups.
16. Perform other job-related duties and tasks as appropriately assigned.