Philanthropy Writer Jobs

Provides daily administrative support to a team of writers and stewardship officers in University Donor Relations and Engagement (UDRE), a 20-person team that delivers customized and comprehensive stewardship, recognition, and engagement for Harvard’s most generous donors. Works independently as well as part of a team to complete major projects, balancing competing timelines and requests. The staff assistant will have access to confidential information pertaining to donors, alumni, and students and must use discretion and diplomacy to safeguard records

Responsibilities

Facilitates smooth day-to-day workflow for all donor relations activities within UDRE, including printing and preparing weekly mailings and keeping detailed, accurate records through daily entries into department’s database.

Serves as the administrative liaison and contact with constituents of UDRE, including donors, principal gift officers, faculty, and Harvard University administrators. Assists with special events held in person as well as virtually as needed.

Schedules and coordinates the use of facilities and online resources for meetings and conferences. Prepares meeting materials and transcribes and distributes meeting minutes. Maintains director’s calendar.

Supports all administrative needs for the department, including ordering letterhead and office supplies, maintaining printers, and distributing mail. Keeps up-to-date training materials for team and documents team’s processes and best practices.

Stays current with new technologies to assist with team’s work and department-wide communications and workflow in a remote environment, attending all training sessions and providing support for team members.

May be called upon to draft, format, proofread, edit, fact-check, distribute, and track correspondence produced by department personnel. May conduct research for narrative reports to donors and draft short donor biographies for internal use.

Functions of position may require an in-office presence once per week as well as occasional work at the office in Cambridge on an as-needed basis to prepare and mail items.

Manages invoice payments, processing credit card and purchase card payments, and travel reimbursements for the department.

The above covers the most significant responsibilities of the position. It does not, however, exclude related duties as needed

Qualifications

• College degree preferred but not required; education beyond high school may count toward experience
• Excellent organizational skills, accomplishing work efficiently with accurate results within a complex and fast-paced environment
• Adept at problem solving and willing to ask questions and to take initiative with minimal supervision
• Flexibility to adapt to changing priorities and ability to work independently to meet deadlines
• Customer service orientation and good judgment to handle sensitive/confidential information with discretion
• Keen attention to detail
• Skill with writing, proofreading, formatting, and editing data and business documents is helpful