Associate Director of Donor Recognition

Posted on 03/05/2025

Washington University of St. Louis

St. Louis, MO

The Office of Donor Relations fosters positive and enduring relationships with donors built on trust and accountability through activities that acknowledge, recognize, and report on gifts, and engage donors in the life of the university. Reporting to the Director of Donor Communications and Recognition, this position will work on projects that demonstrate impact and provide recognition to the university’s most generous donors. In this role, you will help develop segmentation strategies to ensure that donors receive relevant, personalized and inspiring communication about the impact they’re making through their philanthropic contributions. Responsibilities also include planning, organizing, managing, and confirming execution of projects, including defining audience, creating project plans, identifying tasks, and navigating process, risks, milestones, and deadlines.

The position requires an experienced professional with excellent data management, analytical, and project management skills; sound judgement; a keen attention to detail; the ability to master new technologies; and a talent for building effective working relationships with diverse constituencies.

Job Description

Primary Duties & Responsibilities:

Donor Database Segmentation

  • Segment donor database into targeted groups based on factors such as gift designation, amount, frequency, engagement level, and demographics.
  • Build relationships with Data and Analytics team with University Advancement to ensure data requests are accurate and timely.
  • Use CRM (Salesforce) to effectively manage segment campaigns.
  • Create strategies to increase donor engagement by ensuring donors receive the right communication at the right time.
  • Ensure accuracy, integrity, and timeliness of donor data for impact reporting and acknowledgements.
  • Regularly validate and audit donor data to inform on best practices for data entry. Clean data to ensure compliance with communication platforms, like Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
  • Support data set finalization, merge proofing and testing, and assist in resolving any data-related issues.

Project Management

  • Manage project milestones to match delivery of final recipient lists with delivery of communication pieces produced by other teams.
  • Oversee approval process for criteria selection and list validation when appropriate.
  • Manage the production of the William Greenleaf Eliot Society honor roll, a printed publication that recognizes leadership donors to the Annual Fund.

Reporting and Analysis

  • Track and report on the effectiveness of segmentation strategies and communication efforts.
  • Analyze the response and engagement metrics (e.g., open rates, click rates, event participation) to continuously refine segmentation strategies and improve engagement.
  • Provide actionable insights to the Donor Relations teams to guide future strategies and campaigns.

Technology Expertise

  • Act as the subject matter expert on donor communication platforms, like website management (WordPress), Marketing Cloud emails and automations, and donor video platforms, especially as related to the data integrity.
  • Stay current with emerging trends and tools for data analysis, report distribution software, and donor segmentation.

Perform other duties as assigned.

Working Conditions:

Job Location/Working Conditions

  • Normal office environment.

  • Ability to travel to various on- and off-campus locations.

Physical Effort

  • Typically sitting at a desk or table.

  • Repetitive wrist, hand or finger movement.

Equipment

  • Office equipment

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all job duties performed by the personnel so classified. Management reserves the right to revise or amend duties at any time.

Required Qualifications

Education:

Bachelor’s degree

Certifications:

No specific certification is required for this position.

Work Experience:

Relevant Experience (3 Years)

Driver’s License:

A driver’s license is not required for this position.

More About This Job

WashU seeks highly motivated individuals who are able to perform duties in a manner consistent with our core mission and guiding principles.

Skills:

Alumni Relations, Business Interactions, Complex Systems, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Data Analytics, Detail-Oriented, Donor Database, Donor Relations, Donor Stewardship, Effective Delegation, Fundraising, Goal-Oriented, Marketing Automation, Microsoft Office, Oral Communications, Organizing, Project Management Process, Social Interaction, Taking Initiative, Written Communication

Salary Range: $58,400.00 – $99,700.00 / Annually

To apply for this job please visit wustl.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com.