Staff Assistant, Major & Leadership Gifts, Duke Alumni Engagement and Development (AED)

Occupational Summary

Perform administrative, organizational, and administrative duties of a complex and confidential nature in support of departmental or divisional activities to maintain efficiency. Position provides support to the AVP for Major Gifts Programs and reports to the Director of Administration & Operations for Major Gifts.

Essential Job Functions

Managing Sr. AVP’s Complex Calendar

• Maintain complex calendar, working with leadership teams across the university to schedule meetings.
• Proactively initiate regular meeting schedules with Sr. AVP, internal staff members, direct reports, other leaders in Alumni Engagement and Development (AED), and external groups or individuals. Manage and protect Sr. AVP’s time, ensuring sufficient time for project development, travel, and other duties.
• Transmit instructions and/or information to and from staff members.
• Serve as liaison with internal and external agencies; make proper referrals as necessary.

Special Project Assistance

• Prepare and edit reports, meeting minutes, donor lists and other spreadsheets of pertinent data, and other documents related to specific programs that fall within the AVP’s oversight. Compile and summarize data and assist in preparing regular and special reports requiring analysis and evaluation of data.
• Develop and/or maintain an information management system on-line, be able to retrieve documents and information about donors, projects, initiatives, performance analyses, benchmarking data.
• Update lists and documents contained in Duke Box or other data management systems to store and share materials.
• Answer questions from colleagues’ university- wide regarding documents, upcoming meetings, agenda items on behalf of the AVP and/or in the AVP’s absence. Create, edit, and maintain lists for various purposes such as data on donors from schools and units related to special and interdisciplinary projects and programs.
• Independently reach out to colleagues in other schools and units to obtain or share information, ensuring data is correct.
• Draft confidential email, correspondence, reports, and memos for the Sr. AVP as needed.
• Attend meetings as necessary.

Donor Contact and Travel Arrangements

• Interact and communicate with donors via email, telephone, or in person to schedule meetings, share information, respond to requests and other tasks. Monitor and edit call lists, watch lists, and update ongoing database of possible donors and prospects.
• Handle logistics of the Sr. AVP’s meetings with donors, both on and off campus. Access DADD, Enquire and other programs and resources as needed to obtain information and prepare meeting materials. Generate reports, review giving details and prepare proposals in preparation for Sr. AVP’s meetings with donors.
• Coordinate schedules with offices of Vice President of Development, Deans and other staff to arrange meetings with donors ensuring details and logistics are complete and accurate.
• Prepare and reconcile travel expenses and reimbursements.
• Coordinate trip preparation and travel arrangements, including establishing the itinerary, making flight and hotel arrangements. Anticipate and identify appropriate supporting documentation and briefing materials such as research materials and historical gift, biographic and prospect information.
• Interact and communicate with donors via email, telephone, or in person to schedule meetings, share information, respond to requests and other tasks. Monitor and edit call lists, watch lists, and update ongoing database of possible donors and prospects.
• Utilize the moves management database to enter moves and solicitations and check the accuracy of reports consisting of moves management data.

Meeting Planning & Preparation

• Schedule, plan and coordinate meetings, proactively and independently anticipate the Sr. AVP’s needs for meetings. Maintain tracking system for regularly occurring meetings.
• Compile emails, documents, and other information to prepare agendas, prepare materials, power point presentations, and other documents for meetings and proactively distribute such materials prior to meetings if necessary.
• Secure meeting locations, contact vendors for necessary catering orders, schedule delivery, and ensure technical needs are met for meetings. Prepare necessary documents for supervisor's use in meetings; may attend meetings to take minutes or provide information as requested.
• Advise or direct clerical personnel in the department; make work assignments and review work for accuracy and completeness.

General Administrative Duties

• Provide answers to questions concerning departmental or divisional activities. Assist in the ordering and maintaining supplies for Major Gifts Programs.
• Screen and route mail and documents; respond or bring them to the AVP's attention, based on content of communication and knowledge of departmental programs and activities. Review reports received for the Sr. AVP check and compare with source documents and bring significant items, changes, errors, or omissions to the Sr. AVP’s attention.
• Prepare letters and statements, a portion or all of which may be composed or compiled on the basis of personal knowledge of subject matter. Produce letters, reports and records that are grammatically accurate and conform to established procedures and factual correctness.

Required Behavioral Competencies

• Attention to Detail: Accurately maintains schedules or calendars to monitor details for more complex assignments or projects. Regularly follows up with others to ensure information is complete. Work requires no review.
• Collaborating with Others: Ability to work collaboratively, formally and informally, within one’s team and across the organization. Determines people who are critical to accomplishing results and brings them together to problem solve or share workload.  Listens actively to others to gain clarification and build agreements.
• Planning, Prioritizing and Multitasking: Identifies and categorizes assigned tasks based on level of importance and urgency with little supervision.
• Curiosity and Information Seeking:  Personally investigates the problem or situation.
• Initiative: Acts and works independently, taking prompt action to accomplish objectives. Responds in an appropriate timeframe when presented with a problem. Requires limited prompting.
• Provides Excellent Customer Service: Received customer feedback and responds positively, reviewing own performance. Understand customer needs and provides customer satisfaction. Is able to give timely advice in response to enquiries from customers. Treats customers courteously.
• Dealing with Ambiguity:  Effectively copes with change and shifts gears comfortably. Decides and acts without having the total picture.
• Decisiveness & Judgement:  Uses sound judgment to make appropriate, timely decisions in moderately complex situations where information may be missing. Knows when to escalate a decision to a higher level.
• Flexibility:  The ability to adapt to and work effectively with a variety of situations, and with various individuals or groups.
• Listening:  Attentive to the speaker's message. Attentive to verbal and non-verbal cues that lead to deeper understanding.  Asks questions which clarify speaker's message.

Required Skills

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Programs: Calendar, Excel, Word, PowerPoint Superb attention to detail.
• Demonstrated ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously and deadlines. Demonstrated ability to work autonomously and as a member of a team.
• Demonstrated high level of initiative and motivation. Outstanding communication skills, tact, and diplomacy.
• Demonstrated ability to handle sensitive and confidential information and issues on a daily basis.
• Must be able to communicate professionally and confidently with a wide variety of constituents, Duke University administrators, university donors, fundraising leadership, and university colleagues.

Minimum Qualifications

Education

Work requires a broad knowledge of clerical and accounting principles and practices normally acquired through two years of post-secondary education in administrative support or a related business field.

Experience

Work generally requires four years of related secretarial/clerical experience to acquire skills necessary to administer complex office functions related to office management, communications, and budgetary/accounting activities OR AN EQUIVALENT COMBINATION OF RELEVANT EDUCATION AND/OR EXPERIENCE 

Duke is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status.

Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.

Essential Physical Job Functions: Certain jobs at Duke University and Duke University Health System may include essentialjob functions that require specific physical and/or mental abilities. Additional information and provision for requests for reasonable accommodation will be provided by each hiring department.