Coordinator, Principal Gifts

Job Details

Description

Rutgers University Foundation (RUF) seeks a creative, ambitious, and results-driven individual to serve as its Coordinator, Principal Gifts. This position will report directly to and support the Senior Associate Vice President, Principal Gifts, on a wide range of special projects, initiatives, and strategic priorities. The Coordinator will collaborate with the Sr. AVP to represent the interests and priorities of Rutgers University Foundation through effective communication, planning, coordination and execution of tasks.

The Principal Gifts Office is responsible for cultivating and securing the institution’s largest, most transformational donations, typically from individuals, foundations, or corporations capable of making significant financial contributions. The office focuses on high-level engagement with donors who are often deeply aligned with the university’s mission, vision, and strategic initiatives. It provides strategic partnerships with fundraisers across RUF, ensuring cohesive collaboration and alignment with the institution’s broader fundraising goals. Additionally, the Principal Gifts Office creates and maintains best practices for engaging this high-value constituency, ensuring that relationships are managed effectively and with the highest standards. The Principal Gifts Office typically accounts for a significant portion of the total money raised by RUF, which makes the Coordinator position critical to the department’s success by delivering essential support, organization, administrative management, and quality assurance, which enables the team to focus on strategic solicitation and engagement opportunities.

Essential Functions

• Provide administrative support to the AVP and the Principal Gifts team, which includes scheduling meetings, data entry, basic research, preparing briefings, and identifying, creating and supplying relevant meeting materials, among other administrative duties
• Offer donor portfolio support to the Sr. AVP including interacting with donors and prospects
• Coordinate and supply administrative needs for a volunteer engagement program
• Serve as a key liaison for the Principal Gifts team, manage and address basic inquiries to the teams
• Support the Principal Gifts team on both donor strategy and project steps
• Support events, meetings, key initiatives as needed
• Create, maintain, and manage production calendar for Principal Gifts and relevant principal gifts events and stewardship activities across RUF
• Maintain and disseminate departmental materials such as the Resource Guide to project managing strategies and instructional materials for fundraisers
• Help identify, prepare, and disseminate reports as needed and help analyze principal gifts data from Foundation database
• Assist with communications to internal and external constituents
• Work in Prophix and manage / process department billing
• Responsible for department’s timesheets
• Build and develop strong relationships across the institution
• Complete work and duties with a high level of confidentiality
• Attend various meetings and report back to the team with overview and updates
• Other duties as assigned

Competency Aptitudes

Leadership

Autonomy

Complexity

Strategy

Education / Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree preferred, and 3-5 years of of progressively responsible experience in a professional office environment, preferably in higher education.

Working Conditions

This position requires clarity of focus while juggling complex projects or deadlines with little physical effort. Will work evenings, weekends, or odd hours to meet organizational commitments. Typical working conditions with an absence of disagreeable elements. This position requires some early mornings and late evenings to accommodate meetings, travel, events, and external constituent’s schedules.

Workplace Arrangements

This is classified as an office-centric hybrid position. Colleagues working under an office-centric hybrid arrangement have a primary workstation in a university or foundation location and are in the office between one and five days a week. The frequency with which they are present in the office depends on their role and function and the interdependency of other functions.

Benefits

Equal Employment Opportunity

It is Foundation policy to provide equal employment opportunity to all its employees and applicants. The Foundation prohibits discrimination against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, creed, age, sex, national origin, ancestry, marital status, familial status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, genetic information, and any other characteristics protected by applicable state, federal and / or local laws. Equal employment opportunity applies to hiring, placement, transfer, promotion, demotion, recruitment, advertising or solicitation for employment, treatment during employment, rates of pay or other forms of compensation, selection for training, layoff, or termination.