Development Assistant, Major Gifts
Harvard University
| Company | Harvard University |
| Category | Operations & Admin |
| Location | Cambridge |
| Remote | On-site (inferred) |
| Employment | Not stated |
| Level | Not stated |
| Salary | Not stated by the employer |
| Posted | 11 Aug 2026 |
| Last verified | 12 Aug 2026 |
| Source | The employer's own careers page (company_site) |
Description
Job Description
Job Summary:
The Development Assistant is an integral member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) development team. This full-time non-exempt position supports frontline gift officers to advance the philanthropic mission of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. This is a great opportunity for someone who is interested in building their career within higher education and learn more about alumni affairs and development.
Job-Specific Responsibilities:
• Provides support to all aspects of fundraisers’ prospect management, including data gathering, input and maintenance; drafting prospect outreach, memos, correspondence, and reports.
• Develops and prepares necessary meeting and solicitation materials prior to prospect meetings and supports post-meeting action items.
• Achieves proficiency in the alumni/donor database to research prospects, organize data and produce reports. Enters data in an accurate and timely manner.
• Partners with gift officers to write high quality event briefings, event bios, and donor briefings.
• Maintains various reports to ensure accurate and current information on gift and donor totals, solicitation status, and prospects. Produces reports and lists using the Advance and Qlikview databases.
• Coordinates officers’ travel and expense reports in a timely manner; schedules meetings and maintains calendars; takes and distributes meeting notes and performs other administrative responsibilities as needed.
• Provides customer service to internal and external stakeholders such as donors and/or alumni both domestically and internationally with guidance from manager.
• Cultivates favorable relationships and works closely throughout the year with colleagues across Alumni Affairs and Development to help accomplish department and team goals.
• May help facilitate communications with various FAS constituents from the officers.
• Serves as a resource for policies, protocols and procedures and strategizes ways for fundraising efforts to be more efficient and productive.
• May be asked to provide additional support for the broader Major Gifts team and FAS Development during times of peak activity or staff transition. Works closely with other members of the support team to advance the goals of the department.
• Participates in various team and staff meetings throughout the year and is an engaged member of the team.
• Provides other job-related duties as required.
Working Conditions:
Workplace role requirements outside of campus-based engagements required by AA&D/team or unit, such as reunion activities, retreats, etc. We will do our best to give you up to 2 weeks’ notice of these situations.