Donor Recognition Officer

Date Posted: 05/27/2025
Req ID: 43073
Faculty/Division: VP - Division of University Advancement
Department: Campaign and Marketing
Campus: St. George (Downtown Toronto)
Position Number: 00050976

Description:

About us:

The Division of University Advancement (DUA) aims to sustain and enhance the University of Toronto’s academic mission, leadership, and worldwide impact, by engaging alumni and private sector constituentsmeaningfully in the mission of the University, building mutually beneficial relationships of increasing value and satisfaction over time.

DUA at the University of Toronto is engaged in a transformative agenda deeply rooted in the University’s vision for growth and innovation. We are focus on growing fundraising efforts; enhancing the effectiveness and satisfaction of alumni engagement and programs; building advancement talent capacity within and across divisions; creating an organization and culture that fosters diversity and inclusiveness.

Your opportunity:

The Stewardship office at the Division of University Advancement (DUA) leads the development and implementation of stewardship programs and services that seek to foster a culture of accountability, service and appreciation to the University’s donors. Our team is responsible for delivering the University's central stewardship programs and providing support and services to divisional advancement teams, with the goal of maintaining a best-practice, industry leading
program and team.

In this role, you will lead the planning and implementation of a comprehensive stewardship and recognition program for donors to the Landmark Project. Landmark is the most ambitious openspace project at the University of Toronto in the past 100 years. To date, over 3,000 alumni, staff faculty and friends have contributed close to $14 million in support of Landmark, which will transform our downtown campus into a greener and more accessible park-like setting and
significantly reduce the campus’s carbon footprint.

Through strong collaboration and project management skills, you will oversee the timely and accurate delivery of over2,500 physical recognition elements across the campus landscape, ensuring a high degree of satisfaction for Landmark donors. You will foster an outstanding donor experience through consistent and meaningful interactions, communications and events. As an integrated member of the Landmark team, you will contribute to donor relations and communications activities in partnership with Annual and Leadership Giving and Advancement Communications and Marketing teams.

In this role, you will also support the Manager, Donor Recognition, and Director, Stewardship Programs and Services, in delivering DUA’s core donor recognition programs and services. This will include support for the planning and execution of major signage projects, the evaluation of new donor naming opportunities, and the management of our database of donor naming opportunities and commitments.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Managing donor relations
• Developing and implementing plans to support donor management and stewardship strategies and/or activities
• Handling sensitive and/or confidential information
• Providing feedback on the planning and implementation of fundraising campaigns
• Writing much sensitive and complex donor-specific stewardship reports
• Conducting complex analysis and evaluative techniques to determine trends/patterns and make recommendations to senior university officials
• Producing complex donor reports
• Generating reports

Essential Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree or acceptable combination of equivalent experience.
• Minimum three (3) years relevant experience in a stewardship, preferably in an advancement or higher education setting.
• Experience participating in or demonstrating knowledge of recognition and stewardship programs is preferred.
• Experience in the development of donor-facing documents, drafting and editing memos, business correspondence, acknowledgements and biographical information.
• Experience in data extraction and generation of reports.
• Experience providing direct service or stewardship to donors, including resolution of complaints.
• Experience implementing physical donor recognition at scale
• Must have strong planning, organization and follow-up skills.
• Demonstrated ability to adhere to a high level of customer service, tact and confidentiality.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects with competing deadlines.
• Ability to work well in groups within large organizations with diverse constituencies, rapidly changing priorities, and tight deadlines.
• Demonstrated advanced knowledge and skills in MS Office, including PowerPoint, Word, Excel.
• Knowledge of ARBOR or related donor management systems is preferred.
• Works effectively with a diverse population of staff, volunteers, donors and external contacts with tact and diplomacy to build and maintain successful relationships
• Ability to communicate tactfully and diplomatically and to negotiate effectively with internal or external clients on complex or sensitive issues

To be successful in this role you will be:

• Diplomatic
• Multi-tasker
• Organized
• Proactive
• Team player

NOTE: This is a sixteen (16) month term position.

Closing Date: 06/05/2025, 11:59PM ET
Employee Group: USW 
Appointment Type: Budget - Term 
Schedule: Full-Time
Pay Scale Group & Hiring Zone:
USW Pay Band 14 -- $90,056. with an annual step progression to a maximum of $115,169. Pay scale and job class assignment is subject to determination pursuant to the Job Evaluation/Pay Equity Maintenance Protocol. 
Job Category: Administrative / Managerial
Recruiter: Fiona Chan

Lived Experience Statement
Candidates who are members of Indigenous, Black, racialized and 2SLGBTQ+ communities, persons with disabilities, and other equity deserving groups are encouraged to apply, and their lived experience shall be taken into consideration as applicable to the posted position.