Associate Director for Collaborative Fund Management

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the subject matter expert for collaborative fund management across UW Medicine and external partners, helping align expectations, timelines, and processes for complex philanthropic transfers.
• Build and oversee financial processes and systems to improve fund transfer workflows, documentation, tracking tools, and reconciliation practices to promote efficiency, transparency, and audit readiness.
• Translate donor intent and gift agreement terms into compliant fund structures within University financial systems, ensuring funds are set up for effective stewardship and use.
• Partner with finance teams to design fund structures for complex, multi-unit gifts and create practical tracking mechanisms for endowed, current-use, conditional, matching, or dividend-bearing funds.
• Act as the first-line resource for fund distribution and spending questions from department and division partners, providing guidance on gift purpose and allowable use.
• Advise Advancement colleagues and gift officers on the financial and operational implications of complex gift structures, escalating sensitive or high-risk issues when needed.
• Document, templates & policy development: Develop and maintain documentation for collaborative gift agreements that require ongoing operational oversight, helping teams work from shared, accurate information. Create templates, standard operating procedures, and process maps—and contribute to policy development—to improve consistency, clarity, and long-term operational sustainability.
• Cross-functional collaboration & communication: Collaborate closely with University treasury, Advancement finance, School of Medicine finance, hospital finance, and external partner finance teams to support shared goals and workable solutions. Participate in partnership planning conversations and contribute financial language to memoranda of understanding and related documents as needed.

Application Requirement

This recruitment requires a cover letter. Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in business, communications, nonprofit management, or a related field, or comparable work experience, and four or more years of experience in complex administration, project management, fundraising operations, and/or finance operations within a nonprofit, higher education, or healthcare setting.
• Demonstrated use of sound project management methodologies and tools, with the ability to develop standard processes, write supporting documentation, and implement methodologies.
• Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to work independently, think analytically, solve problems, set priorities, and manage multiple projects effectively.
• Experience collaborating with colleagues across large, complex organizations and building strong working relationships with stakeholders with differing needs and priorities.
• Strong interpersonal and customer service skills, including the ability to communicate openly, directly, and professionally to foster dialogue and resolve differences effectively.
• Demonstrated ability to work as part of a team, meet deadlines, handle varied responsibilities—including administrative tasks—and maintain confidentiality.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams), with the willingness and ability to learn the UW donor CRM, Workday Finance, and related UW accounting and finance systems.

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of gift fund structures and characteristics, such as endowment, current-use, and discretionary funds.
• Familiarity with Workday or comparable financial management systems, donor databases, CRM systems, and Asana or comparable project management software.
• Knowledge of federal, state, and UW gift compliance policies.
• Experience supporting multi-entity or cross-institutional agreements or partnerships.

About the Team

The passionate, 95-person UW Medicine Advancement team works collaboratively to connect donors with meaningful opportunities that enhance patient care, expand educational opportunities, and advance research across UW Medicine. In fiscal year 2025, UW Medicine Advancement raised nearly $382 million in gifts and private grants from more than 30,000 donors in support of this mission.

The Collaborative Fundraising Team creates the strategies, systems, and relationships that make partnership possible and productive. Working closely with fundraisers, leadership, faculty, clinical leaders, University Advancement, and external affiliates, the team helps spark new ideas, strengthen collaboration, and connect shared missions and resources to amplify philanthropic impact.