Development and Alumni Communications Professional

Chartered by the state of Georgia in 1785, the University of Georgia is the birthplace of public higher education in America and the state’s flagship university. UGA is currently ranked among the top 20 public universities in U.S. News & World Report. The University’s main campus is located in Athens, approximately 65 miles northeast of Atlanta, with extended campuses in Atlanta, Griffin, Gwinnett, and Tifton. UGA employs approximately 3,100 faculty and more than 7,700 full-time staff, with enrollment exceeding 41,000 students.

Franklin College of Arts and Sciences is the heart of the University of Georgia’s learning environment, advancing new knowledge, research, scholarship, and creative output by faculty, students, and staff in more than 80-degree programs across 40+ units.

About the role

The Development and Alumni Communications Professional supports Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ communications efforts related to development, alumni relations, donor engagement, and college newsletters. This position works as part of the Franklin College marketing and communications team and collaborates with Franklin Development and Alumni Relations, academic departments, school and institute communicators, central Development and Alumni Relations, central Marketing and Communications, and other university partners.

The role requires strong writing and editing skills, sound editorial judgment, project coordination, attention to detail, and the ability to adapt content for different audiences and purposes. The position helps identify, develop, and coordinate alumni, donor, faculty, student, research, and department-level stories for use in development communications, alumni engagement, newsletters, websites, solicitations, event communications, stewardship materials, and related college channels.

Responsibilities

• Support development and alumni communications planning and content coordination
  • Serve as a communications point of contact for assigned development and alumni relations projects within Franklin College.
  • Identify, develop, and coordinate stories, alumni profiles, donor impact narratives, faculty/research highlights, student success stories, and department-level content for use across DAR, MarCom, newsletters, websites, events, social media, solicitations, and related channels.
  • Participate in Franklin MarCom content planning meetings and help identify how upcoming stories, faculty work, alumni relationships, and department priorities may support donor communications, alumni engagement, and college communications goals.
  • Work with Franklin DAR staff, major gift officers, donor relations, alumni relations, academic departments, and central university partners to support annual giving, stewardship, alumni engagement, and related communications priorities.
  • Translate academic, research, donor, and alumni information into clear, compelling, and audience-centered communications.
  • Maintain awareness of upcoming solicitations, campaigns, events, donor priorities, alumni opportunities, and department needs to identify timely communications opportunities.
• Coordinate Franklin College newsletter workflows and content calendars
  • Coordinate assigned newsletter workflows in collaboration with the Franklin MarCom team, Franklin DAR, departments, schools, institutes, and central university partners.
  • Maintain newsletter calendars, production timelines, content trackers, review steps, and related workflow documents.
  • Gather and organize newsletter content from academic departments, DAR partners, faculty, staff, and MarCom colleagues.
  • Review newsletter requests and work with supervisor and team members to determine appropriate timing, audience, channel, and content approach.
  • Identify opportunities to reduce duplication, improve consistency, and align newsletter content with college priorities.
  • Coordinate newsletter content across alumni, donor, department, faculty, staff, student, and external audiences as assigned.
  • Coordinate with part-time, student, freelance, vendor, or shared communications support assisting with newsletter production.
  • Review available newsletter and email performance data and share observations or recommendations with supervisor.
• Develop and coordinate alumni, donor, and advancement communications
  • Write, edit, and coordinate alumni profiles, donor impact stories, stewardship content, solicitation copy, campaign updates, event communications, invitations, web content, newsletter items, and related DAR materials.
  • Support major college and university advancement initiatives, including annual giving campaigns, donor stewardship efforts, alumni engagement campaigns, fundraising priorities, and signature DAR events.
  • Draft and update assigned advancement communications materials, including donor impact stories, solicitation language, alumni profiles, event communications, newsletter content, and web copy.
  • Coordinate with designers, photographers, videographers, freelancers, vendors, or other MarCom colleagues to support written, visual, and multimedia materials.
  • Ensure communications are accurate, timely, brand-aligned, audience-appropriate, and consistent with university and college standards.
• Serve as a communications contact between Franklin MarCom, DAR, and academic units
  • Serve as a communications contact for Franklin College DAR within the Franklin MarCom team.
  • Build and maintain strong working relationships with development officers, alumni relations staff, department heads, school and institute communicators, faculty, central DAR, and central MarCom.
  • Share communications opportunities, story ideas, channel considerations, audience needs, and message recommendations with supervisor and project partners.
  • Help departments identify how alumni, donor, faculty, student, and research stories can support web content, newsletters, engagement, solicitations, and related communications needs.
  • Coordinate communications timelines and expectations across multiple stakeholders to help projects move efficiently from idea to publication or delivery.
• Support communications processes and standards
  • Support improvements to DAR and newsletter communications processes, templates, workflows, calendars, intake systems, and review practices.
  • Follow established standards for alumni profiles, donor impact stories, newsletters, event communications, and solicitation-related content.
  • Support Franklin MarCom efforts to improve content planning, editorial consistency, and brand alignment.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in communications, journalism, marketing, public relations, English, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 2 years of professional experience in communications, marketing, advancement communications, alumni communications, development communications, editorial work, content development, or related work.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in development communications, alumni communications, or related advancement work.

Skills

• Strong writing and editing skills.
• Sound editorial judgment and attention to detail.
• Ability to adapt content for different audiences and purposes.
• Project coordination and workflow management.
• Ability to work collaboratively with multiple stakeholders.
• Proficiency in content planning and coordination.

Schedule

Full-time, Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Evening or weekend work may be required for college, alumni, donor, or university events.

Physical Demands

• Work is primarily performed in an office or hybrid office environment.
• Occasional travel to meetings, events, or off-campus activities may be required.
• Ability to lift or move light event or communications materials up to 25 pounds.