Staff Assistant

About the role

The Staff Assistant on the Annual, Leadership, and Planned Giving team (ALPs), part of the Development and Alumni Relations Office (DevAR), at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), supports giving programs, as well as administrative duties for the Senior Director of Annual and Leadership Giving.

Responsibilities

• Maintain timelines for the annual appeal schedule for multi-channel engagement of solicitations, acknowledgments, and ongoing cultivation and stewardship.
• Aid in data pulls and data management.
• Maintain prospect and pipeline activity for the team.
• Run reports to track progress to goals.
• Maintain benchmarking data.
• Help coordinate logistics for solicitations, including data, mail house timelines, and processing expenses.
• Support the stewardship process and gift acknowledgments, working in collaboration with colleagues across DevAR.
• Maintain and enter all prospect updates in our CRM system.
• Support leadership giving and planned giving activities as needed.
• Prepare agendas, briefings, and meeting materials for the Senior Director of Annual and Leadership Giving officer, using templates.
• Enter contact reports, proposals, and other relevant information into the database.
• Help coordinate logistics for donor visits, small dinners, events, and activities.
• Assist in tracking prospects through pipeline to keep fundraiser focused on fundraising objectives.
• Manage calendars, coordinate regular team meetings, confirm appointments, make travel and accommodation plans, and reconcile officer expenses.
• Enter contact reports in the development database; help maintain records.
• Provide on-site support for local DevAR events, working closely with the Engagement team.
• Provide office support, printing, copying, mailings, filing, etc.
• Prepare correspondence, reports, and other materials using MS Office and development database.
• Oversee external inquiries and requests received through the office’s email inboxes. Respond to inquiries in a timely and professional manner and route as appropriate.
• Perform general administrative duties, including: scheduling projects and meetings; preparing agendas; taking notes during meetings; arranging for faculty, speaker, and staff travel; organizing files; supporting DevAR meetings.

Qualifications

• HS Diploma or equivalent.
• Minimum of 2 years’ full-time work experience in a professional office or equivalent transferable experience.
• Microsoft Office and general computer literacy, including proficiency with standard office software (e.g., Microsoft Office or Google Workspace) and experience with at least one Development CRM (e.g., Advance, Salesforce, Raiser’s Edge, or similar).
• Strong attention to detail and ability to proofread well.

Additional Qualifications and Skills

• Bachelor’s degree preferred.
• Professional, enthusiastic, collaborative, focused, motivated to learn, reliable, able to adapt, and able to work effectively with people from different backgrounds and experiences.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and customer service skills.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, conscientious, and efficient, with the ability to work independently and handle multiple tasks accurately under deadline pressure.
• Accept challenging projects and be eager to develop new skills in a fast-paced and flexible environment.
• Contribute positively to a collaborative team culture that values openness, learning, and shared success across all DevAR functions.
• Participate actively in the GSD campus community and represent the GSD professionally in all settings.
• Ability to thoughtfully employ AI-assisted tools for written communications, data-driven tasks, and workflow efficiencies, while exercising strong professional judgment and ensuring outputs align with institutional standards.
• Experience with Advance CRM and QlikView reporting preferred.
• Possess a sense of humor, high-energy and productive mentality, and a solutions-oriented approach to the work.

Benefits

• Generous paid time off including parental leave
• Medical, dental, and vision health insurance coverage starting on day one
• Retirement plans with university contributions
• Wellbeing and mental health resources
• Professional development opportunities including tuition assistance and reimbursement
• Commuter benefits, discounts and campus perks