Donor Relations Officer

The University of Sheffield is a remarkable place to work. Our people are at the heart of everything we do. Their diverse backgrounds, abilities and beliefs make Sheffield a world‑class university. We offer a fantastic range of benefits including a highly competitive annual leave entitlement, a generous pensions scheme, flexible working opportunities, a commitment to your development and wellbeing, a wide range of retail discounts, and much more.

Department/School: Campaigns and Alumni Relations

Contract type: Open‑Ended. Hybrid/Flexible Working considered

Overview

Are you a highly organised and creative individual with attention to detail who enjoys working collaboratively? We have an exciting opportunity to join our stewardship team to support relationships with our major donors. You will ensure their five‑, six‑ and seven‑figure gifts to the University are recognised in an appropriate and timely manner and show impact to encourage repeat giving. Excellent stewardship – or donor relations – is a key area of philanthropy.

As the Donor Relations Officer, you will run the stewardship programme for our growing scholarship scheme, including producing student‑focused impact reports for our community of major donors. This is a great opportunity for the right candidate to make their mark on a new stewardship programme for scholarships. As the cohort of 1,100 donor‑funded scholars grows, you will be expected to critically evaluate and evolve our processes, ensuring our reporting remains both high‑impact and operationally efficient. Overall, your clear and concise written and verbal communication skills, attention to detail, and meticulous process handling will help to inspire our donors, demonstrate impact, and aid future fundraising.

Main Duties And Responsibilities

• Relationship Management and Communications

• Produce customised impact reports that bridge the gap between financial support and real‑world change, weaving together data, student testimonials, and images to produce compelling narratives.
• Act as the primary link between donors and departments, gathering case studies and photos from students and academics.
• Lead the senior leadership 'Thank You' process, ensuring the University’s most significant supporters receive highly personalised correspondence from key signatories.
• Facilitate meaningful connections by helping the Stewardship Manager to coordinate high‑level campus visits and ad‑hoc events that allow donors to witness the firsthand impact of their philanthropy.
• Recruit, brief and manage scholar ambassadors.

• Strategic Project Delivery

• Elevate the donor journey by supporting the Stewardship Manager in designing and delivering a recognition strategy for the close of the University’s first fundraising and engagement campaign “Forged in Sheffield” and beyond.
• Lead the seamless migration of donors from the outgoing scholarship stewardship model to our new, enhanced stewardship framework, ensuring that the process is continuously appraised and improved.
• Develop, organise and deliver annual events for scholarship recipients, educating the next generation on the role of philanthropy.
• Proactively evaluate and refine stewardship processes to ensure the scholarship programme remains scalable and efficient as the cohort grows from 1,100 students.

• Data Integrity and Administration

• Optimise University‑wide recognition of donors, ensuring the accuracy of physical and digital donor recognition, including honour rolls, plaques, and campus signage.
• Using our alumni/supporter database, use data to trigger timely acknowledgements and maintain meticulous records of donor interactions.
• Use data on scholarships and prizes to ensure awards meet the criteria that have been agreed with donors.
• Ensure compliance by auditing gift agreements to ensure every promise made to a donor is tracked, met, and documented.
• Establish ways of working so that consent preferences are recorded correctly and the student experience is at the heart of our stewardship.

• Cross‑Departmental Collaboration

We are a Disability Confident Employer. If you have a disability and meet the essential criteria for this job you will be invited to take part in the next stage of the selection process. A basic DBS check will be needed for this role. Possession of a criminal record is not an automatic bar to employment at the University of Sheffield. We recognise the value of steady employment in the rehabilitation process and examine each case in its own right.