Oct 17th, 2024

University of Michigan

States A - M

States N - W

Remote-or-Hybrid

Communications Strategist, Corporate & Foundation Relations

( Michigan | Hybrid )


About the Organization

As the Communication Strategist, Corporate & Foundation Relations you will have two primary responsibilities: strategic CFR communications, and managing intake and project management requests related to funding inquiries. You will help build the internal capacity needed for CFR revenue growth, including enhancing the team's ability to provide information on new prospects and relationships, and communicate with faculty and other team members about opportunities for funding and CFR services.

Job Description

Position salary range:  60,000-64,000

How to Apply:

To be considered a cover letter is required. We encourage you to use the cover letter to showcase your writing skills and highlight your work experience aligns with the requirements of the role. Please be sure to include your cover letter on the same document as your resume.

You must be eligible to work in the United States without requiring university sponsorship for continued employment.

Job Summary:

Firstly, you will oversee strategic CFR communications to the university community and select external team members. Collaborating with CFR colleagues, you will create and share content focused on funding partnership updates, including showcasing Michigan's depth of industry and foundation collaborations across campus. You will also manage and distribute funding opportunities to a broad faculty audience. A critical facet of this role is coordinating a comprehensive communications strategy across central campus, Michigan Medicine, and the Dearborn and Flint campuses.

Secondly, you will play an important function in managing the intake of faculty and program funding requests. This includes developing a process to gather details on faculty funding needs and coordinating prospect research requests with colleagues in and across units.

At the discretion of CFR leaders, you will take on other responsibilities including project management tasks.

You will contribute to OUD's positive culture and follow OUD's values of diversity, equity, and inclusion by developing processes through an equity framework and developing communications materials in a way that speaks to, and is inclusive of, a diverse audience.

You will Report to: Senior Executive Director, Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR)

Why Work at Michigan?

In addition to a career filled with purpose and opportunity, The University of Michigan offers a comprehensive benefits package to help you stay well, protect yourself and your family and plan for a secure future. Benefits include:

Generous time off
A retirement plan that provides two-for-one matching contributions with immediate vesting
Many choices for comprehensive health insurance
Life insurance
Long-term disability coverage
Flexible spending accounts for healthcare and dependent care expenses

Responsibilities:

Strategic Communications (50%)

Manage a communication strategy to share funding announcements, CFR newsletters, corporate and foundation partnerships updates and other relevant information.
Oversee the creation of communication platforms that relay, for example, CFR fundraising success stories, corporate engagement profiles, priority research areas.
Manage CFR internal and external websites and promote these websites as resources for faculty, staff and external partners.
Determine whether a social media communications strategy is justified and implement.
Faculty and program funding requests (30%)

In collaboration with colleagues in CFR and OUD, develop and implement a process to coordinate faculty and institutional funding requests.
Conduct reactive and proactive research, and design new ways to secure information of critical importance to the solicitation of CFR entities.
Manage prospect research requests from faculty and staff
Project Management (20%)

Manage special projects as assigned by CFR team members.

Required Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree and 2+ years working in a higher education fundraising environment or 6 years experience including at least 2 years in higher education fundraising
Experience in communications design and communications software (for example, MailChimp)
Excellent verbal and written skills
Flexibility to meet changing priorities
Strong computing and technical skills, including familiarity with cloud-based tools, word processing, spreadsheets, databases, data visualization tools, and other applications.
Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace