Position Summary
University Advancement is seeking an Executive Staff Assistant to provide high-level executive and administrative support for the Associate Vice President for Development (AVPD). The position supports strategic calendar management, correspondence and executive materials, travel and expense coordination, meeting and event logistics, donor and prospect coordination, and fundraising and stewardship activities. The Executive Staff Assistant serves as a key point of coordination between the AVPD and University Advancement leadership, development officers, donors and prospects, academic and campus partners, and other internal and external constituents. The position requires an organized, collaborative, proactive, experienced, flexible, and enthusiastic professional who demonstrates strong judgment, communication, and customer service skills, exceptional attention to detail, the ability to independently prioritize competing and time-sensitive work, and the discretion required to manage highly confidential information.
Characteristic Duties and Responsibilities
Administrative Support -
- Manages the AVPD’s complex calendar in alignment with strategic priorities, including donor and prospect meetings, University Advancement leadership meetings, travel, events, and internal commitments.
- Independently evaluates and prioritizes meeting requests and competing demands, resolves scheduling conflicts, and ensures appropriate preparation and travel time are protected.
- Drafts, edits, proofs, and formats correspondence, presentations, agendas, itineraries, reports, and other executive materials.
- Proactively coordinates and assembles materials needed to prepare the AVPD for meetings, travel, and events, including agendas, briefings, reports, presentations, background information, and follow-up items.
- Tracks the AVPD’s commitments, decisions, delegated action items, and deadlines; coordinates follow-up and helps ensure timely completion without repeated supervisory prompting.
- Recognizes leadership-facing and time-sensitive work and prioritizes it appropriately, including materials or requests involving the Vice President, University Advancement leadership, Development Team Leads, donors and prospects, and other senior university leaders.
- Communicates proactively when a deadline, deliverable, or commitment may be at risk; identifies competing priorities or barriers and recommends options, next steps, or a revised timeline for the AVPD’s consideration.
- Seeks clarification when the scope, purpose, audience, or desired outcome of an assignment is unclear before proceeding with the work.
- Interacts with donors and prospects, senior university leaders, deans and academic leaders, development officers, candidates, and external partners with a high degree of professionalism, integrity, discretion, and customer service.
- Maintains highly confidential files, records, and centralized electronic filing systems.
- Plans agendas and logistics for meetings and events led or attended by the AVPD and coordinates with participants to ensure materials and follow-up are complete.
- Makes travel arrangements, manages conference registrations, prepares required documentation, and reconciles travel reimbursements.
- Manages and reconciles expenses for the AVPD in alignment with MSU policies.
- Collaborates with the Vice President for University Advancement staff, executive support colleagues, development teams, and campus partners to coordinate leadership meetings, central resources, ticket distribution, events, candidate searches, and other AVPD priorities.
- Attends meetings on behalf of the AVPD when requested and communicates relevant updates, decisions, and action items.
Development Support -
- Schedules donor and prospect meetings on behalf of the AVPD, including complex, multi-party meetings involving university leaders and development teams.
- Initiates and coordinates briefing and donor meeting materials for the AVPD, the Vice President for University Advancement, and other university leaders in collaboration with development officers and units.
- Tracks follow-up from donor meetings, including entering contact reports, coordinating post-meeting correspondence, and monitoring delegated action steps.
- Pulls and develops development, fundraising, portfolio, proposal, donor, and prospect reports for the AVPD’s review and analysis, coordinating with Prospect Development, Advancement Services, and other appropriate partners when more complex analysis is required.
- Forecasts, monitors, and reviews team member reports and unit fundraising activity; identifies missing information, trends, or follow-up needs for the AVPD’s attention.
- Supports donor stewardship and acknowledgment activities and coordinates special donor-related requests as directed by the AVPD.
- Takes a proactive approach to working with the AVPD to help ensure objectives, priorities, and strategic plans are advanced.
Supervision
Reports directly to the Associate Vice President for Development.
Interacts With
University Advancement leadership and staff, development officers, deans and academic leaders, donors and prospects, Alumni Relations and Engagement, Advancement Operations, Spartan Athletics, and other university and external partners.
Responsibility for Health/Safety of Others
No assigned responsibility.
Impact on Programs/Services/Operations
Errors in the dissemination of information to the public or within the University could cause reputational damage, create a serious inconvenience to people within or outside the University, and adversely affect the development of support and goodwill for the University.
Work Environment
Standard office environment. The job requires moderate physical effort and involves sitting in place, viewing a VDT screen, or typing up to 70% of the time.
Minimum Requirements
Knowledge normally acquired through a high school education with course work in word processing, typing, shorthand, and grammar; five to eight years of related and progressively more responsible or expansive University work experience in maintaining account ledgers, word processing, spreadsheet, database, and presentation software; editing, composing correspondence, taking dictation; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Valid vehicle operator’s license is required at the time of hire.
Desired Qualifications
- Five years of related and progressively more responsible experience supporting senior leaders, including confidential office protocol and complex calendaring.
- Demonstrated ability to anticipate executive needs, independently prioritize competing and time-sensitive demands, exercise sound judgment, solve problems, and work effectively under pressure.
- Demonstrated ability to manage assignments from initiation through completion, track follow-up, and communicate proactively when priorities or timelines change.
- Excellent written communication, editing and proofreading, attention to detail, organizational, and customer service skills.
- Experience preparing executive-level correspondence, reports, presentations, meeting materials, and briefing documents.
- Advanced proficiency with Microsoft 365 products and experience with databases and reporting tools; familiarity with Advancement systems and reporting tools is preferred.
- Experience in higher education advancement, fundraising, donor relations, or a comparable executive-support environment is preferred.
- Knowledge of University structure, policies, and procedures and the ability to maintain the highest level of confidentiality and discretion.
- Demonstrated ability to work successfully both independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment.
- Other skills and/or physical abilities are required to perform the duties of the position.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship, age, disability or protected veteran status.