Fund Development Specialists

M-F 8-5 with some evening and weekend hours as needed. Some travel required.

VP Area

VP Area President

Department 00289 - Development

Location Campus

City Salt Lake City, UT

Type of Recruitment External Posting

Pay Rate Range $55,000-$65,000

Close Date 10/31/2026

The Leadership Annual Giving Officer ( LAG Officer) will work closely with individual colleges and units to increase the number of donors and philanthropic dollars raised to support students and learning and strengthen donors’ engagement with the University. Specifically, the LAG Officer will be charged with qualifying, disqualifying, soliciting, renewing, retaining, and upgrading leadership-level donors and identifying major gift prospects for campus partners.

Reporting to the Director of Leadership Annual Giving and Pipeline Development, the LAG Officer will be an integral member of the Annual Giving team. This position with work directly the central University Advancement team to serve and collaborate with the various university partners and stakeholders.

Learn more about the great benefits of working for University of Utah: benefits.utah.edu

• Responsible for a large qualifying pool of up to 600 alumni and donor constituents, focusing on several colleges and schools.
• Work with portfolio daily to move constituents through qualifying, renewal, and upgrade cycles. Actively use phone and written/video communication to continually qualify new donors and cultivate/solicit/steward existing donors.
• Communicate with constituents through phone, email, local in-person, Linked In, mail, Zoom, Thank View, and other industry communication tactics.
• Solicit and close gifts up to but not limited to $5000, while working with campus areas on plans, strategies, and hand-offs.
• Steward donors to strengthen their engagement with the University and work with campus partners to share updates and information.
• Work with prospect research and IS teams to update, adjust, and maintain the donor portfolio. Keep up to date contact reports and records of donor interaction for the university community.
• Stay up to date on annual giving and leadership/major gift trends through professional development and peer networking.
• Represent leadership annual giving at events and invite donors to events virtually and in-person. Help fundraise for special opportunities such as Giving Day matching challenges, etc..
• Collaborate with campus partners to provide donors the best experience and execute a One U strategy. Specifically work closely with academic areas and Central Advancement

EQUIVALENCY STATEMENT : 1 year of higher education can be substituted for 1 year of directly related work experience (Example: bachelor’s degree = 4 years of directly related work experience).

Fund Development Specialists, II: Requires a bachelor’s (or equivalency) + 4 years or a master’s (or equivalency) + 2 years of directly related work experience.

Demonstrated human relations and effective communication skills required.

• Experience with a large complex CRM platform, especially Salesforce.
• Experience working within higher education annual giving or development.
• Experience with negotiating and closing donations or sales.

Special Instructions Summary

The University is a participating employer with Utah Retirement Systems ("URS"). Eligible new hires with prior URS service, may elect to enroll in URS if they make the election before they become eligible for retirement (usually the first day of work). Contact Human Resources at  for information. Individuals who previously retired and are receiving monthly retirement benefits from URS are subject to URS’ post-retirement rules and restrictions.

Please contact Utah Retirement Systems…