Donor Relations Officer

Pembroke College, Oxford, is seeking to appoint a Donor Relations Officer to play a pivotal role in its fundraising and stewardship programme. This is an exciting opportunity for a motivated individual with excellent communication and organisational skills to contribute to the long-term development of one of Oxford’s most forward-looking Colleges.

Founded in 1624, Pembroke is an inclusive and dynamic College based on a central site in Oxford that joins award-winning new developments with historic quadrangles. The College has ambitious fundraising goals to support scholarships, academic posts, buildings, and other key priorities.

The Donor Relations Officer will work closely with the Development Manager and Development Director to devise and implement a comprehensive stewardship strategy for Pembroke’s major donors. The role involves producing bespoke donor reports, drafting proposals and gift agreements, coordinating stewardship events, and ensuring that donors receive appropriate recognition and communications. The post-holder will liaise closely with the Finance, Academic, and Communications teams, as well as Fellows, staff, and students, to ensure accurate and impactful donor reporting.

This role offers excellent professional development opportunities and would suit someone with a background in alumni relations, fundraising, customer relations or a related field. The successful candidate will have excellent writing, project management and interpersonal skills, be proactive and detail-oriented, and able to manage confidential information with discretion.

Benefits include membership of the University staff pension scheme, 30 days of annual leave, free lunches during working hours when the College kitchens are open, and training and professional development opportunities.

Role Overview

The Donor Relations Officer role focuses on stewardship and proposal writing.  This involves devising a stewardship strategy for major donors, producing reports for donors, and drafting proposals and gift agreements for prospective donors. The post-holder reports to the Development Manager.

Key Responsibilities

The main duties to be carried out by the post-holder include:

Stewardship

• Working with the Development Director and Development Manager, create a stewardship strategy for all major donors, ensuring that everyone receives annual reports on their giving and the appropriate level of recognition.
• Work with the College’s Finance team to obtain annual reports on the status of restricted and endowed funds for inclusion in stewardship reporting.
• Take ownership of the College’s stewardship groups for major donors, namely the Foundation Fellows, Sheppard Circle, and Master’s Circle.  Liaise with the Senior Alumni Relations Officer to create and deliver events for members of these groups and devise ways to further our relationship with them individually and collectively.
• Work with the Accounts Office and Academic Office to ensure that restricted funds are used in accordance with their purpose and to track and report on progress to donors in line with relevant gift agreements and pledges.
• Ensure donors receive appropriate recognition in all relevant College publications and other media and work in close collaboration with the Communications team to ensure donors receive relevant College and Campaign communications.
• Work with the Development team, Communications team, and others in College to create an annual report demonstrating the impact of philanthropy at Pembroke for distribution to donors to the College.
• Identify opportunities to publicise the impact of philanthropy at Pembroke through multimedia communications and digital platforms (e.g., videos, newsletters, digital campaigns).
• Once the programme is established there may be opportunities to undertake face-to-face stewardship meetings with donors.

Proposal writing

• Support the Development Director and Development Manager in drafting bespoke proposals for major donor prospects.
• Assist in the production of fundraising documentation to appeal to potential major donors.
• Make effective use of donor records to ensure proposals and reports are data driven.
• Draft gift agreements for major donors.

Internal collaboration

• Work collaboratively with the wider team and colleagues across Pembroke, supporting work outside your functional area where necessary.
• Build strong internal relationships with relevant stakeholders to ensure the stewardship programme is supported at the highest level.
• Work with Fellows, staff, and students to obtain reports and other stories relating to the impact of donor funding.
• To undertake such other duties as may be reasonably required by the Development Director, which may include travel and event attendance outside standard working hours.