Harvard Alumni Affairs Boosts Fundraiser Hiring in Bid to Attract Top Donors

Harvard’s Alumni Affairs and Development office is bringing on more than 20 top fundraisers this fall as it ramps up its solicitation of major donors.

The office told staff internally over the summer that it planned to bring on more donor-facing fundraisers, according to two AA&D staff members, though the job searches were made public in batches.

Some staff were told at a June meeting that Dean of Faculty Arts and Sciences Development Michael J. Faber personally received funding from FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra to support several of the new frontline positions, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

Two of the open positions — senior executive director for University development and senior director for principal gifts — are for roles made vacant by internal promotions earlier this summer. Six other ongoing searches are for roles on the office’s major gifts, fundraising support, and Harvard College Fund teams.

The hiring push comes as the development office redirects its focus toward major gifts, one of the staff members said. Two of the open roles will support the Harvard College Fund, which the University is using to recruit new donors into its contribution pipeline, the staff member said.

AA&D spokesperson Cameron Wolfsen declined to comment, citing a policy against commenting on personnel matters.

A newly-created assistant director of development role will directly cultivate members of the Women’s Philanthropy Initiative. The recently formed group of top female donors together gave $16 million to the fund last fiscal year — nearly 20 percent of the fund’s total earnings over the period, according to figures shared at their March summit.

The Harvard Medical School, Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard-Radcliffe Institute are each conducting two searches geared toward major gifts. The Harvard School of Design, Harvard Business School, Harvard School of Public Health, and Harvard Graduate School of Education are also conducting individual searches for major gift officers.

One of the Kennedy School’s openings, a director of principal and major gifts posted on September 11, is aimed squarely at donors abroad. The role would manage a portfolio of 75 to 100 prospects and focus on securing gifts of $500,000 or more, according to the posting. The posting recommends that candidates are proficient in Arabic, Mandarin, and Spanish.

The University has not yet suggested it is planning to pursue a capital campaign — a yearslong fundraising drive that requires significant preliminary coordination. Harvard’s last campaign ran from 2013 to 2018 under former Harvard President Drew G. Faust and hauled in $9.6 billion. The prior campaign, the University’s first to span all of its schools, raised $2.6 billion and was steered by former Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine from 1994 to 1999.

The fundraising overhaul follows a banner year for Harvard’s solicitation efforts.

By April, Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 told major donors in New York that the FAS had already surpassed its $500 million fundraising goal for the fiscal year, according to a person familiar with his remarks, granted anonymity to disclose a private conversation.

Last week, Hoekstra announced that the school had met its goal to raise $100 million for endowed Ph.D. fellowships and was launching a campaign to bring in a second $100 million. The fellowships will support students in both the FAS and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences after the schools slashed their Ph.D. admissions last year.

The Law School also notched a record-breaking start to its fundraising last fall, bringing in at least $61 million through the first half of fiscal year 2026.

The AAD hiring spree comes toward the tail end of a monthslong reshuffling at the development office. In March, Harvard laid off 55 staff from the office and three top leaders have departed this year amid an office-wide restructuring intended to centralize fundraising operations.

Over the summer, the office announced a new two-day in-office requirement for roughly 150 employees, set to take effect in October. The plan drew sharp pushback from staff who said it violated their flexible-work contracts.

Harvard has spent nearly 18 months trying to shore up its finances as the Trump administration pursues various campaigns to cut off the University’s access to federal money. The Medical School was directed to cut research spending by at least 20 percent, and other schools have made cuts of their own.

The FAS shed 165 jobs this summer and overhauled its administrative structure to reconcile a $365 million structural deficit.

The University’s funding sources remain on shaky ground. A district court ruling that restored nearly $2.7 billion in the University’s federal funding is pending appeal before the First Circuit. The University has also estimated that a newly hiked endowment tax — which goes into effect this fiscal year — could cost Harvard around $200 million annually.

—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at hcc.35. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.

—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at elisespenner.82. Follow her on X @EliseSpenner.