Research Officer

Department:	Offices of Development & Alumni Affairs	Effective Date:	June 1, 2001
Grade:	USG 7	Reports to:	Manager of Research

General Accountability

Nature and Scope

Statistical Data

Specific Accountabilities

Creates profiles for individuals, corporations, foundations and other organizations that may be current or prospective donors to the University of Waterloo. These are used by the University President, the Vice-President University Relations, Deans and Faculty Members, Corporate and Peer Volunteers, and Development and Alumni Officers in ODAA in their efforts to solicit funds and cultivate friends for the University. This entails:
collecting pertinent information - biographical, corporate, foundation, financial information such as corporate and individual net worth, giving capacity (both actual and potential), connections and interests - from a wide variety of sources. These include: directories, ODAA paper files, CD-Roms, Websites, Databases - both on-campus (Office of Research Database, Co-op Database, Registrar?s Database, and ODAA?s Benefactor Database) and others, such as the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy and the Financial Post?s Directory of Directors - newspapers and business journals and other resources available in the Porter Library or KPL (eg. Grace Schmidt Room, and the Rare Book Room)
analyzing and interpreting the information to determine what is of importance for the profile - what to include - what to leave out
inputting the information into a concise, readable format that is easily understood
Searches for new individual, corporate and foundation prospects by scanning newspapers and a variety of journals for successful companies and individuals who may have interests which align with University projects needing funding. Clips these articles, or makes notations on the ODAA Benefactor Database for later retrieval. Also clips and notes articles on current donors and friends to add to the pool of information available.
Adds, updates and maintains non-gift information on prospects and donors in the Benefactor Database, and in particular, contact and meeting notes for major prospects. This later task necessitates abstracting one or two pages into several lines of meaningful text. Researches problem corporations that have merged, changed name or have been bought out in order to keep our database records up-to-date and correct.
Weeds and maintains the central paper files for Individuals, Corporations, Foundations, and Projects as necessary.
Orders Directories, Newspapers, Journals and CD-Roms for the Research Unit. Maintains a check-in and routing system for these materials.
Liaises with Records Supervisor to ensure database records are accurate and procedures are adhered to.
May be required to hire, train and supervise casual or work study students.
May be required to oversee/train ODAA staff to handle optical scanning, record storage retrieval and facilitate the office?s transition from paper files to electronic files.
May be called upon to prepare special reports, assist with surveys and other Campaign materials requiring research.
Performs other duties, as assigned.

Research Officer

General Accountability

Nature and Scope

Statistical Data

Specific Accountabilities

Working Conditions