Advancement/Office Assistant

Reference
1097412

Branch
University of Surrey

Start date
16/04/2026

Duration
3 Months

Hours and days
28.8 hours per week - days and times to be determined.

Dress code
Smart Casual

Rate of pay
£14.97

Holiday rate
£1.81

Role
The University of Surrey are seeking an Advancement/Office Assistant.

This varied role provides administrative support to the Advancement Leadership Team (ALT) –comprising of the Director of Advancement, Associate Director, Philanthropy, Associate Director and Alumni and Supporter Engagement. 

Duties will include arranging and preparing senior staff travel (UK and overseas), submitting expense claims, completing travel card logs, diary management, arranging meetings and supporting with visits to campus from donors and prospects.

The post will also assist with tasks relating to database updating, proposal and report generation, arranging team meetings and training.

£14.97 per hour.

£1.81 per hour holiday pay.

28.8 hours per week.

This is a temporary role starting as soon as possible for 3 months.

Duties and responsibilities

1. Arranging travel for the Director of Advancement and senior team in the UK and overseas, ensuring that all University policies are followed, including the processing of expenses and credit card claims. To include collating and producing travel itineraries and booking meetings, facilities, transport and make all necessary arrangements. 

2. Update the CRM database with contact reports and prospect event attendance following international trips and/or principal gift fundraising activities. 

3. Support with the briefing, creation and formatting of proposals and reports to support principal gift fundraising. 

4. Assisting the Leadership Team to organise internal and external meetings, including booking meeting rooms, organising catering and collating any meeting documents as required.  

5. Providing administrative support in preparation for key events and visits including VIP visits, booking catering and liaising with internal and external suppliers. 

6. Providing diary management support for ALT. 

7. Provide support to ALT with transactions between the team and IT Services, Finance and deal with confidential enquiries to Human Resources. 

8. Raising purchase orders as requested by ALT. 

Skills and experience

Essential 

1. Appropriate experience of building good relationships with people.
2. Appropriate experience of varied communication tailored to the appropriate audiences.
3. Working knowledge of MS Office, Internet and Databases.
4. Accuracy and attention to detail.  

Location
University of Surrey

Additional information

Planning & Organising

The post holder will be required to plan overseas travel arrangements for ALT ensuring they have all the relevant documents for their country of travel, all internal approvals have been obtained and any visa applications have been processed in a timely manner. The post holder will also be responsible for submitting expense claims following overseas trips for both cash and credit card expenses and raising purchase orders for the Advancement Team.

The post holder will also arrange meetings for ALT. This will include finding and booking suitable meeting rooms, booking catering, making restaurant reservations, collating meeting documents and distributing as required by ALT. 

Problem Solving & Decision Making

To ensure consistency and quality of the support delivered across the department, the post holder will regularly review and add to the established processes and procedures to help the Advancement team work to provide high standards of service to our alumni audience. They are expected to exercise sound judgement and demonstrate initiative in terms of ensuring that the requirements of the department are implemented effectively and that they are maintained in accordance with standards set by university policy, procedures and legislation.   

Continuous Improvement

The University of Surrey currently holds a database of over 155,000 graduates including UK and overseas alumni, honorary graduates, friends of the University, retired staff.  The post holder will act as a point of contact for any general enquiries from this international alumni base, recording these accurately on the Raiser’s Edge database, and will need to keep updated on the priorities of the team to be able to answer enquiries efficiently. 

 

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