Alumni Guest Relations Specialist in Fort Collins, Colorado at Colorado State Univ Foundation

Position Summary

The Alumni Center Guest Relations Specialist is responsible for ensuring positive guest experiences for alumni, members, donors, students, and friends who visit or contact the Iris and Michael Smith Alumni Center and take advantage of its services. They will manage a wide array of unit operations and administrative functions, support Engagement Leadership Team members, and supervise Guest Relations and Event Services student interns. This position will work closely with the Alumni Center Event Manager to support and staff special events hosted in the Alumni Center.

Position Information

• Position Title: Alumni Center Guest Relations Specialist
• Organization Name: Colorado State University Foundation
• Department / Program: Alumni Association
• Employment Type: Full-time
• FLSA Status: Non-exempt
• Location: Based in Fort Collins, CO, fully in-person
• Salary Range: $60,000 - $65,000 annually

Organizational Overview

Located in the beautiful town of Fort Collins, Colorado, Colorado State University is a premier land-grant institution with world-class programs in education, outreach, and research. CSU has a student body of over 34,000 students, 7,400 employees, 271,000 living alumni, and annual research expenditures exceeding $498 million. The Colorado State University Foundation is in the midst of exciting growth as the University Advancement division of CSU transitions to the Foundation. This merger will allow us to more effectively serve our donors, alumni, and stakeholders with a more unified structure, strengthen accountability, and build the capacity to scale our fundraising enterprise. With one of the leading development teams in the country, we most recently achieved our highest fundraising year to date in 2025, and our most successful Day of Giving in dollars raised in 2026. The CSU Alumni Association is part of the CSU Foundation and facilitates meaningful relationships between alumni and the University. The Alumni Association strives to celebrate the success of our alumni, build an emotional connection back to CSU, and help alumni to identify connections that are meaningful to them. The Iris and Michel Smith Alumni Center serves as a place of pride and home base for alumni when they return to campus as well as a gathering space for alumni and student programs and events.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Direct, manage, and continually improve the Alumni Center Guest experience. This includes interacting with visitors, answering phone calls, emails, and managing responses to all forms of communication funneled through the front desk.
• Responsible for opening/closing the Smith Alumni Center and staffing the front reception desk. Standard hours are 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Occasional evening and weekend shifts may be required to accommodate special events (i.e. Commencement, Homecoming, etc.)
• Serve as backup to Engagement Operations Coordinator in answering CSUF phone and email.
• Actively improve on the inclusivity of the Smith Alumni Center, ensuring that the space is welcoming to guests of all backgrounds.
• Recruit, train, supervise, schedule, and evaluate student intern staff.
• Serve as the liaison with professional staff for assigning project support to student interns. Responsible for coordinating and prioritizing assignments, maintaining deadlines, and disseminating relevant information to student interns, ensuring they have the proper resources for both day-to-day guest relations and special project work.
• Manage the gift acknowledgement process for Alumni Association donations. Includes pulling reports, printing appropriate cards/letters, coordinating signatures, etc.
• Maintain proficiency in the CRM system, ascend, to accomplish assigned tasks.
• Assist unit leaders on tasks such as scheduling retreats and trainings, financial processing, and special project support.
• Work closely with the Alumni Center Event Manager to provide a positive event day experience for rental clients using the space. Serve as back up for monitoring emails to group mailbox when needed.
• Administrative support for the Rams Travel program and other special projects as assigned.
• Actively participate in growing membership, license plate sales, sponsorship, and revenue partnerships. All Alumni Association employees share a responsibility to meet and surpass Association revenue goals.
• The Alumni Center Guest Relations Coordinator will supervise 4-6 interns.

Minimum Qualifications

• Associate degree or equivalent educational background
• Minimum of 2 years of progressive administrative, front office experience that includes customer service
• Experience supervising the work of others, such as interns or volunteers
• Demonstrated organizational and time management skills
• Must have access to reliable transportation

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution
• Experience supervising professional staff
• Ability to prioritize tasks effectively, with a strong attention to detail and accuracy
• Experience with ascend, Salesforce, or other CRM system
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to listen carefully to and understand customers’ needs, both internally and externally, and proactively respond to those needs in a consistent and timely manner
• Ability to work independently and within a team environment.
• Ability to work cooperatively to achieve common goals; support cooperation, collaboration and the sharing of information while providing the best quality product available and continuously upgrade standards to maintain quality, in all areas of responsibility.
• Understanding of database management, gift processing and donor relations.
• Experience working in higher education or alumni relations

To be fully considered for this position please submit your application using the link Below. This is to ensure that we receive all required materials for the role.

Link: https://recruiting.paylocity.com/recruiting/jobs/All/1dcea208-441a-4c16-bccf-00a0f1804f6d/Colorado-State-Univ-Foundation

We are committed to supporting the holistic health and well-being of our employees. Our comprehensive benefits package includes medical, dental, vision and retirement plans; generous paid time off; and a robust Employee Assistance Program.

CSU Foundation is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) it is our policy to provide reasonable accommodation when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with a disability unless such accommodation would cause undue hardship.