Giving

The Advancement Services team provides support to position Advancement and Alumni Engagement for success in relationships with alumni, donors, potential donors, volunteers, and friends.

These support services include alumni and donor communications, biographical and demographic research and reporting, as well as stewardship and donor relations.

We also provide the essential infrastructure and technical support for the development, management and maintenance of alumni and donor constituent information storage and delivery systems.

Advancement Services and Operations

Jessica Comfort

Jessica Comfort

  • Executive Director for Advancement Services and Operations

Specialties

  • Provides strategic leadership to the University’s Advancement and Alumni Engagement information infrastructure 
  • Aligns business support functions, policies and procedures and technology infrastructure with the strategies, resources and priorities of Advancement and Alumni Engagement and the University
  • Leads a team of business, data and research analysts 
  • Supports the stewardship and donor relations team 
  • Responsible for data management, advanced find, report output and dashboard creation within CRM Advance
  • Provides support for the fundraising campaign consulting team
Kevin Kainulainen

Kevin Kainulainen

  • Director for Advancement Services and Operations

Specialties

  • Works with the Advancement and Alumni Engagement team to align technology solutions with business strategies
  • Supports complex business processes, working closely with users to understand their needs, translating those needs into technical/functional requirements, and contributing to quality assurance and training initiatives
  • Creates and executes queries using WebFOCUS, CRM and SQL for reporting
  • Serves as a project lead on large, complex projects involving multiple stakeholders
  • Member of the CRM Advance implementation project team
Cyndi Martin

Cyndi Martin

  • Business Systems Analyst/Data Visualization Specialist

Specialties

  • Supports Michigan Tech’s alumni and donor information systems and working closely with users to understand their data needs
  • Member of the CRM Advance implementation project team
  • Provide ad-hoc reports using Ellucian CRM Advance, WebFOCUS and SQL
  • Liasion for Web Focus Reports for Campus partners
Mike Olson

Mike Olson

  • Associate Director for Strategy and Market Development

Specialties

  • Develops and implements the moves management and strategies relevant to a diverse set of potential donors.
  • Assists in fundraising strategy for special initiatives.
  • Implement specific methods and tactics to expand market potential in high- and ultra-high net worth individuals.
  • Consults regularly with colleagues regarding marketing and outreach programming to identify, qualify, engage, and elevate new prospects and sustaining and legacy donors.
  • Consults with Directors of Advancement to make informed recommendations for strategic qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of managed donors.
  • Actively and strategically manages portfolios and pipelines to maximize donor involvement.
Kari Price

Kari Price

  • Research and Donor Records Manager

Specialties

  • Develops and manages ongoing initiatives to collect and maintain alumni, donor, corporate and foundation data in support of Advancement and Alumni Engagement priorities
  • Conducts biographical and financial research on alumni, friends, corporations, including donors and prospective donors
  • Works closely with the Director of Donor Relations and Stewardship to support mass donor recognition programs and individualized stewardship initiatives. This includes support for annual and lifetime giving society recognition
  • Member of the CRM Advance implementation project team
Shanna Reynolds

Shanna Reynolds

  • Senior Administrative Aide for Advancement Services and Operations
Linda Wittbrodt

Linda Wittbrodt

  • Business Systems Analyst

Specialties

  • Acquire and maintain operational and functional knowledge of all aspects of the current Ellucian Advance CRM, and all other systems required to support the departments serving alumni and donors
  • Design, implement and modify ad-hoc and routine reports using Ellucian Advance CRM and SQL queries
  • Provide CRM Functional/Technical support
  • Assist with the analysis of business processes. Create and maintain user documentation for processes, procedures and reports
  • Work closely with the Executive Director for Advancement Services, raise new issues, communicate the status of issues, and seek direction as needed
  • Assist with maintenance, upgrades, and enhancements of CRM Advance and all systems required to support the responsibilities of Advancement and Alumni Engagement