WashU IT and University Advancement are working together to develop technology solutions that help Advancement more effectively pursue its mission of securing the financial and human resources WashU needs to support teaching, research and community service.
The partnership brings together University Advancement’s understanding of donor engagement, stewardship and communications with WashU IT’s expertise in data, integration and process improvement through technology. By starting with Advancement’s business needs and identifying where technology can reduce friction, the teams are creating solutions with the potential to improve day-to-day work and give staff more capacity to focus on the relationship-driven activities at the heart of Advancement.
For University Advancement’s Theo Ossinga, Associate Director of Advancement Communications Projects, the value of that partnership extends beyond access to technology.
“The greatest value I’ve gained from the Administrative AI team has been the connections and opportunities they create across the WashU IT landscape,” Ossinga said. “They helped me understand what tools were already available, connected me with technical expertise and created opportunities to collaborate that I wouldn’t have known existed.”
Recent projects show how that partnership can address very different needs.
One example is Awarded, a scholarship management platform designed to improve how donor-funded scholarships are matched and awarded to students. After University Advancement identified the need, the Administrative AI team helped evaluate potential solutions and identified Awarded, a vendor that had been on Advancement’s radar for several years, as well positioned to address the challenge in a space with few comparable options.
The platform is now live, with student surveying and scholarship matching underway. As part of the post-implementation, the teams are also working through data inconsistencies in Student Sunrise that surfaced while integrating official university data into the process.
For Advancement, Awarded has the potential to support more than operational efficiency. Scholarship funds represent commitments from donors to support students and the university. Over time, improving the administration of those funds could help strengthen stewardship, support donor intent and ensure available resources are used effectively.
“Awarded is a strong example of technology and functional teams solving a real institutional challenge together,” said Chief Technology Officer Greg Hart. “By connecting data, we are helping WashU make better use of donor funds and deliver scholarship support to students more efficiently.”
A second example focuses on Advancement communications. Ossinga identified an opportunity to streamline a proofreading process that required staff to manually review a steady volume of communications while applying institutional knowledge, style guidelines and university standards.
“Proofing is something we do a lot, and it relies heavily on institutional knowledge,” he said. “The idea was to create a system with that knowledge built in, while still keeping a human reviewer in the process, so we could streamline the work and save time.”
Ossinga developed a proof of concept, while the Administrative AI team helped connect him with the appropriate enterprise technology, training and expertise. The team also coordinated a Microsoft workshop that gave technical staff and business owners hands-on experience with building agents and helped Ossinga further refine the solution.
The proofreading solution is now being piloted to help communicators review marketing and donor-facing materials for grammar, style, formatting and consistency with WashU communications standards.
The goal is not simply to speed up proofreading. Reducing time spent on repetitive review can give writers and editors more space to focus on storytelling, audience engagement and the relationship-building work that helps connect alumni, parents, friends, corporations and foundations with the university. “We set out to transform how we operate — streamlining efficiency, reimagining the user experience, and building a culture where innovation is the norm, not the exception. What we’ve been able to do with University Advancement is a perfect example of how we can work together in innovative ways to support the university’s mission,” said Michelle Fuertes, Executive Director, IT Digital Transformation and Administrative AI initiative owner.
Although Awarded and the proofreading solution address different challenges, both illustrate a broader value of the partnership: connecting people, expertise and technology around shared needs.
“The Administrative AI team is able to spot where objectives align and quickly identify opportunities to collaborate,” Ossinga added.
Those connections are already opening additional doors. After recognizing similarities between Advancement’s proofreading use case and work underway in WashU Medicine Marketing & Communications, the Administrative AI team connected Ossinga with Gabe Watson, Executive Director Digital Strategy & Analytics at WashU Medicine. The teams are now collaborating on a broader prototype designed for brand compliance with the potential to be adaptable for marketers and communicators across the university.
“That’s been one of the most fulfilling parts of working at WashU—the opportunity to interact with teams outside of my own space,” Ossinga added. “Being able to take my technical skills and interests and have that amplified by another team is very helpful, because I now feel that I am working towards the main mission of the university, but from multiple angles.”
University Advancement’s mission depends heavily on relationships, but those relationships are supported by effective systems, processes and tools behind the scenes.
Through its partnership with WashU IT, Advancement can identify areas where technology can reduce administrative burden, improve quality and help staff focus more time on work that directly supports university priorities.
Taken together, these efforts show the value of looking beyond individual projects to the connections they can create. By bringing together business needs, technical expertise and people with shared goals, WashU IT and University Advancement are not only solving today’s operational challenges — they are opening the door to solutions that can grow, adapt and create value across the university.