We are a team of optimists and believers: dreamers and doers who come to work each day knowing that if we do a good job, someone else’s life will be better. We believe commitment matters, relationships and partnerships make us all stronger, and people rally around big ideas.
Those truths are the core of University Advancement. We know that when donors and the university come together to enlighten and explore, the beneficiaries are families and communities and people the world over. We engage alumni and students, parents and friends, foundations and corporations to partner with UF and move the university forward. And, more importantly, to address the things that are important to UF and its donors. Things like scholarships for Gators who might otherwise be left out because of college costs, professorships that attract and retain faculty stars, initiatives that empower the university to focus on real issues and societal problems, and innovative research that changes how our families and neighbors experience life.
UF Advancement bridges the gap between great and exceptional. State funding alone is roughly 18 percent of the university’s annual budget; private giving is often the difference in doing or not doing, exploring or not exploring, discovering or not discovering, solving or not solving.
Maria Gutierrez Martin
Vice President for UF Advancement
Maria Gutierrez Martin is an experienced higher education fundraising leader. She joined the University of Florida more than 15 years ago and now serves as Vice President of UF Advancement and Executive Vice President of the UF Foundation, Inc.
As UF’s senior advancement officer, she oversees a team of over 350 professionals whose efforts have contributed to the growth of the university’s $2.5 billion endowment and helped raise $500 million in each of the past two years. Martin provides innovative and strategic leadership for a wide range of initiatives, programs and day-to-day functions within UF Advancement, connecting donor passions and resources with UF’s mission to serve Floridians and the global Gator Nation.
Her leadership role spans annual, major, principal, mega and planned gifts; alumni and donor relations; philanthropic data and research; and the financial management and operations of the UF Advancement enterprise and UF Foundation.
Prior to her current role, Martin served two years as the Interim Vice President of UF Advancement and Interim Executive Vice President of the UF Foundation. Prior to that interim role, she served as Chief Development Officer and Associate Vice President of Development during UF’s highly successful $4.65 billion Go Greater campaign, which concluded in 2022. She also led UF Advancement’s Principal Gifts and Strategic Initiatives team and directed development and alumni affairs for UF’s education and fine arts colleges.
Involve & Engage
Engages and involves volunteers, alumni and friends in the life of the university. This is accomplished through the Alumni Affairs teams, the University of Florida Alumni Association and the alumni affairs units within the schools and colleges.
- Strategic Partnerships: Connects Gators with Gators through strategic partnerships
- Leverage Alumni Platform: Strengthens and aligns alumni communications to ensure they remain vital
- Involvement: Involves and engages key young alumni to promote lifelong investment in the university
Advocate & Invest
Connects donors with their philanthropic passions. Development professionals identify, cultivate and encourage support for discovery, scholarship, service and major university initiatives that impact people across the globe.
- Secure Philanthropic Support: Drives philanthropy through campaign efforts, mega-giving and faculty support
- Points of Light: Positions and strengthens keystone programs in Mega/ Principal Giving, Gift Planning and Annual Giving, implementing strategies that encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and promote “bright ideas”
- Unit Campaign Ownership: Strengthens relationships with unit-based development teams and academic leadership, ensuring accountability for campaign objectives through value-add central services
- Portfolio Management and Pipeline: Executes donor-centric cultivation strategies and builds pipeline leveraging, integrated central resources (Leadership Annual Giving, Gift Planning, Alumni Affairs and development events)
Serve & Steward
Ensures ethical management of alumni and donor information, while providing high-quality financial, information and technology services. The team consists of Advancement Intelligence, Business Process Management, Computing Services, Facilities, Finance and Accounting, Program Management and Risk Management.
- Donor Investment and Fund Management: Enhances the impact of donor investments
- Data Integrity: Leverages relationships with university and industry partners to ensure data acquisition, quality and management
- Business Acumen: Increases staff and stakeholder proficiencies by improving business acumen and ensuring a comprehensive understanding of fund administration and gift compliance
- Value-Added Service: Broadens and strengthens UF Advancement’s value-add proposition by ensuring service delivery is aligned with, and responsive to, the needs of the university
- Facilities: Creates best-in-class facilities that position the organization for growth; offers Gold Standard meeting/event support and enhanced service and guest relations
- Risk Management: Integrates risk management best practices with organizational strategy
Educate & Inspire
Inspires investment in the university through compelling storytelling, engagement, and information sharing. The team develops strategies, crafts messaging, produces materials and coordinates communications with UF Advancement and campus partners.
- Campaign Communications: Informs and educates stakeholders to champion and implement a shared communications plan, raising UF’s awareness and reputation through key messaging and storytelling
- Unified Brand: Fosters unified brand through an integrated and collaborative university advancement communications model
- Communications Project Management: Executes strategic advancement communications through priority system and with high-quality and efficient production
- World Class Events: Engage and inspire constituents by producing signature University of Florida events that promote institutional priorities and support the fundraising enterprise
Retain, Develop & Acquire
Guarantees UF Advancement’s team is skilled and supported. Talent Management provides organizational architecture, ensures a safe and collaborative work environment, recruits and retains high-performing professionals, and supports employee development and wellbeing.
- Retention and Talent Development: Engages and develops internal talent and academic leaders through deliberate professional development opportunities, training and programming
- Talent Acquisition: Acquires and onboards national talent for strategic priority campaign positions
- Organizational Development and Coaching: Launches a Talent Management partnership model that provides value-added tools and needs-based coaching to leaders
- Strategic Planning and HR Excellence: Promotes mutual accountability through a comprehensive aligned strategic, business and performance-management process