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Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE)

  • 100 - 500 employees

Yolante Jones

Yolante Jones graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Murdoch University in 2017 and is now a Donor Relations Officer at The Australian National University (ANU).

5.30 AM

The alarm in our household goes off early. I lie in bed until around 6.45 am, then I have a quick shower and grab a bite.

7.45 AM

I am on my bike by now with a leisure 3km ride to work. The motivation to cycle in winter starts to wane but it’s the quickest way for me to get to work. Occasionally, I choose to walk, which takes around 40min. Canberra is really beautiful at this time of the year as the leaves start turning a golden and red hue before they become bare. Although the temperature is low, I quickly warm up once I get going. There are often other people cycling or walking to work on my route. I sometimes have to be on the watch for ducks (who have right of way on campus) as they make their way to the river.

The Australian National University Yolante Jones cycling to work

8.00 AM

I arrive at work to start my day. My colleagues and I have some banter in our open-plan office about our previous night’s activities. I start to look through my emails as well as the emails for our team account. I reply to any that are urgent or can be answered quickly. 

9.30 AM

Sometimes I will join my colleagues for a walk to one of the many cafes within walking distance of our office to grab a hot chocolate. However, today I have a few deadlines looming, so I need to forgo the walk.

I have received some thank you letters from student scholarship recipients and decided to collate these into an impact report for the donor. I finalise the content to send to our communications team and need to fill out a request for support form while making sure all the content has gone through final edits. Additionally, I also make sure I have provided any photos that will be used within the report.

12.30 PM

Time to go to the pool on campus with some of my colleagues. We do some laps and then wind down in the steam, sauna or spa afterwards. The pool is located right in the heart of the campus’s new social precinct, Kambri. There are restaurants and cafes around, so we can grab a quick bite before heading back to the office.

2.00 PM

I take a call from a donor who would like to give in support of mental health research and ask him about his connection to ANU. I thank him for his support and advise his development manager of his donation while making sure I make a note of our conversation on his record. I check that there are no other outstanding actions in our CRM that I need to follow up.

3.00 PM

I need to put together an analysis of some previous impact reports that were emailed out to donors, where the data has been sent to me by our communications team. Our team is really trying to build our programmes around donor behaviour, instead of what we think the donor will appreciate. By doing an analysis of emails, we can somewhat determine if donors wish to be communicated with through this platform.

3.30 PM

I receive a reply from an email I sent to a donor who has his own endowment. He has agreed to meet so that we can formalise his intentions for the endowment. I liaise with my development colleague and the college’s executive office his gift will be awarded to about setting up the meeting.

4:15 PM

Time to leave for my cycle home through campus. It is starting to get dark early and once the sun goes down it can get chilly, so I make sure I leave the office before 5 pm most days. 

5.15 PM

I head back to campus for a public lecture. As the university is the national university, we have many free events on campus throughout the year that is open to the public. Tonight, there is a book launch by Cuban author, Armando Luccas Correa who now lives in the United States. We are lucky that Canberra is the first stop on his tour to launch his new book “The Daughter’s Tale”.

6.30 PM

The book launch event ends and I am back on the bike home. I am hungry so I can’t wait to start cooking and have dinner. I make sure my ride is quick so I can escape the cold and eat! It’s also been a long day so I want to just relax with some Stan or YouTube before bed.