Emily Cox

As development coordinator (philanthropic grants/research), Emily Cox leads the trusts and foundations program at the University of Newcastle (UON) and drives prospect management through the donor pipeline.

Her ability to leverage opportunities, build strong stakeholder relationships and write excellent funding proposals helped achieve the following for UON:
• a 172% increase in the number of philanthropic trust/foundation applications submitted from 18 in 2016 to 49 in 2017
• a 732% increase in total philanthropic trust/foundation income from $784,545 received in 2016, to $6,525,733 in 2017
• a 510% increase in philanthropic income received for research from $717,762 in 2016 to $4,377,416 in 2017.
Significantly, Emily helped land UON’s largest philanthropic gift ever (the $20 million US Jack Ma gift). As an integral team member, she contributed extensive research/benchmarking on leading scholarship programs to inform the discussions between donor representatives and the UON team, drafted the proposal and facilitated stakeholder engagement.

Emily also developed strong partnerships with local corporate philanthropic foundations for the first time in UON’s history, resulting in two foundations pledging $1,743,250 to support health research. She also implemented several procedural improvements within UON’s office of alumni and philanthropy. Highly regarded by her colleagues, Emily is perceived as donor-centric in everything she undertakes.