Director Prospect Development

Department: Advancement and Alumni Relations

Classification: Administrative Faculty

Job Category: Administrative or Professional Faculty

Job Type: Full-Time

Work Schedule: Full-time (1.0 FTE, 40 hrs/wk)

Location: Fairfax, VA

Workplace Type: Hybrid Eligible

Sponsorship Eligibility: Not eligible for visa sponsorship

Salary: Salary commensurate with education and experience

Criminal Background Check: Yes

About the Department:

The Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations division is a comprehensive development and alumni relations enterprise with a staff complement of approximately 135 FTE. Functional units within Advancement include development/fundraising, alumni relations, donor relations and stewardship, advancement communications, special events, gift processing, research, prospect management, gift planning, corporate and foundation relations, information systems and management, and infrastructure services. Advancement and Alumni Relation's mission is to build strong, lifelong relationships with George Mason University's alumni and constituents, while matching their philanthropic interests with the university's aspirations and priorities. The division is committed to serving the needs of the university, our alumni, and the greater community by providing access to quality education and lifelong learning. Respect, service, integrity, collaboration, diversity, transparency, and creativity are the values that guide our work and culture.

About the Position:

As an integral member of the University Advancement team, the Director of Prospect Development is responsible for implementing a comprehensive program of research including the identification and qualification of prospects sufficient to support university-wide fundraising goals, through prospect research performed with the highest standards of quality, confidentiality, and accuracy.

This position leads two teams, prospect research and prospect management, which are responsible for delivering insightful, actionable research, and for developing systems that ensure fundraisers have robust portfolios to support major, principal, and planned giving strategies.

This role works closely with development officers and senior advancement leadership to align donor prospects with institutional priorities, drive prospect pipeline growth, and facilitate data-informed decision-making across all phases of donor engagement.

Responsibilities:

Prospect Research

• Provide high-level, substantive research and analysis on individuals, corporations, and foundations using a wide variety of biographical, organizational, and financial sources, including online database services, websites, library and government sources, and other external repositories of public information that provides critical intelligence to inform decision-making of engagement and solicitation strategies;
• Interpret and translate complex financial, legal, and corporate language into easily comprehensible terms, while adhering to University standards of discretion and confidentiality;
• Identifies and recommends high-capacity individual and corporate and foundation donor prospects to select departmental staff, and attends Advancement strategy meetings to provide data-driven analysis to inform action plans for donors and prospects;
• Develops an expert understanding of the institution’s donor/prospect management and business intelligence systems, including use of data extraction and reporting tools, and leads the analysis and recalibration of current donor pools of fundraising officers to help meet fundraising goals, and analyzes data to search for new prospects;
• Assists the Vice President of Advancement and Alumni Relations with preparation of research reports and other documents for the Office of the President, and external Boards (i.e., Board of Trustees, Board of Visitors, and Alumni Association); and
• Attends industry specific organization events, such as the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, in order to keep abreast of industry best practices and trends.

Prospect Management

• Develop policies, procedures, and best practices for portfolio development, moves management, and pipeline reporting;
• Analyzes constituencies (market areas, affinity-based, etc.) to identify and prioritize donors and prospects, and completes analyses to ascertain the organization’s strength and fundraising viability in particular sectors;
• Makes data-driven recommendations to increase overall philanthropic support, and works cooperatively with gift officers and prospect management staff in the management of officer portfolios with strategic emphasis on effectively moving top prospects and donors through the fundraising cycle; and
• Works collaboratively with fundraisers, university leaders, and the Advancement team to monitor progress toward fundraising goals through performance analytics, works on all data and gift processing systems, and contributes to defining policies and procedures about how the system will be used to support fundraising operations.

Supervision of Staff

• Manages job duties and performance; communicates a clear and consistent message regarding goals and deadlines to produce desired results; develops professional development and training plans for staff; holds staff accountable to meet commitments, and follows George Mason University policies;
• Organizes workflow and ensure employees understand their duties or delegated tasks;
• Monitors employee productivity and provides constructive feedback and coaching; receives complaints and resolves problems;
• Monitors performance, provides feedback regularly, and prepares and administers annual staff evaluations for direct reports;
• Maintains timekeeping and personnel records, and manages and approves work schedules and workload;
• Prepares and submits performance evaluations;
• Determines rewards and promotions based on performance;
• Hires and oversees training of new employees; and
• Ensures adherence to legal and university policies and procedures, and undertaking disciplinary actions if the need arises. 

Other duties as assigned within the scope of the role.

Required Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience;
• Significant experience (generally 7 to 10 years) consolidating large amounts of information into concise, properly formatted research products, including profiles, mini-bios, and prospect lists, that provide critical intelligence to inform engagement and solicitation strategies;
• Significant experience proactively identifying and verifying new prospects by utilizing a wide range of resources, including both proprietary and third-party databases;
• Considerable supervisory experience (generally 3 to 5 years);
• Significant knowledge and experience in prospect and pipeline management processes, including significant knowledge of prospect tracking and management through the development cycle;
• Significant knowledge of current trends in prospect research and prospect management;
• Thorough working knowledge and understanding of fundraising, donor relations and public relations concepts, principles, techniques, procedures, and practices;
• Knowledge of Salesforce CRM, or similar, for prospect and moves management;
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, and solid investigative skills;
• Effective presentation skills, with experience demonstrating business needs and requirements with confidence and clarity to all levels of the organization;
• Excellent people management and interpersonal skills, including a proven ability to influence, negotiate, and achieve results through others who are or may be not direct reports;
• Thorough analytical and critical thinking skills, including skills in creative and effective decision-making and problem identification/avoidance/resolution;
• Demonstrated technology skills and the ability to acquire a working knowledge of all types of technical applications related to fundraising, including relational databases and business reporting;
• Ability to be timely, thorough, accurate, and detail-oriented;
• Ability to manage projects and workflow, and use time and resources efficiently;
• Ability to develop, present, and implement special projects and reports to better serve department purposes;
• Demonstrated ability to work both independently and collaboratively, while prioritizing multiple competing obligations to meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment;
• Ability to review and finalize research products for distribution to staff;
• Ability to manage sensitive information, maintain confidentiality and adhere to the Donor Bill of Rights and the Association of Prospect Research for Advancement (APRA) Statement of Ethics, and privacy and prospect research;
• Demonstrated problem-solving abilities; and
• Proficiency in all aspects of traditional and online resources for prospect research, and familiarity with a broad range of analytical research techniques.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in higher education fundraising;
• Experience working in a decentralized fundraising shop;
• Experience using Affinaquest and Salesforce CRM for higher education fundraising;
• Experience with Salesforce reporting and dashboard tools;
• Experience with MicroStrategy reporting platform;
• Experience managing a combined team of research and prospect management analysts; and
• Curious, focused, and knowledgeable in interpreting data; innovative and creative in discovering/identifying linkages, context, and relationships.

Instructions to Applicants: 

For full consideration, applicants must apply for the Director Prospect Development at https://jobs.gmu.edu/. Complete and submit the online application to include three professional references with contact information, one of which must be a current supervisor, and provide a cover letter, resume, and writing sample for review.

Posting Open Date:  August 25, 2025

For Full Consideration, Apply by:  September 9, 2025

Open Until Filled:  Yes