Director of Prospect Management and Research

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

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, 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 Management and Research 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, detailed 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;
• Analyze and synthesize accumulated information to assess financial capacity, affinity, philanthropic tendencies, etc;
• Compose documents (profiles, mini-bios, prospect lists, and research in support of events) using style, grammar and content appropriate to specific audiences; 
• Interpret and translate complex financial, legal, and corporate language into easily comprehensible terms, while adhering to University standards of discretion and confidentiality;
• Attends Advancement strategy meetings to provide data-driven analysis to inform action plans for donors and prospects;
• Leads the analysis of current donor pools of the fundraising officers and recalibrates to help meet the fundraising goals, and analyzes data to search for new prospects;
• Consolidates large amounts of information gleaned from web sites, proprietary databases, analytics, and other sources, into concise, properly formatted research profiles/reports that provides critical intelligence to inform decision-making of engagement and solicitation strategies;
• Assists the Vice President for 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);
• Identifies and recommends high-capacity individual and corporate and foundation donor prospects to select departmental staff and donor/prospect strategy discussions;
• Develops an expert understanding of the institution’s donor/prospect management and business intelligence systems with an emphasis on donor/prospect identification, including use of data extraction and reporting tools;
• Responsible for developing and conducting training to introduce new processes, procedures, and initiatives that facilitate improved prospect research services; and
• Actively involved in industry specific organizations, such as the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement and the Council on the Advancement and Support of Education, in order to share knowledge and 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 and 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 to produce desired results, develops professional development and training plans for staff, and holds staff accountable to meet commitments and follow GMU's policies;
• Responsible for setting goals for performance and deadlines in ways that comply with the university’s plans and vision and communicating them to subordinates;
• Organize workflow and ensuring that employees understand their duties or delegated tasks;
• Monitor employee productivity and providing constructive feedback and coaching; Receive complaints and resolving problems; 
• Maintain timekeeping and personnel records;
• Disseminate information from upper management to employees and vice versa;
• Prepare and submitting performance evaluations;
• Determine rewards and promotions based on performance;
• Hire and train new employees;
• Ensure adherence to legal and university policies and procedures and undertaking disciplinary actions if the need arises;
• Manage and approve work schedules and workload;
• Provide training for new personnel;
• Develop performance goals collaboratively with direct reports;
• Monitor performance, provide feedback regularly, and prepare and administer annual staff evaluations for direct reports; and
• Approve timesheets for direct reports. 

Other duties as assigned within the scope of the role.

Required Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in related field;
• Extensive (a minimum of 10 years) experience producing profiles, analysis, and reporting to drive fundraising strategies and support organizational priorities;
• Significant experience 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;
• Significant experience in prospect and pipeline management and development;
• Considerable supervisory experience (generally three – five years);
• Significant knowledge of prospect management processes including significant knowledge of prospect tracking and management through the development cycle;
• Significant knowledge of current trends in prospect research;
• 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;
• Demonstrated written and oral communication skills;
• Solid investigative skills;
• Effective presentation skills, with experience demonstrating business needs to all levels of organization;
• Excellent people management 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;
• Skill in analyzing and interpreting various financial disclosures to calculate gift capacity ratings;
• Highly effective interpersonal skills and the ability to interact effectively with a broad range of expertise and seniority;
• 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;
• Demonstrated ability to analyze and synthesize data from a variety of sources;
• Ability to interact effectively with a broad-range of expertise and seniority;
• Ability to present information to senior level administrators with confidence and clarity of presentation material;
• 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 and adhere to the Donor Bill of Rights and the Association of Prospect Research for Advancement (APRA) Statement of Ethics, Privacy and Prospect Research;
• Demonstrated problem-solving abilities;
• Demonstrated ability to analyze and synthesize data from a wide variety of sources and compile this information into clear and concise research products;
• Ability to maintain confidentiality; 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 ed fundraising;
• Experience with Salesforce reporting and dashboard tools; 
• Experience with MicroStrategy reporting platform; 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 Director of Prospect Management and Research at https://jobs.gmu.edu/. Complete and submit the online application to include three professional references, one of which must be a current supervisor, with contact information, and provide a Cover letter/Letter of Intent, Resume, and Writing Sample/Portfolio for review.

Posting Open Date: May 21, 2025

For Full Consideration, Apply by:  June 9, 2025

Open Until Filled:  Yes