Prospect Research & Data Analyst

Overview

General Summary:

Under the direction of the Associate Vice Chancellor of Advancement or designee, the Prospect Research and Data Analyst supports frontline fundraising by delivering actionable prospect research and ensuring the accuracy, consistency, and integrity of constituent data. This important role is designed to directly enhance fundraising outcomes by providing timely, relevant insights that are actively used by fundraisers and leadership. This vital work is embedded into the overall fundraising strategy of the Office of Advancement. The institution is converting to a new CRM database: Salesforce Education Cloud. In the early phase of this role, the Analyst will focus on developing a strong understanding of the system's functionality, assisting Advancement staff in acclimating to new workflows, and helping refine and amend business processes to take full advantage of the database's features.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities:

• Prospect Research & Intelligence

• Utilize wealth screening, research tools and predictive modeling data to conduct comprehensive research on prospects, donors and all other constituent groups to determine gift capacity and maximize fundraising efforts.

• In collaboration with frontline fundraisers and leadership, develop strategies to identify and secure new prospects, ensuring the continued growth, diversification, and renewal of the institution's prospect pipeline; evaluate and assign capacity ratings to inform fundraising priorities.

• Prepare comprehensive research profiles and briefings on individuals, corporations and foundations with key information to equip advancement staff, faculty and leadership, for calls, meetings and events that strengthen relationship management and drive optimal outcomes.

• Track relevant news, publications, and industry sources to surface potential new prospects and emerging philanthropic opportunities.

• Fundraising Strategy & Portfolio Optimization

• Deliver research support to frontline fundraisers and colleagues across the Advancement Office to advance strategic prospecting, evaluation, engagement, fundraising outreach and stewardship of donors.

• Oversee the documentation and maintenance of prospect ratings, engagement indicators, and relationship data to support long-term donor pipeline development. Strengthen prospect management and tracking by helping to manage a timely moves-management framework that identifies, evaluates, categorizes and reports on the progress of major gift prospects.

• Maintain and enhance the accuracy, structure, and integrity of prospect and donor data to support research-driven fundraising strategies across major gifts, annual giving, and alumni engagement.

• Reporting, Analytics & Business Intelligence

• Build and refine queries, reports and dashboards that surface high-value prospects, track movement through the pipeline, and inform portfolio optimization for frontline fundraisers.

• Data Management & CRM Governance

• Monitor donor and prospect data regularly to identify inconsistencies, gaps, and inaccuracies early, preventing errors from becoming systemic and ensuring the reliability of research and reporting.

• Review, verify, and clean data received from external lists or vendors prior to upload, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and alignment with institutional data standards.

• Integrate wealth screening results, predictive modeling outputs and external research findings into the database, ensuring data is properly coded, categorized, and actionable.

• Systems Implementation & Compliance

• Ensure compliance to organizational policies and regulatory requirements, including confidentiality standards, data privacy practices and ethical conduct expectations.

• Participate in system testing, data validation, and functional review during the implementation and post implementation of a new CRM (Salesforce Education Cloud), ensuring research-related workflows, prospect data structures and reporting needs are accurately represented and fully optimized.

• Training, Leadership & Process Development

• Train and guide Advancement staff in accurate prospect-tracking data entry and in the preparation of high-quality research profiles.

• Develop and refine policies, procedures, and best-practice guidelines that support the effectiveness and consistency of the Advancement Office.

• Lead training sessions for Office of Advancement staff on prospect research methods, tools and data-driven fundraising practices that support effective prospect movement through the donor pipeline.

Qualifications

Qualifications:

• BA or BS degree, or equivalent experience
• 2 - 4 years of related experience in a fundraising environment.
• Experience in an academic health care, higher education, or other fundraising environment with a prospect management system highly desirable.
• Familiarity with research tools and techniques, preferably using proprietary databases such as LexisNexis, Kindsight (formerly iWaves) and other public and proprietary sources.
• Ability to read and interpret complex business and financial reports on donor prospects.
• Effective communicator, self-motivated, results-driven, flexible, and able to work well both independently and in a team setting.
• Interest in ongoing professional development related to prospect research, analytics, or Salesforce.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work as part of a team.
• Strong computer skills and fluency in MS Excel required; experience with development and CRM environments. Salesforce Education Cloud experience strongly preferred.