Job Description

Reporting to the Director of Campaign Management and Advancement Operations, the Director of Prospect Development is a key member of the Advancement team who manages a comprehensive program of prospect identification and research, prospect management, prospect strategy development and data analytics. The Director oversees the identification and assessment of potential donors and the optimization of prospect pools to ensure the maximization of gift officer portfolios, building a strong prospect pipeline for fundraising campaigns. Working closely with the Director of Campaign Management and Advancement Operations, the Director is a key fundraising strategist who oversees the development, maintenance, and improvement of the prospect development program by employing fundraising knowledge, combined with research and analytical techniques, to efficiently move prospects through the development cycle.

• Leads a Prospect Development team of two researchers to help ensure successful fundraising efforts for the College.
• Oversees strategies for identifying and rating the capacity of potential prospects, including analyzing hard and soft financial data in the context of gift capacity.
• Proactively identifies new principal, leadership, and planned gift prospects through data mining techniques, push technology, demographic, and other searches.
• Collaborates with the Director of Development, Director of Leadership Giving, Director of Principal and Planned Giving, the Director of Parent Giving, and others as needed to employ new fundraising strategies and optimize prospect management efforts.
• In partnership with gift officers and senior staff, suggests appropriate prospect strategies to better engage and more efficiently and effectively move prospects forward through the fundraising cycle to support specific College funding opportunities. This includes the development of solicitation strategies.
• Develops a protocol for identifying candidates for trusteeship, volunteer leadership opportunities, and various honors and awards.
• Leads data analysis efforts and implements a proactive plan for identifying new and emerging prospects specific to College’s current and future fundraising goals and priorities.
• Responsible for developing, implementing and maintaining a prospect management program that ensures maximum function of major gift officer portfolios.
• Ensures all research requests from within the department and from college leadership are completed accurately and in a timely manner.
• Helps with the preparation of briefing reports for the President, Vice President, Senior Leaders and Gift Officers as needed.
• Ensures fundraisers are informed and alerted regarding new information about the gift capacity and funding interests of top prospects and potential prospects.
• Provides training to fundraisers and support staff on the prospect tracking system, proposal tracking system, and train on contact report guidelines.
• Oversees data integrity efforts for prospect information stored in Advance, the fundraising database of record.
• Collaborates with Advancement Systems and Technology to streamline database processes, procedures, and best practices
• Coordinates with colleagues across campus to ensure data synchronization related to parent records
• 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.
• Monitors news and publicly-available financial information on major gift prospects and suspects from SEC filings, professional publications, press releases and major newspapers
• Remain informed of central issues in the development profession, maintain professional standards of research and conduct work in a manner that is ethical and sensitive to the needs of donors, development staff members and the College of the Holy Cross
• Participates in on-going professional development activities as relevant, to maintain and enhance skills and abilities and stay abreast of current trends and research techniques.
• Provides support for other College Advancement functions and activities as needed, including occasional evening and weekend events.
• Other duties as Assigned

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s Degree and a minimum of at least 5 years of experience in prospect research and portfolio management.
• At least 3 years of experience in hiring, training, supervising, and evaluating staff.
• Strong leadership and collaboration skills with a commitment to a team-based work environment.
• Ability to work as integral member of the Advancement team, focusing on major gift fundraising priorities and working with senior leaders to achieve them.
• Natural aptitude for technology and expertise with MS Office, including expert level use of Excel.
• Familiarity with development software packages, preferably Ellucian Advance
• Ability to master use of a broad variety of biographical, institutional, asset and news retrieval tools.
• Ability to perform in-depth research using a wide variety of sources, both hard copy and electronic
• Understanding of basic financial principles and knowledge of industry publications and business trends.
• Ability to problem-solve, using investigative research and analytical skills to develop and implement creative solutions.
• Superior interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to work both independently and as a collaborative member of the Advancement team.
• Ability to take initiative to work proactively, meet deadlines, organize and prioritize multiple projects, think strategically, and work with numbers and data.
• Exhibit personal integrity and ability to appropriately handle confidential and sensitive information.
• Exhibit a positive attitude, strong work ethic, and sound professional judgment

Additional Information:

This is a full-time, exempt level position

The College of the Holy Cross is a highly selective Catholic liberal arts college in the Jesuit tradition. It enrolls about 3,000 students and is located in a medium-sized city 45 miles west of Boston. The College seeks faculty members whose scholarship, teaching, advising, and on- and off-campus service demonstrate commitment to the educational benefits of a richly diverse community. Holy Cross aspires to meet the needs of dual-career couples, in part through its membership in Higher Education Consortium of Central Massachusetts (http://www.heccma.org) and the New England Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (https://new-england.hercjobs.org/)