Prospect Research and Management Specialist - Chicago Suburbs

Steve Christensen

Northern Illinois Food Bank, a member of the Feeding America network, is seeking a Prospect Research and Management Specialist.

Contact: Gina Gramarosso, Sr. Director of Philanthropy ggramarosso@nrthernilfoodbank.org or go to www.solvehungertoday.org/jobs

Date Updated: May 2021

Position Description

The Prospect Research and Management Specialist will be a critical part of the strategic gifts team and is responsible for identifying major gift prospects and coordinating the prospect pool through the solicitation cycle. This position manages the major gift donor portfolio in Raiser’s Edge, ensuring its integrity and sound use by the strategic gifts team. This includes responsibility for extracting data for research, managing solicitor assignments, and entering data for the team. The Prospect Research and Management Specialist will provide timely reporting of fundraising data and solicitor actions to help guide and support the team’s strategic decisions. Ability to maintain confidentiality and the professional standards set forth for the field by the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA).

Duties and Responsibilities

• Support strategic gifts team though managing pipeline process, tracking donor activity, maintaining coding structure and database policies, identifying and researching prospects and reporting results.
• Conduct reactive and proactive prospect research and oversee the prospect management system to provide expertise and guidance to gift officers on best practices for prospect pool and portfolio maintenance.
• Analyze and prepare various levels of donor and prospect research reports including but not limited to research bios, briefs, and comprehensive profiles. Includes wealth screening analysis and validation.
• Assist and provide input in ranking donors/prospects and adding value to a teams’ relationship building strategies and recommendations for solicitations.
• Provide general research support to the Corporate, Foundation and Organization Giving team and work on special projects as needed.
• Review and refresh prospect pool each fiscal year adding leads and prospects with $5,000+ estimated capacity to relationship manager portfolios.
• Review and monitor local and national news and business publications to keep abreast of prospect information as well as business developments and economic trends.
• Create and maintain timely reporting to capture fundraising results and strategic gift portfolio performance.
• Assist with developing budget, goals, and performance measures for building the strategic gifts program and analyzing results.
• Provide queries and reports as requested by strategic gifts team, in order to track and analyze progress, and ensure the meeting of fiscal year goals.
• Perform other duties and participate in special projects as needed.

Other Duties

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Required Education, Skills, and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience.
• Two-three years of demonstrated success in prospect research, fundraising or donor relations.
• At least one-year experience in a Moves Management/Prospect Review process, including pipeline development and measuring success.
• Knowledge of prospect research industry standards and best practices.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills and ability to work independently and as a team.
• Strong qualitative and quantitative analytical and research skills, organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Experience in recognizing and assessing wealth indicators and giving capacity as well as identifying prospects.
• Proficiency with MS Office, including advanced Excel.
• Able to handle sensitive and confidential information appropriately and with discretion.

Preferred Education, Skills, and Experience

• Experience with prospect research tools such as WealthEngine, Research Point, Target Analytics, LexisNexis, RelSci, NOZA and others preferred.
• Experience with Raiser’s Edge or Raiser’s Edge NXT is preferred.

Position Type and Expected Hours of Work

This is a full-time position. Days and hours of work are Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Some flexibility in hours is allowed, but the employee must be available during the "core" work hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and must work 40 hours each week to maintain full-time status.

Position Location

This position is based out of our West Suburban Center (Geneva, IL) location.

AAP/EEO Statement

Northern Illinois Food Bank is an Equal Opportunity Employer.