Director, Prospect Development

at  Queens University

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JOB SUMMARY

Reporting to the Associate Vice-Principal (Development) (AVP (Dev)), the Director, Prospect Development is responsible for overseeing university-wide prospect development which includes both prospect management and prospect research, with the aim of maximizing long-term fundraising support from diverse individual, corporate and foundation donors. The incumbent provides strategic leadership, support and direction to fundraisers, senior development leaders and other advancement staff on the implementation and use of the Prospect Management Framework and Tracking System (PMFTS) with a specific focus on tracking progress on goals, prospect/proposal integrity, and pipeline and prospect analysis and prospect strategy. Working both independently and collaboratively, the Director, drives portfolio performance by introducing and applying best practices in business analytics, modelling, and reporting. The incumbent is also responsible for supporting campaign planning efforts, by assessing the feasibility of philanthropic support through careful analysis of portfolios and pipelines, modelling around campaign potential, and providing analysis around revenue projections.

SPECIAL SKILLS:

• Embodies Advancement’s core values of integrity, inclusivity, accountability, collaboration, and service.
• Proven ability to successfully partner, collaborate and build consensus among diverse internal and external constituents and senior leadership across Queen’s to develop processes, systems and tools that enhance performance of the fundraising operation and align with the overall development strategy from conception to implementation.
• Excellent business insight, political and cultural awareness, and influencing skills, with the ability to strategically place fundraising objectives in a larger organizational context.
• An innovative and strategic thinker able to draw on substantial experience to provide clear, focused leadership and advice to achieve organizational priorities.
• Strong analytical, research skills and the ability to strategically use information gleaned through market research to improve and integrate a major and principal gifts fundraising operation.
• Ability to research, develop and write innovative and enhanced strategies and policies. Proven ability to identify operational and system improvements necessary to deliver required services. Leads the innovation charge to achieve greater results by staying abreast of best practices, including the latest technologies and trends, assess innovation for institutional benefits and impact.
• Strict attention to detail and exceptional accuracy. Proven ability to make difficult and complex decisions with good judgment and with acute sensitivity for the implications of errors for the University and the Office of Advancement with respect to reputation and relationship building.
• Strong organizational, problem solving and project management skills. Ability to initiate and coordinate multiple, simultaneous cross-functional projects, while consistently delivering high-quality actionable solutions according to required timelines.

• Designs, implements, and oversees the liaison model to connect prospect development staff with specific fundraising teams, ensuring alignment of strategies and priorities.
• Together with the AVP and Executive Leads in Development, provides strategic oversight on the fundraising pipeline which includes regular reviews with all teams across the institutional advancement enterprise with the aim of providing regular accountability both to individuals and to senior leadership around pipeline movement, trends, and barriers. Provides detailed analysis and interpretation on demographic, giving and geographical proximity breakdowns; major gift prospects per capita and application of the major gift model to assist in the prioritization and identification of Queen’s constituents.
• Leads initiatives to ensure data integrity, develops clear policies for data entry, and provides training for fundraising staff to optimize their use of prospect management tools.
• Provides regular and deep analysis of trends across teams and portfolios, monitoring, and tracking performance over time, advancing recommendations around coaching and training opportunities to the AVP (DEV) and the Advancement Leadership Team (ALT); supports the development of fundraising reports for senior university officials.
• Analyzes data for prospect and donor pools and provides prospect tracking reports. Builds reporting and analytical capacity that informs evidence-based decisions including developing predictive models; completing multi-regression analysis; interpreting prospect and donor information; determining methodology and resource requirements necessary to provide accurate and timely delivery of information to end users to support planning, strategizing, and decision making. Synthesizes large volumes of data from various sources into useful and practical reports and presents findings to diverse audiences.
• Working together with the Associate Director, Research, provides guidance around proactive research that could maximize the success of fundraising activities including the overall prospect pool, top prospect group, and individual, corporate and foundation prospects.
• Facilitates regular meetings between Prospect Development staff and fundraisers for portfolio reviews, strategy discussions, and feedback loops.
• Assists in developing and implementing cultivation and solicitation strategies.

Develops, implements, and manages policies, procedures and guidelines on the use and support of the Prospect Management Framework to ensure a more donor-centered approach to cultivation and solicitation practices. Advises the AVP (DEV) on policies and escalates issues as required.

• In collaboration with the AVP (DEV), participates in high-level strategic initiatives in both an advisory and project-based role. Specific initiatives include providing recommendations around constituent data, analytics, prospect clearance/management, and pipeline management/analysis.
• Working closely with the Director, Donor Experience, the AVP (DEV) and the Associate Director of Research, conducts due-diligence assessment relating to gift acceptance at the board level. Provides an assessment of the risk and recommendations to the AVP (DEV) around gift acceptance.
• Together with the AVP (DEV), conducts campaign feasibility and valuation analysis for Development Leadership and supports report preparation for external advisory boards on campaign potential and year over year revenue projections.
• Works collaboratively on high-level interdepartmental projects to develop strategies for leveraging constituent data and segmentation insights for fundraising purposes.
• Supports the work of the AVP (DEV) with respect to proposal pipeline and portfolio management; prospect clearance system; maintaining top prospect lists; forecasting and goal setting.
• Takes a lead on the prospect management function for Principal Gifts.
• Flags to AVP (DEV) trends relating to metrics, pipeline, portfolio, and performance; as well as making recommendations to assist in decision-making. Continuously measures and analyzes data and situations quickly to comprehend, capture, illustrate, and communicate identified issues and recommends innovative leading-edge solutions that affect the decision-making process. Conducts periodic competitive audits and ongoing usability tests to gauge fundraising effectiveness.
• Oversees the Prospect Research and Prospect Management functions for Advancement
• Works as a strategic partner in visioning the necessary tools, creating new tools, and designing new systems that manage and monitor progress. Continues to advance technical and business skill competency in relevant areas to maximize value by keeping current on evolving system and business process capabilities, and how they may enhance PMFTS to grow the university’s overall pipeline. Audits best practices among peer institutions, adopting and/or modifying practices as warranted. Through ongoing analysis, effectively manages risk, anticipates challenges, investigates issues, and makes recommendations that may have cross functional impact. Ensures process and program changes meet change management and security specifications.
• Develops clear and measurable key performance indicators (KPIs) and goals for Prospect Development engagement strategies, in collaboration with campus partners/clients. Meets regularly with Development staff and leaders to review prospect strategy and proposals, discusses performance reports, and provides detailed pool of analysis and interpretation of prospect and donor information.
• Plans, prioritizes, and manages the work of employees, providing strategic and tactical advice, guidance, and coaching. Identifies the need for staff resources, participates on staffing committees, and makes effective recommendations regarding employee selection.
• Manages performance by establishing performance standards, reviewing, and evaluating performance on an ongoing basis, and conducting talent reviews and formal annual performance reviews.
• Assesses staff training and development needs and ensures that employees receive training required to improve and sustain successful performance.
• Investigates, addresses, and resolves employee/labour relations issues, including making decisions regarding disciplinary and discharge matters.
• Undertakes other duties as assigned and in support of the unit and/or department.