Associate Director, Prospect Development

The Tufts University Advancement Division (UA) is a comprehensive development and alumni relations enterprise with a staff complement of approximately 200 staff members. Functional units within UA include Development/Fundraising, Alumni Engagement, Stewardship and Donor Relations, Special Events, Gift Processing, Research, Prospect Management, Gift Planning, Corporate and Foundation Relations, Information Systems and Management, and Infrastructure Services. UA's mission is to build strong, lifelong relationships with Tufts University's constituents, match donors' interests with the university's needs and priorities, and secure the financial resources necessary for Tufts to achieve excellence in teaching, research, and scholarship. The division is strongly committed to serving the academic agenda of the university, creating a culture of philanthropy in the extended Tufts community, and pursuing excellence and best practices in its work. Integrity, collegiality, diversity, accountability, mutual trust, and respect for the individual as well as the intentions of our donors are the values that guide the division's work.

The Office of Prospect Development and Strategic Analysis (OPD) gathers and analyzes information on, and facilitates and tracks communication with, the university's current and potential prospects and donors, including individuals, corporations and foundations. OPD is primarily responsible for one of UA's key strategic priorities: the expansion of the university's base of support, which complements the other fundamental priorities of building relationships and raising funds. OPD addresses this need by conducting sophisticated research and analysis, identifying new prospects, and managing the processes of assigning the most promising prospects to development officer portfolios and assessing portfolio performance. OPD is also responsible for maintaining current and accurate information on all prospects and ensuring the AIM database represents UA's full knowledge of prospect-related activity.

The Associate Director of Corporate & Foundation (C&F) Research, Prospect Development will play a key role in advancing Tufts University's corporate and foundation fundraising strategy. This position will serve as a strategic partner to the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR), delivering high-quality research, analysis, and insights that maximize the philanthropic potential of Tufts' organizational prospect base. Working collaboratively with CFR, the Associate Director will design and implement data-driven prospect identification initiatives aimed at expanding the university's corporate and foundation pipeline and increasing institutional support.

The Associate Director will produce detailed prospect analyses, briefings, and reports for development officers and university leaders, leveraging both internal databases and external resources. In partnership with the Director of Prospect Management, they will help build and maintain a customized CFR prospect management system within AIM, Tufts' advancement database of record. The role will also contribute to optimizing data and reporting processes through Salesforce and Tableau, ensuring greater accuracy, efficiency, and return on investment across CFR's prospect development operations.

In addition to supervising at least one C&F Research team member, the Associate Director will lead the research strategy for the Corporate and Foundation Relations office, working closely with development officers and, when appropriate, faculty members to identify and align prospective funders with University priorities. Serving as Tufts' subject matter expert in organizational research, the Associate Director will champion best practices, emerging tools, and innovative methodologies to strengthen prospect development and enhance the University's overall fundraising success.

Essential Functions:

CFR Prospect Research

Reactive Research

• Provide accurate and timely research products to the CFR team.
• Use broad range of electronic and printed information sources as well as in-house information to research and qualify prospects, with emphasis on uncovering connections between potential funding sources and the funding needs of the University.
• Collect and analyze relevant information on corporations, foundations, and individuals.
• Interpret financial information from IRS Form 990s, SEC documents, corporate press releases, corporate filings and websites, private company data, foundation filings and websites, and other market indicators to assess viability and potential capacity to contribute to Tufts.
• Prepare short biographies and briefs as well as full profiles on organizations and individuals.
• Respond to reference questions from Tufts staff.
• Proactively facilitate information sharing between UA staff members, gift officers, and research staff on high-level corporation and foundation prospects and their relationships with the University's individual prospects and contacts.

Proactive Research

• Proactively screen and identify prospective donors through routine reviews of newspapers, periodicals, and business publications.
• Identify new prospects using a variety of tools including database mining, published print sources, and electronic media.
• Follow industry trends, rising new fields, promotions, M&A events, IPOs, etc. and update data in AIM, alerting anyone in UA who can act on the information.
• Review assigned publications and other resources to uncover current information about higher education, philanthropy, and trends in various constituency fields, (i.e. dental, medical, veterinary, nutritional, etc.).
• Disseminate information to appropriate development staff and follow up appropriately.

Data and Prospect Management

• Work seamlessly with Prospect Management colleagues to reinforce policies and assist CFR officers in the proper utilization of AIM.
• Work with colleagues to review and maintain prospect data in AIM.
• Identify database areas that need improvement (e.g., identifying duplicate records, completing incomplete entity hierarchies, identifying employees within corporations and foundations who serve on corporate boards, etc.).
• Participate in the design and implementation of projects that keep the data dynamic and accurate.
• Meet regularly with various members of the CFR team to debrief on prior meetings and to plan for future research needs. Work to maintain a dynamic and current prospect pipeline with information gleaned from these meetings.
• Work with CFR officers and Prospect Management to assess prospects within portfolios, and assist in making recommendations for deactivating, creating, assigning, or reassigning prospects as necessary.
• Generate lists and data from the database to assist CFR officers in working with their travel and visit plans to ensure that they are meeting with the best prospects.

General Responsibilities

• Attend and participate in development group meetings.
• Participate in organization-wide committees, task forces, or other appropriate groups
• Keep abreast of new trends, sources, and techniques in prospect research.
• Identify and evaluate, in collaboration with the Research team, new research sources, tools, and publications to determine their viability.
• Evaluate "free" web sources and share results with other researchers.
• When applicable, share prospect research expertise with development officers and administrative staff.
• Other projects, as assigned.

Project Management

• Assist with new template development for CFR prospect research products.
• Determine which subscription resources are necessary to produce these products.
• Monitor and update the templates over time, as needed.
• Collaborate on the new interest codes being developed in AIM by the OPD team.
• Establish new protocol and procedures for the CFR research products.
• Create CFR-specific onboarding materials for researchers and CFR officers and update UA4You (the UA intranet)with this new information.
• Lead special projects defined as priorities as assigned or self-generated
• Identify cross-cutting inter- and intra-departmental projects that will advance the strategic direction of UA.

Management

• Manage CFR research analyst. Provide coaching, support, and professional development. Perform timely performance reviews.
• Work closely with the Director of Prospect Management and Senior Director of Prospect Development to assist with the training and onboarding of all new research staff.
• Diplomatically manage up, across, and down OPD and University Advancement.
  Serve as a strategic liaison between the CFR and OPD teams.
• Clearly and effectively set and manage expectations around research products, their delivery, and complexity.
• Deftly negotiate deadlines and deliverables, balancing the needs of the CFR unit with the bandwidth of the OPD research staff.
• Set priorities and adapt as projects and assignments shift and evolve.
• Provide strategy and support to OPD staff in relation to all CFR research efforts.
• Foster professional development and training for other OPD researchers in order to enhance and scale up OPD's capacity to provide greater support to the CFR team.
• Review information sources and keep abreast of new technology and research strategies.

Basic Requirements:

• Knowledge & skills as typically acquired through a Bachelor's degree and 5-7 years of related experience working in prospect research
• Familiarity with complex fundraising databases/CRMs
• Proficiency in office software, including Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Knowledge and experience in higher education, non-profit or healthcare advancement
• Ability to communicate and explain complex concepts to a varied audience
• Strong written and verbal communication skills

Preferred Experience:

• Education, etc. (Consider preferred qualifications, including additional education, experience, or other job-related skills.)
• Specific knowledge of fundraising related aspects of a research university is highly desired.
• Specific knowledge of corporate and foundation-related prospect research is preferred.
• Previous experience managing direct report(s) is strongly preferred.