Director of Prospect Management & Research

Overview

The Director of Prospect Management & Research actively supports RAND Development’s fundraising efforts by partnering with Development Officers to track movement through the donor cycle, analyze key fundraising metrics, and develop tools that make data visible and actionable. This position leads the implementation and maintenance of prospect management systems, oversees moves management and prospect strategy meetings, and ensures the accuracy and integrity of donor data. The Director conducts advanced research to identify and evaluate prospects, prepares detailed donor profiles and reports, and contributes to the development of long-term philanthropic relationships. This role also provides leadership in prospect management policies, staff training, and the adoption of new technologies to enhance fundraising effectiveness.

Responsibilities

• Lead the implementation and maintenance of the prospect management system to identify, evaluate, categorize, and report on the progress of major gift prospects.
• Lead moves management and prospect strategy meetings.
• Conduct regular meetings with fundraisers and staff to discuss prospects and the state of portfolios, review activity metrics, and ensure recording of donor cycle stage progression.
• Proactively identify prospects and vet new donors by reviewing donor gift reports and news alerts. Share relevant information with colleagues and update constituent records.
• Lead efforts to pipeline donors with additional capacity (i.e., small gift, high-capacity referrals, annual giving, etc.).
• Conduct market, prospect, and donor research focused on the acquisition of new donors.
• Prepare detailed reports on individuals/prospects; may recommend strategies to segment donors.
• Compose individualized research reports, briefs, and other documents (profiles, biographies, project summaries) when advanced research methods are required.
• Oversee and conduct the comprehensive vetting process for prospective board members, which includes drafting detailed candidate profiles, evaluating philanthropic history and prior board service, conducting conflict of interest assessments, vetting donors to ensure alignment with organizational values, verify financial capacity and comply withdonor due diligence best practices.
• Support and lead efforts to identify and cultivate relationships with donors and stakeholders before and after development-focused events. This includes donor-hosted programming, salons, workshops, regional meetings, RAND researcher and leadership attended programming and other engagement opportunities.
• Together with leadership and colleagues, develop and implement policies, procedures, processes, systems, and rating formulas relevant to prospect and development management and research.
• Act as RAND Development’s lead regarding prospect tracking and prospect management policies and documentation.
• Train and onboard RAND Development Officers on best practices and systems.
• Train RAND Development Coordinators (and others as needed) to ensure that biographical (employment, address, email, and telephone updates) and donor information is accurate and recorded in the database in a timely, consistent, and reportable format.
• Manage a suite of prospect research tools and subscriptions; make recommendations when new technologies and tools emerge and annually evaluate ROI in existing subscriptions.
• Will work other special projects as assigned.

Location This position may be based at RAND’s Santa Monica location and offers a flexible work arrangement, combining time in the office and remote work. While a hybrid schedule is preferred, we are open to considering a fully remote arrangement for exceptionally qualified candidates. Salary Range: $75,700-$112,400 RAND considers a variety of factors when formulating an offer, including but not limited to, the specific role and associated responsibilities; a candidate’s work experience, education/training, skills, expertise; and internal equity.The salary range includes base pay plus RAND’s sabbatic pay (which provides additional compensation above base pay when vacation is taken). In addition, RAND provides strong benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, paid time-off and more. Application Review Date January 29th, 2026 Apply tot his job Apply To this Job