Assistant Director of Prospect Research and Development (81077)

The Assistant Director for Prospect Research & Development is a key member of the Iona University Advancement team responsible for identifying, researching, qualifying, and developing Iona’s next generation of major and principal gift prospects.

Supporting a team of approximately five frontline gift officers and an Advancement operation serving more than 50,000 alumni, the Assistant Director will build systematic and data-informed approaches to discover prospective donors, assess their capacity and affinity, and move them through the prospect pipeline from initial identification to qualification and assignment to a fundraising portfolio.

The successful candidate will be a curious researcher, analytical thinker, and collaborative partner who can turn disparate information into actionable fundraising intelligence.

Responsibilities

Prospect Identification & Research

• Proactively identify new and emerging major and principal gift prospects among the University's alumni, parents, friends, corporations, foundations, and other constituents.

• Conduct comprehensive prospect research utilizing wealth screening, philanthropic, professional, biographical, engagement, and publicly available information.

• Develop concise, actionable prospect profiles and wealth assessments for frontline fundraisers and Advancement leadership.

• Analyze alumni career progression, business ownership, board service, philanthropic activity, and other indicators to identify the University's next generation of major donors.

• Monitor relevant news, business activity, philanthropic activity, and other developments involving high-priority prospects.

• Respond to research requests from frontline fundraisers while maintaining a proactive focus on broader prospect discovery.

• Develop and refine research methodologies that improve the University's ability to identify prospects at scale.

Data Analytics, Intelligence & Systems

• Analyze advancement and constituent data to identify trends, relationships, and opportunities that can inform fundraising strategy.

• Integrate information from Raiser’s Edge, wealth-screening platforms, engagement records, external databases, and other sources to develop actionable prospect intelligence.

• Create and maintain dashboards, reports, and other tools that communicate prospect and pipeline activity to Advancement leadership and frontline fundraisers.

• Establish recurring prospect-screening and identification processes that allow the University to systematically evaluate its constituent population for emerging major-gift potential.

• Identify opportunities to improve prospect research workflows through technology, automation, artificial intelligence, and other emerging tools.

Database & Data Integrity

• Maintain accurate and complete prospect information in Raiser’s Edge.

• Partner with Iona’s Information Technology department on upcoming data migration initiatives.

• Ensure that prospect research, wealth information, relationships, qualification activity, and portfolio assignments are appropriately documented.

• Assist with wealth-screening updates, data enrichment, imports, exports, deduplication, and other data-quality initiatives.

• Establish and maintain standards and procedures that support reliable prospect management and reporting.

• Collaborate with Advancement Services to ensure that research and prospect-management information is captured consistently and effectively.