ROLE TITLE: Director, Prospect Strategy & Research (full-time)

POSITION REPORTS TO: Managing Director, Prospect Strategy & Research

APPLICATION DEADLINE: January 4th at 11:59pm ET

LOCATION: Flexible

WHAT YOU’LL DO

As a Director, Prospect Strategy & Research, you will be directly responsible for TFA’s donor prospect research function. As a member of the Prospect Strategy & Research (PSR) team, you will be a part of a centralized team that directly impacts TFA’s fundraising efforts. Working with the Managing Director, PSR, a Director, PSR will set and execute a vision for creating and maintaining a healthy and robust donor and prospect pool, portfolio, and pipeline for enterprise-wide impact. This includes both complex analysis of wealth indicators and financial information to inform giving capacity as well as complex analysis of giving patterns and trends year over year, both at TFA and in the education philanthropy sector. The Director, PSR provides research support to a portfolio of frontline fundraising teams across the organization, including Central Fundraising, regional cohorts, and senior leadership. As a member of PSR, you will work with the Director, Prospect Management to execute on a comprehensive prospect program to identify and upgrade prospects.

WHAT YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR

Prospect research support (35%)

• Provide research support to a portfolio that will include a combination of regional fundraising cohorts, Central Fundraising, and senior leadership

• Analyze complex data from multiple sources (e.g. stock holdings, real estate, philanthropic history, tax documentation, other wealth indicators, etc.) to determine giving capacity for new or upgraded prospects

• Develop and execute proactive projects to increase fundraising outcomes, focused on your portfolio or enterprise-wide

• Provide donor information to build prospect pools, map relationships to identify connections to TFA, rate prospects and donors, and provide strategic advice for frontline fundraisers in your portfolio

• With the MD, PSR, build and maintain relationships with team and functional leads to set direction and strategy for consistent, high-quality research support to fundraising teams across the organization.

• Provide insight and feedback to support MD, PSR to develop, set, and execute a vision for creating and maintaining a healthy and robust donor and prospect pool, portfolio, and pipeline for frontline fundraisers, including developing proactive projects with enterprise-wide impact

• Monitor ethical and legal implications of prospect research work, including awareness of updated laws and regulations that affect the accessibility and distribution of information. Additionally, monitor the TFA prospect pipeline for potential reputational risk

• Systematically maintain prospect and donor information in TFA’s CRM, including updating and maintaining biographical, philanthropic, and affiliation data from internal and external sources.

Research data strategy (20%)

• Work with MD, PSR to inform segmentation of donor and prospect base through research, screening data, connections research, and giving data to broaden and upgrade the donor base.

• Analyze giving data sets, both internal and external, to identify and execute on projects to diversify the donor base.

• Manage all wealth screenings, from identifying populations for screening to validating results.

• Create and manage process to share newly identified/rated prospects to frontline fundraising teams for assignment and cultivation.

• Develop and implement a donor engagement score using data recorded in TFACT

• Inform data norms and requirements for prospect research information and use reports monitoring data quality to identify areas for additional support

Consulting and Learning Support (10%)

• With the full PSR team, develop, publish, and maintain best practices, guidelines, and resources on prospect/donor research, leveraging industry sources and innovations

• Present prospect development data in an engaging and accessible way to increase comprehension and usability and proactively communicate with fundraisers about PSR resources

Prospect Management (25%)

• Responsible for portfolio optimization:

  • Monitor prospects in portfolios to gauge the health of the portfolio and pipeline, including monitoring stage movement, identifying when prospects should move into/out of portfolios

  • Maintaining a prioritized and robust prospect pool, identifying and sharing high priority prospects to build out assigned prospects in Qualification.

  • Provide strategic advice related to pipeline movement and portfolio management.

• Provide input on the prospect management system, including sharing insights from a research perspective as well as work with frontline fundraising teams

Team Membership (10%)

• Participate in regular team meetings both of the Fundraising Operations team and the larger Development Team.

• Participate in group discussions and ongoing reflection about team culture, core values, and the Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness

• Demonstrate the core values and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusiveness.

• Engage in Elevate to drive performance and learning

• Participate in org-wide, D-Team, or FundOps special projects as aligned with interest and capacity

• Participate in Corps Member interviews in partnership with the Admissions team.

A WEEK IN THE LIFE

Over the course of any week, the Director, PSR will spend time:

• Researching current and potential prospects to determine capacity to give, interest in and connection to TFA.

• Meet with members of Field Fundraising teams to discuss prospect research and prospect portfolios to ensure a robust prospect pipeline.

• Collaborate with other members of the PSR team to discuss and execute on team-wide projects.

• Collaborate with colleagues on other FundOps teams (Systems & Reporting and Gift Operations) to support fundraising activities.

YOUR EXPERIENCE

Your areas of knowledge and expertise that matter most for this role (minimum qualifications):

• Ability to conduct in-depth research (i.e., finances, philanthropy, relationship with TFA) and to analyze and synthesize data from a wide variety of sources, and present the resulting information clearly.

• Ability to think critically and strategically while making timely decisions and demonstrating good judgment

• Ability to organize and manage a diverse range of assignments and projects with high efficiency and a thorough attention to detail and follow through.

• Strong written, verbal, and virtual communication skills

• Excited by challenges and opportunities for problem solving

• Exceptional ability to build strong relationships with various teams

• Ability to set and evolve project vision and direction

• Ability to create policies and systems that meet a wide variety of needs

• Strong ability to tailor approach toward the perspective of others

• Ability to learn, internalize, and apply Development’s data norms

• Advanced experience with Salesforce or other CRM database

• Abides by Apra Principles of Ethics and Compliance.

Prior Experience

• Required: 5+ years of experience in prospect development or relevant research experience

• Required: Past experience working directly with frontline fundraisers to discuss portfolios, pipelines and prospect research support.

• Required: History of managing multiple projects at one time

Work Demands

• Occasional travel to team or org-wide gatherings.

YOUR FUTURE TEAM

The Director, Prospect Research sits on TFA’s Development Team’s Fundraising Operations team. The Development Team builds and strengthens Teach For America’s philanthropic partnerships by inspiring donors to invest in the future of our country by advancing TFA’s work with students nationally and regionally. The Fundraising Operations team is responsible for supporting TFA’s enterprise-wide fundraising efforts by ensuring strong data, technology, reporting, analyses, and prospect development, and by supporting fundraisers to fully adopt these tools and services. The Fundraising Operations Team is comprised of three sub-teams: (1) Data Governance, Reporting & Technology, (2) Gift Operations, and (3) Prospect Strategy & Research. The Development Team has members located across the country. While there is limited travel involved in this role for team meetings, most interactions will be conducted virtually.

YOUR COMPENSATION

The applicable salary range for each U.S.-based role is based on where the employee works and is aligned to one of 3 tiers according to a cost of labor index in that geographic area. Starting pay for the successful applicant will depend on a variety of job-related factors, which may include education, training, experience, location, business needs, or market demands. New hires are typically brought into the organization at a salary between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint depending on qualifications, internal equity, and the budgeted amount for the role. The expected salary ranges for this role are set forth below. These ranges may be modified in the future.

Tier A: $74,300 - $101,300

Tier B: $81,000 - $110,500

Tier C: $87,600 - $119,600

You can view which tier applies to where you plan to work here.