Prospect Research Analyst

The Prospect Research Team at Virginia Tech provides strategic intelligence to Advancement partners working to reach fundraising, participation, and engagement goals. In a division striving for continuous program innovation, the team pursues dynamic solutions to challenges and opportunities that transpire in a changing philanthropic landscape. 

The Prospect Research Analyst is a key partner in the success of the fundraising and engagement process through research, pipeline development, and analysis. This role requires intellectual curiosity, creativity, strong attention to detail, and foresight. Reporting to the Associate Director of Prospect Research, the successful candidate will be responsible for:

Performing research on constituents using various tools, such as specialized subscription databases, print publications, and web-based research to determine financial capacities, philanthropic interests, and relationships to the university

– Overseeing/processing vendor wealth screenings to identify and prioritize prospects
– Growing the prospect pipeline by identifying new prospects and disseminating actionable information to Advancement partners
– Developing timely prospect portfolios, submitting assignment recommendations, and conducting pipeline analysis
– Composing prospect profiles and reports for Advancement partners
– Tracking and distributing news and information about top donors and prospects for pipeline development
– Developing and presenting research strategies and methods, including developing creative research methods to identify potential donors and/or new donor prospects
– Leveraging data analytics skills to assist in the creation of predictive and descriptive models/scores to help facilitate strategic and financial goals
– Staying abreast of trends in prospect research, online searching, information retrieval, analytics, and participating in professional development opportunities
– Proactively improving and maintaining the accuracy and breadth of information available on constituents within the CRM database
– Maintaining an expectation of excellence in communication, as well as a dedication to superior customer service and professionalism, with an emphasis on relationship building
– Assessing priorities and needs, managing own schedule, monitoring progress, and re-prioritizing as necessary; completing work on time with minimal supervision
– Conducting ad hoc projects and completing requests as needed