Manager, Research and Prospect Development

As the Manager, Research and Prospect Development, you are a strategic partner in Ivey’s fundraising and engagement efforts. You manage the research operations on stakeholders, stakeholder groups and issues of strategic importance to the school, in order to enhance the ability of Advancement staff, senior faculty and administrators to successfully acquire support for the activities of the school, as well as to contribute to the school’s intellectual capital on key business markets and issues. You facilitate the prospect management function of the Advancement database, including data storage, data reporting, data analysis, and assist in the dissemination of reports on prospect pipelines, alumni engagement, campaign/project progress and fundraising programs. Further, you oversee several coordinated processes between teams, such as trip planning and prospect clearance. You are detailed, resourceful and can work independently, while being flexible and responsive to last minute requests and deadlines.

You are excited about the opportunity to work for Canada’s most prestigious business school, working alongside the brightest staff, students and globally-recognized faculty, as well as being a part of the broader Western University community.

What you’ll do: 

Research and Prospect Identification 

• Manage the systems and procedures that meet, and exceed, the research and information needs of Advancement staff and other members of the School, such as the Dean, the Associate Deans and faculty, in preparation for contacting, cultivating and soliciting major gift prospects (individuals, corporations, and other organizations, such as foundations).
• Research and assess major gift prospects by analyzing individuals and corporate entities for: connections to Ivey and to other organizations; giving potential, and propensity to donate in order to establish priorities and strategies for the successful solicitation of donors.
• Oversee and participate in the preparation of detailed and up-to-date research briefings on prospects and/or groups of prospects for development staff, senior faculty and administrators, in advance of calls and events in order to obtain optimal outcomes.
• Devise strategies for obtaining new prospects in order to ensure the ongoing development, expansion and renewal of the prospect base, to which the School will turn for current and future support.
• Discover and evaluate prospective donors and their interests, relationships, inclination to give and philanthropic capacity to inform and support Ivey’s fundraising strategies and outreach efforts.
• Complete any special projects related to Research including requests from senior leaders, the Dean’s Office, or other Advancement staff. These requests may relate to business intelligence, fundraising, alumni engagement, or other, such as research for Intouch magazine.
• Develop “best practice” prospect research by keeping abreast of developments and trends in prospect research through a variety of means including professional associations, social media, printed material, and internal and external meetings and training sessions.
• Manage Operations information resources, including identifying and selecting sources of information and information vendors.

Prospect Management 

• Manage, track and assist on reporting Ivey’s Advancement activities with our constituents and prospect pool.
• Support Director, Advancement Operations in developing and enhancing the prospect management portion of the Advancement database, including formulating processes that optimize data storage, capture and retrieval of prospect information such as major gift solicitation activity, tracking relationships, strategies and proposals.
• Oversee trip coordination with Ivey Advancement, senior leadership and Western Advancement as necessary, as it relates to prospect research and pipeline review.
• Manage information exchange and coordination of prospects with Western Advancement (Western Clearance Process).
• Actively strategize to assign prospect capacity ratings through the manual manipulation of vendor-generated or internally developed scores.
• Make recommendations to positively influence fundraising and engagement activity.

Data Analytics and Reporting 

• Support an information driven culture by deriving conclusions and identifying trends through statistical analysis of internal and external data.
• Prepare data reports and conduct analysis for various requests from internal or external teams at Ivey, such as prospect reports/analysis, metrics for measuring alumni engagement, data modelling, or other requests from stakeholders for insights on alumni data.
• Coordinate with Director, Advancement Operations and other Advancement team members and areas (Records, Gift Processing) to optimize data storage and reporting, work to ensure an efficient and responsive customer-service approach to requests from Advancement, as well as the Dean’s Office and senior leadership.

Training, Work Delegation and Output Monitoring 

• Recruit, hire, supervise and mentor a Western University Master of Library & Information Science Co-Op student placement in prospect research (approximately 2 per year).
• Instruct and review the work of Advancement student assistants, as required.
• Assist in training Advancement staff on the topics of Prospect Research and Prospect Management, including reports and database structures, as required.

What you have: 

Required Education and Experience:

• A university degree, preferably a master’s degree in Library & Information Science.
• Minimum of 4 years’ experience in a research environment, preferably in a university advancement department.

Skills and Abilities: 

• The ideal candidate is a team-oriented individual with strong customer service and communication skills, including a strong ability to edit documents for formatting, spelling, grammar, and sentence structure errors. They work under pressure well and thrive in an environment with multiple deadlines and goals. They are highly organized and resourceful.
• Demonstrate ability to analyze and synthesize data from a wide variety of sources, and present the resulting information in a clear briefing.
• Demonstrate a sense of initiative and inquisitiveness, and is a strategic, creative thinker with excellent prioritization and multi-tasking skills.
• Display and demonstrate overall knowledge of philanthropy, fundraising processes and prospect development initiatives including prospect identification techniques, research practices and prospect management.
• Be proficient in the methods of information acquisition, including use of industry standard online sources (IWave, CharityCan, ProQuest, Lexis-Nexis, Factiva, internet searching).
• Be proactive in anticipating and researching information related to the immediate priorities of the Advancement team.
• Demonstrate initiative in researching new sources of information, as they become necessary and/or available.
• Possess the ability to organize and manage a diverse range of assignments and projects with high efficiency, yet thorough attention to detail and follow through.
• Have knowledge and understanding of the North American business environment and corporate management structures.
• Must be flexible and adaptable to new programs in an emerging and changing environment.
• Experience with Millennium (Abila), Salesforce, Blackbaud or similar relational database system.
• Possess competence in a variety of Microsoft computer applications, including database, spreadsheet and word processing programs, and an interest in learning new programs.
• Possess competence in developing reporting systems.
• Knowledge of relevant government legislation and industry guidelines (APRA Statement of Ethics, Donor Bill of Rights, privacy legislations).
• Be able to handle sensitive and confidential information appropriately and with discretion.
• Have basic familiarity and appreciation of the mission, purpose and values of a comprehensive university and its responsiveness to the educational and research requirements of a sophisticated international business community.

Location: London, Ontario

Position Type: This is a full-time (35-hours/week) 3-year renewable contract with full benefits.

Typical Hiring Range: Based on the salary band for this role, external candidates can expect to be offered a starting salary in the range of $65,200 – $81,500. When determining salary we consider the market, candidate experience, as well as internal equity. Once in the role, successful candidates will have the opportunity to progress through the range and beyond the hiring range of the band, through annual increases. The maximum salary for this band is approximately 20% higher than the top end of the hiring range.

Interested?

Do you think you would be a good fit for the role? Tell us why by submitting your resume and cover letter via the Ivey Careers page today! Note: Application will close February 1, 2022.

Effective September 7, 2021, all employees and visitors to campus are required to comply with Western’s COVID-19 Vaccination Policy.

Diversity & Accommodation:

Ivey Business School invites applications from all qualified individuals. We are committed to employment equity and diversity in the workplace and we welcome applications from women, members of racialized groups/visible minorities, Aboriginal persons, persons with disabilities, persons of any sexual orientation, and persons of any gender identity or gender expression.

Accommodations are available for applicants with disabilities throughout the recruitment process. If you require accommodation for interviews or other meetings, please contact Ivey Human Resources at hr@ivey.ca or by telephone at 519-661-2111 ext. 85771.