Senior Director of Prospect Development

Title: Senior Director of Prospect Development

Department: Development

Status: Exempt

Reports to: Vice President of Development Partnerships

Positions Reporting to this Position: Associate Manager of Prospect Research & Portfolio Management; Associate Manager of Prospect Research & Strategy, Prospect Research Associate

Location: United States

Remote Work Eligibility: Yes; Regular Remote Work

Travel Requirements: Up to 15%

Union Position: No

Job Classification: M-III

Salary Range (depending on qualified experience): $117,000 – $162,000

General Description:

The League of Conservation Voters, Inc. (“LCV”), a non-profit organization, believes our earth is worth fighting for because everyone has a right to clean air, water, and a safe, healthy community. To ensure those rights are protected, we help people use their power to shape policy, hold politicians and polluters accountable, and influence elections.

For more than 50 years, LCV has grown into a potent political force for protecting our planet and everyone who inhabits it. We have built a powerful national movement with 30+ state affiliates, and grassroots and community organizing programs across the country.

LCV is hiring a Senior Director of Prospect Development who is the architect of and strategist for prospect research, prospect and portfolio management, infiltration vetting, and analytics and reporting for the major giving and annual fund teams. The Senior Director leads the whole body of work dedicated to identifying, qualifying, and building strategy for major donors and prospects that results in meaningful and transformational philanthropic relationships. As such, the Senior Director identifies high quality, top-notch prospects for the major gifts and annual fund teams, while also leading and advising on high level strategy to deepen existing relationships and expand our donor base. This role will be responsible for conceptualizing and expanding prospecting methodologies to support LCV’s ambitious fundraising goals and managing a team responsible for list evaluation, research and strategy requests, and high-level analytics that inform and guide excellent fundraising performance. The Senior Director advises the organization on the development and maintenance of a healthy and prospering prospect and donor pipeline. The Senior Director of Prospect Development directly supervises the Associate Manager of Prospect Research and Portfolio Management, Associate Manager of Prospect Research & Strategy, and the Prospect Research Associate. Additionally, through a new collaborative program, Unified Fundraising, the Senior Director will support a pilot program to integrate LCV’s planned giving program with those of 7-10 state affiliates across the Conservation Voter Movement (CVM).

This position is classified as “Regular Remote Work”, which means the position is not assigned to an office and can work remotely full-time.

This job operates in a professional office environment, and routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, and audiovisual systems. This position is largely sedentary, often standing or sitting for prolonged periods.

Applicants must be located in and legally authorized to work in the United States.

Responsibilities:

• Lead a top-notch Prospect Development (prospect research, prospect management, analytics) program which partners with LCV’s Major Gifts and Annual Fund Teams to ensure that all portfolios have sufficient prospects, research, and strategy in key markets.
• Manage the work of the prospect development team, including work request flow and ensuring prospect research briefings and strategy are of the highest quality, accurate and delivered in a timely manner while honing in on only the details that will lead to maximum fundraising results.
• Drive the innovation of existing research systems and protocols to streamline all processes resulting in a more efficient and impactful body of work; maintain the Prospect Development Manual.
• Create and maintain a donor pyramid by identifying and qualifying high net worth major donors and prospects in service of creating and maintaining high quality major donor and annual fund portfolios.
• Ensure the team proactively produces a strategy that provides points of access to high net worth prospects ($100K+ capacity), prospects of color, and other potential connectors who already have relationships with the LCV family of organizations through RelSci, family tree, and other mapping techniques.
• Manage the process for a regular and consistent refresh of contact information for prospects to ensure access to donors is as easy and streamlined as possible for major gifts officers and outreach lists used by LCV’s president, executive team, and the Major Gifts and Annual Fund Teams.
• Develop a broad awareness of LCV and LCVEF’s programs to support the identification of individuals whose philanthropic interests align with our work.
• Use prospect development expertise and employ research tools to analyze and make recommendations for potential major gifts fundraising territories and portfolios.
• Together with the team, ensure increased racial diversity in each portfolio and continue to identify new prospective donors of color.
• Maintain database coding of prospect rankings and estimated gift capacities to ensure accurate tracking of the donor pipeline from individual Annual Fund through Principal level donors.
• Work with fundraisers to provide expertise and guidance on accurate interpretation of information and assist with forming cultivation and stewardship plans.
• Create an end-of-year suite of reports, including a landscape analysis of all MGO performance and individual MGO performance reports. Highlight overall patterns and trends and map trends year-on-year to maximize performance.
• Work with LCV’s State Capacity Building Team and State Affiliate Development staff to support a Unified Fundraising strategy around a planned giving pilot program by sharing expertise and making recommendations around the process of identifying and prioritizing prospects for outreach. Define shared prospects and create portfolios for unified outreach.
• As the Unified Fundraising program expands in state affiliates’ fundraising programs, make recommendations for how to approach portfolio creation and create portfolios.
• Manage planned giving research and other research-related bodies of work being done on contract by vendors.
• Contribute to organizational and department efforts to infuse racial justice and equity into all aspects of our work, including our fundraising.
• Manage the day-to-day workload and review of up to three prospect research consultants through Wrike, our project management software.
• Partner with the Events Team to ensure the prospect development team conducts event participant research and vetting for major events.
• Manage the Prospect Development team budget and maintain relationships with vendors to ensure timely payment and accurate financial reporting.
• Travel up to 15% of the time for in-person work, including staff retreats, meetings, conferences, professional development opportunities, and one-on-one training with direct reports, as needed.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Work Experience: Required – 8 years of experience in a robust major gifts research program, including tracking and management of the research process in a donor database. Experience maintaining a donor pipeline and tracking procedures in donor databases. Strong experience with Salesforce. Experience managing, hiring, onboarding, and training staff. Experience creating new portfolios or overhauling existing portfolios. Preferred – Issue advocacy or political experience. Exposure to vetting, opposition, due diligence, or infiltration research. Experience with the Apra community and working knowledge of their resources. Experience managing consultants. Experience managing budgets. Experience creating prospect strategies with proven results. Experience working for an organization with state affiliates.
• Skills: Required – Excellent management skills. Extensive knowledge of research tools and techniques. Excellent analytical skills and an advanced level of proficiency in Excel. Adept at maintaining systems for easy access to information and data. Highly organized with a thorough attention to detail. Skilled at clearly communicating and supporting relevant conclusions drawn from the analysis and synthesis of disparate data sources. Ability to communicate database tracking procedures and systems to staff with various levels of technical skills. Strong multi-tasking skills, including organization, flexibility to shift priorities based on urgent needs, and confidence to ask for help. Motivated by goals to produce excellent results and exceed expectations. Ability to apply an ethical code and good judgment. Ability to maintain strict confidentiality, handling materials and situations with sensitivity and discretion. Preferred – Experience working for an organization with multiple entities, specifically, 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), PAC, SuperPAC. Familiarity with donor modeling. Experience with tools like iWave, DonorSearch, FoundationSearch, LexisNexis, RelSci, and political giving databases. Knowledge of a project management tool like Wrike or Asana. Basic to Intermediate skills with PowerPoint.
• Racial Justice and Equity Competencies: Demonstrated awareness of how one’s life experiences influence one’s personal attitudes, biases, and assumptions. Demonstrated commitment to continual learning and ability to successfully deliver culturally responsive services. Commitment to equity and inclusion as organizational practice and culture. Understands how environmental issues intersect with racism, economic and social inequality in the U.S. and has a passion for working to dismantle these systems.

LCV offers a comprehensive and competitive benefits package that includes vacation, sick and parental leave, personal days, paid holidays, health insurance (two plan options for staff to choose from), dental and vision insurance, life and disability insurance (short- and long-term), Flexible Spending Account, 401(k) retirement plan with company matching contribution, commuter benefits program, sabbatical, and student loan assistance.

To Apply: Send cover letter and resume to hr@lcv.org with “Senior Director of Prospect Development” in the subject line by January 12, 2025. No phone calls please.

LCV is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to a racially just, equitable and inclusive workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, or genetic information, or any other protected status. LCV is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in the employee selection process, including, completing the application, interviewing, or pre-employment testing, please contact hr@lcv.org.