Development Lead - Prospect Research & New Business Development

Rocky Mountain Institute; Denver (CO); Hybrid; USD 76,000 - 94,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

403b retirement match

Generous PTO & parental leave

Hybrid/remote work options

Team retreats & learning budget

Job summary

Rocky Mountain Institute seeks a Development Lead for Prospect Research and New Business Development to drive funder research, pipeline management, and research operations across multiple revenue streams. You will lead cross-functional collaboration with program teams, Development staff, and executives to prioritize opportunities and improve fundraising outcomes.

The role emphasizes data fluency, Apra-informed standards, and experience supporting discovery across individuals, foundations,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
• 5 years of dedicated experience in prospect research, prospect development, fundraising operations, donor services, advancement services, or related nonprofit development.
• Familiarity with Apra Body of Knowledge and ethical research standards; Apra membership or training preferred.
• Experience identifying and qualifying prospects across fundraising verticals, including individuals/HNWIs, family offices, foundations, corporate philanthropy, and public-sector funders.

Responsibilities

• Lead and evolve prospect research and development across the revenue portfolio, maintaining centralized prospect lists and pipelines.
• Actively manage and report on prospect pipelines, status, ownership, and next steps.
• Strengthen data models in Salesforce or data warehouses, with dashboards and data-quality checks.
• Promote and apply responsible use of AI/automation to improve research speed, accuracy, and decision-making.

Skills

Data fluency

Prospect research

Project management

Stakeholder management

Written communication

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

Tools

Salesforce

DonorSearch

WealthX

Foundation Directory/Foundation Center

Relationship Science

Job description

Job Description:

Position Overview

The Development Lead - Prospect Research and New Business Development leads funder research, prospect development, active pipeline management, and research operations across fundraising verticals, including individuals, foundations, corporate philanthropy, corporate fee-for-service engagement partners, and the public sector. This is an experienced Lead / senior individual contributor role for a candidate who can assess RMI's current state, strengthen standards, and help mature the prospect development function. The role supports unrestricted and general operating revenue growth by improving how prospects are identified, prioritized, tracked, and advanced; how prospect data is captured and surfaced in Salesforce or related data warehouse/reporting environments; and how AI, automation, and prospect intelligence are used responsibly to support better fundraising decisions. The ideal candidate brings dedicated prospect development practice, data fluency, Apra-informed standards, and experience supporting prospect discovery across individual, foundation, corporate, and public-sector revenue streams. Individual/HNWI research experience is especially valuable given RMI's unrestricted giving goals. This role is part of RMI's Development & Strategic Engagement team and reports to the Director of New Initiatives & Partnerships (Strategic Services).

Key Responsibilities

Prospect Research and New Business Development

• Lead and evolve RMI's prospect research and prospect development work across the revenue portfolio, maintaining centralized prospect lists and pipelines that incorporate inputs from new business development efforts, Program teams, Development staff, events, executive engagement opportunities, and shifts in the broader funding landscape.

Pipeline Strategy and Cross-Functional Partnership

• Actively manage program-specific and cross-program prospect pipelines, tracking opportunity status, prospect movement, owner accountability, next steps, and action follow-up.
• Conduct pipeline analysis, reporting, and financial pipeline reviews to identify funding gaps, high-potential opportunities, prospects ready for outreach, and actions needed to move prospects forward.
• Partner with Relationship Managers and program colleagues to prioritize prospects, identify engagement gaps, support follow-up, and elevate recurring or unresolved barriers to Development leadership when needed.
• Translate prospect and pipeline data into clear recommendations for where RMI should focus limited relationship-building time and senior leadership attention, separating useful intelligence from action-ready opportunities.

Systems, Data, Automation, and Operational Excellence

• Serve as a steward of high-quality prospect and pipeline data in Salesforce, including relationship data, ratings, attribute coding, opportunities, tasks, moves management, prospect status, and next steps.
• Partner with Development Operations and data/technology colleagues to strengthen the prospect research data model in Salesforce or related data warehouse/reporting environments, including fields, tagging, data standards, dashboards, and data-quality checks.
• Develop standardized capacity, inclination, affinity, and readiness rating practices; evaluate research resources, datasets, AI applications, automation tools, data enrichment services, and vendor relationships to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of RMI's prospect research system.
• Use AI and automation responsibly to reduce duplicative manual work, improve prospect discovery, increase reporting speed, and support prioritization while maintaining human judgment, documentation quality, privacy safeguards, and ethical review.
• Identify, streamline, document, and improve internal processes across research requests, qualification, outreach handoffs, data flow, reporting, and knowledge management.

Training, Standards, and Resource Coordination

• Promote knowledge-sharing and consistent adoption of prospect research and new business development processes across collaborators, making tools and workflows practical, easy to use, and tied to fundraising decisions.
• Train Development, Strategic Engagement, and Program colleagues on prospect research tools, data practices, and effective partnership with Development; guide staff, contractors, interns, or vendors on repeatable research or data tasks as needed.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
• 5 years of dedicated experience in prospect research, prospect development, fundraising operations, donor services, advancement services, or a related nonprofit development function.
• Familiarity with the Apra Body of Knowledge, Apra-informed ethical research standards, and current prospect development practices; Apra membership, training, or equivalent professional development preferred.
• Experience identifying and qualifying prospects across fundraising verticals, including individuals/HNWIs, family offices, family foundations, donor-advised fund holders, institutional foundations, corporate philanthropy or fee-for-service partners, and public-sector funders; individual giving experience preferred.
• Experience with prospect research tools and methods, including DonorSearch, WealthX, Foundation Directory/Foundation Center, Relationship Science, Salesforce, screenings, relationship mapping, public records, due diligence, and moves-management support.
• Strong data fluency, including Salesforce reports/dashboards, segmentation, data mining, database overlays, data hygiene, pipeline reporting, and comfort partnering on Salesforce or data warehouse improvements.
• Experience using or evaluating AI-enabled research tools, workflow automation, data enrichment tools, or vendor systems to improve research speed, accuracy, and decision-making.
• Demonstrated analytical, project management, writing, collaboration, and stakeholder-management skills, including sound judgment with sensitive information; disciplined prioritization; due diligence and judgment; and ability to build shared ownership of next steps across a matrixed team.
• Experience working in the environmental, climate, clean energy sector, or adjacent mission-driven sector is preferred but not required.

Visa Sponsorship

Please note: At this time, RMI is not able to sponsor employment visas or hire candidates who require visa sponsorship to work in the United States. All candidates must have current, independent authorization to work in the U.S. without present or future sponsorship from RMI. We will update our hiring pages if this status changes.

Location

We are a remote-ready company with team members around the globe. Our beautiful and welcoming offices are available for meetings or focused work, whether you are traveling through or living nearby. Our U.S. offices are in New York City; Washington DC; Oakland, California; Boulder, Colorado, and Basalt, Colorado. This role can be located from anywhere in the continental United States.

We provide you with the essential IT equipment plus a one-time home technology payment and a monthly work from home/commuter allowance to ensure you have a comfortable home office set up and necessary supplies.

We love seeing each other in person! We occasionally gather for shared time together like retreats and learning experiences. Be ready to travel for occasional in-person meetings (and of course, we cover travel costs).

Compensation

At RMI, we prioritize fairness in our pay practices. Salaries are determined based on a mix of experience, market benchmarks, and internal equity across similar roles. The salary range of this position is $$76,030-$93,707. New hires typically start toward the lower end of the range, depending on experience and alignment with the role's scope. In addition to base salary, this position includes an annual bonus target of 5% and eligibility for merit-based increases, which are tied to both individual and organizational performance.

Benefits:

• Medical, dental, vision insurance
• 403b retirement match with immediate vesting
• Group life, AD&D, and short- and long-term disability
• Optional voluntary life, AD&D and accident plans
• Health savings or flexible spending accounts
• Fertility and hormonal health support
• Mental health and wellness support
• Comprehensive leaves of absence (including generous parental leave)
• Generous paid time off and sick leave
• Paid sabbatical leave
• Regional holidays with at least one extended break in each geography

Work from home and home technology allowances

Learning & development opportunities (LinkedIn Learning and an annual individual professional development budget)

Potential for bonuses and merit increases

Discount marketplace (gym memberships, pet insurance, etc.)

Hybrid / remote work options

Team retreats and geographic meetups

Rewards and recognition programs

Diversity

We know that the diversity of our teams makes us stronger as an organization, and RMI is dedicated to the principles of equal employment opportunity as outlined in U.S. federal law. We prohibit discrimination against applicants, interns, and employees on the basis of any legally recognized basis, including but not limited to: age (40 and over), race, color, sex, pregnancy (including lactation, childbirth, or related medical conditions), religion, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information (including testing and characteristics), sexual orientation, gender expression/identity, uniformed service member status, veteran status, citizenship status, or any other applicable status protected by applicable law.

RMI is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.