Director of Philanthropic Stategy & Prospect Management

North Carolina State University; Raleigh (NC); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

North Carolina State University College of Engineering seeks a Director of Philanthropic Strategy & Prospect Management to guide fundraising performance and portfolio optimization. You will partner with leadership to ensure campaign readiness and data-informed decision making across prospect strategy.

As the CRM lead for Salesforce (Lobo), you will design best practices, support adoption, and translate fundraising needs into effective CRM solutions that improve efficiency and reporting.

Qualifications

• Strategic advisor for fundraising performance and campaign readiness.
• Experience guiding prospect strategy and portfolio optimization.
• Ability to translate data into actionable fundraising improvements.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic guidance to strengthen fundraising performance across the College.
• Oversee portfolio management and prospect assignment strategies.
• Serve as CRM functional lead for Salesforce (Lobo) and related processes.
• Develop dashboards and reports to track activity, strategy, and pipeline health.
• Collaborate with leadership to align resources with high-impact opportunities.

Skills

Strategic planning

Fundraising analytics

CRM leadership

Portfolio management

Data-driven decision making

Tools

Salesforce (Lobo)

Job description

The Director of Philanthropic Strategy & Prospect Management serves as the College of Engineering’s strategic advisor on fundraising performance, portfolio optimization, campaign readiness, and prospect strategy. This position partners closely with the Assistant Dean for Philanthropy and frontline fundraisers to maximize philanthropic results through data-informed decision making, fundraising analytics, CRM leadership, and strategic portfolio management.

Rather than serving solely as a prospect manager, this role functions as a strategic partner to fundraising leadership by helping ensure gift officers are focused on the highest-impact opportunities and equipped with the information, systems, and strategy necessary to maximize fundraising success.

Core Responsibilities

1. Philanthropic Strategy - Provide strategic guidance that strengthens fundraising performance across the College.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as strategic advisor to the Assistant Dean and Executive Director on fundraising priorities and campaign readiness.
• Lead portfolio optimization and prospect assignment strategies.
• Facilitate prospect strategy meetings with frontline fundraisers.
• Identify opportunities, risks, and trends within all levels of the major gift fundraising pipeline – focusing on the continuum from major gift discovery to major gifts to principal giving.
• Develop recommendations to maximize fundraising productivity and philanthropic outcomes.
• Support campaign planning and principal gift pipeline development.

2. Prospect Management -Lead the strategic management of prospect portfolios to maximize fundraiser effectiveness.

Key Responsibilities

• Oversee portfolio management and assignment processes.
• Monitor prospect movement through the donor pipeline.
• Ensure portfolio health and accountability.
• Conduct regular portfolio reviews with gift officers.
• Coordinate closely with University Advancement Prospect Development on prospect management and research, working closely with analysts on research projects to fill fundraiser portfolios & gaps.
• Develop recommendations for prospect assignment and portfolio balancing.

3. CRM Strategy & Salesforce (Lobo) Leadership -Serve as the College’s functional expert for Salesforce (Lobo), ensuring the CRM effectively supports fundraising strategy and frontline success.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the College of Engineering’s primary functional lead for Salesforce (Lobo).
• Partner with University Advancement on CRM implementation, enhancements, testing, and user adoption.
• Develop best practices, workflows, and business processes within Salesforce.
• Train and support frontline fundraisers in the effective use of the CRM.
• Ensure data quality and consistency across fundraising operations.
• Translate fundraising needs into CRM solutions that improve efficiency and effectiveness.
• Identify opportunities to leverage Salesforce to improve fundraising performance and reporting.

4. Fundraising Analytics & Performance-Provide meaningful data and analysis that informs leadership decisions and drives fundraising success.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop executive dashboards and performance reports in Salesforce that track activity, strategy and pipeline health.
• Monitor fundraising KPIs and portfolio metrics.
• Analyze pipeline health and fundraising trends.
• Forecast fundraising performance and campaign progress.
• Track proposal activity and donor movement.
• Produce regular reports that support strategic decision making by the Assistant Dean and fundraising leadership

Other Responsibilities

• Other duties as assigned.