Prospect Research Analyst

The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism/ The Baltimore Banner; Baltimore (MD); On-site; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism/Baltimore Banner seeks a Prospect Research Analyst to design and implement donor research, wealth screening, and prospecting among donors and contributing subscribers to support annual fundraising goals.

You will help oversee the donor database implementation and reporting, create dashboards, and ensure data quality while collaborating with staff and contractors in a startup nonprofit environment.

Qualifications

• Responsibilities include designing and implementing prospect research strategies
• Donor wealth screening and tracking for leadership prep
• Overseeing donor database implementation and data quality
• Creating dashboards and reporting tools to support fundraising
• Coordinating with staff/contractors on gift processing and data entry
• Flexibility in a startup nonprofit environment

Responsibilities

• Provide responsive and accurate information on prospects’ wealth and philanthropy to inform gift conversations
• Design and refine tools to identify and track prospects through the pipeline
• Support Salesforce implementation for development with practical reporting tools
• Coordinate with staff on data entry to ensure automation data quality
• Research/implement wealth screening tools for prospecting
• Manage subscriptions and evaluate products for development operations
• Other duties as needed in a startup context

Job description

The Venetoulis Institute is a nonprofit organization founded to bring high-quality local journalism to the Baltimore metro area. We started on this journey because local news is under siege across the country. Many news organizations are either shutting down, downsizing to survive, or being bought out by hedge funds focusing on the bottom line. Despite Baltimore’s proud history of great journalism, our region’s publications have not been spared the realities of the news industry.

We are creating a vibrant, strong, trustworthy, and sustainable news organization to fulfill our mission. We are seeking to re-imagine what a news organization for the future looks like. We launched The Baltimore Banner, a multi-platform news operation covering a broad range of topics from local government to culture and the arts.

ABOUT THE POSITION

Reporting to the Director of Philanthropy & Operations, the Prospect Research Analyst will be responsible for designing and implementing effective prospect research strategies that focus on researching high-net-worth individuals and foundations and prospecting from among low-dollar donors / contributing subscribers. The role will also help oversee the donor database implementation and reporting for the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, ensuring proper record keeping and policies around data protocols are established and followed. The position directly impacts the organization’s ability to meet its annual fundraising goals, helping to build out systems/reporting and surface key prospects that collectively drive results. As building the operation is fluid, these responsibilities may be subject to adjustment.

Responsibilities:

• Provide responsive and accurate information and data on prospects’ personal wealth, business achievements, existing philanthropy, repetitional risks, and other relevant information for leadership’s use in preparing for gift conversations, making use of available financial and philanthropic information and database resources;
• Design / refine the set of tools and processes the Institute uses to both identify and track prospects’ progress through the pipeline; utilizing the database and developing other tailored resources (dashboards, tracking systems) to facilitate this work;
• Support the Institute’s implementation of Salesforce for development purposes, and work with internal or external resources to design and implement practical reporting tools and dashboards;
• Coordinate with staff/contractors as needed on gift processing and data entry to ensure accuracy of automation data quality;
• Research and implement a wealth screening tool/service for prospecting among lower-dollar donors;
• Manage the development operation’s research-oriented subscriptions and evaluate new products as needed;
• Other duties as needs dictate – flexibility is critical in a startup environment.