Prospect Research Coordinator, Foundation Relations

About the role

The Foundation Relations department serves as the university's central clearing house for all foundation interaction, including site visits, proposal tracking, foundation research, approach clearance and coordination.

Responsibilities

• Perform in-depth research on potential funding for university programs and priorities by charitable foundations, corporations, and government agencies using research tools including but not limited to Candid, GrantForward, Grants.gov, and Grants Intelligence Service.
• Prepare analyses of funding potential using financial data, assets, previous giving, and other criteria.
• Develop strategic approaches to funding opportunities and eliminate prospects with unmet restrictions or insufficient capacity.
• Provide detailed research reports to development officers, requesting faculty, the Offices of the President and Vice President for University Advancement, and other university leadership.
• Coordinate grant research, deadlines, application submissions, payments, and reports in Affinaquest (a Salesforce-based CRM) and/or other data management and workflow software.
• Track and manage requests for research, dissemination of results, and next steps to take on grant application opportunities.
• Ensure compliance with foundation guidelines and terms of grant agreements.
• Coordinate application and reporting processes with USD’s Office of Sponsored Programs to ensure that tasks associated with government grants and foundation gifts are accurately tracked by Advancement Services.
• Gather and maintain up-to-date institutional information, statistics, documents, certificates, and forms needed for grant applications and reports.
• Create and maintain a professional and welcoming environment by updating and maintaining the department’s website and serving as the primary receptionist for the suite.
• Support donor engagement, stewardship, and recognition events as well as other divisional events including but not limited to Ole Weekend, Homecoming and Family Weekend, and Commencement, as needed.
• Accurately process gifts received in accordance with Advancement Services and Accounting procedures.
• Coordinate incoming and outgoing correspondence with foundations and donors; respond to general office correspondence including emails to foundationrelations@sandiego.edu; sort and deliver mail.
• Maintain and update content, interactive links, and files on the websites for Foundation Giving/Foundation Relations, thereby keeping content current and accurate; recommend new pages for the Giving section to reflect the dynamic nature of the division’s mission, resources, policies, messaging, and stewardship.
• Train and orient Federal Work Study (FWS) students assigned to the department.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Minimum of two years’ experience in development, grant writing, prospect research, or related field.
• Must possess an understanding of standard office procedures and best practices, equipment, and business/professional ethics.
• Exceptional writing and oral communication skills required, with emphasis on qualitative information analysis and streamlined presentation.
• Demonstrated ability to conceptualize and develop proactive prospecting methodologies to support organizational goals, including data mining, sophisticated constituent database queries, etc.
• Advanced computer knowledge of Windows and network-based environments, exceptional skills and experience using the MS Office suite of applications (especially Word and Excel).
• Demonstrated ability to use online and database resources creatively and effectively.
• Highly proficient with new technology and CRM platforms.
• Requires a well-developed sense of curiosity, ingenuity, and perseverance; situational awareness and critical thinking a must.
• Strong listening skills with the ability to extract, analyze, interpret, produce, and disseminate clear and concise reports.
• Detail oriented with a high degree of accuracy.
• Ability to problem solve and anticipate the needs of the department; be responsive and flexible in order to contribute to evolving work situations.
• Must be friendly and personable; mature with a positive attitude.

Qualifications

• Knowledge of USD’s policies and procedures.
• Knowledge of ethics statements by APRA, Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and other related professional associations.
• Ability to work some evenings and weekends, as needed.