Senior Associate Director, Prospect Management and Portfolio Strategy

About the role

The Prospect Development team within the Office of Alumni Relations and Development (OAD) at Columbia University specializes in Prospect Research, Due Diligence Research, and Prospect Management. Reporting to the Director of Prospect Development, the Senior Associate Director, Prospect Management & Portfolio Strategy serves as a senior strategic partner in the development and execution of prospect management and portfolio strategy for Columbia’s fundraising programs. This role is responsible for shaping and optimizing the pool of donors and prospective donors assigned to frontline fundraisers, ensuring portfolios are strategically constructed, actively managed, and aligned with institutional priorities.

Responsibilities

• Managing the systems and processes that support effective prospect management, including prospect assignment, stage management, and the tracking of fundraiser activity through contact reports and proposals.
• Driving data-informed decision-making.
• Monitoring portfolio performance.
• Providing strategic guidance to enhance pipeline development and fundraising outcomes.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree.
• Four (4) to six (6) years of experience in prospect management or a related field, preferably in a higher education environment.

Qualifications

• Basic aptitude in query languages such as PL/SQL.
• Expert proficiency with Microsoft Office suite.
• Familiarity with data visualization tools, such as Microsoft SRSS, Power BI, Tableau, and/or Qlik.
• Knowledge of common practices in the fields of fundraising, alumni relations, development, and prospect development.
• Ability to conceptualize and develop proactive prospecting methodologies to support organizational goals, including data mining, sophisticated constituent database queries, etc.
• Familiarity with wealth screening and its application to fundraising.
• Familiarity with the software development lifecycle and experience with issue tracking software, such as JIRA, Trello, TaskRay, and/or Rally, preferred.
• Understanding of CRUD operations and the ability to create and troubleshoot database packages and procedures, preferred.

Pay

Salary: $90,000-$100,000.

Schedule

Subject to business needs, the Office of Alumni Relations and Development supports a hybrid work arrangement for this position. Options will be discussed during the interview process.