[Hiring] Assistant Director of Prospect Research and Identification @Oregon Health & Science University Foundation

Role Description

The Assistant Director of Prospect Research and Identification plays a key role in supporting the OHSU Foundation's fundraising efforts by identifying, researching, and evaluating prospective donors. As a member of the Prospect Development team, you'll partner closely with development officers and Foundation leaders to provide the insights and strategy needed to grow philanthropic support across OHSU.

In this role, you'll help uncover new fundraising opportunities, conduct in-depth prospect research, analyze wealth and engagement data, and develop actionable recommendations that support donor qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. You'll also help maintain the integrity of prospect information within the fundraising database and serve as a resource for colleagues seeking guidance on research tools and best practices.

This is a temporary position from September 2026 through February 2027.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Prospect Identification
  • Serve as a strategic partner with assigned development officers to identify new prospects aligned with fundraising priorities, portfolio growth, and emerging initiatives.
  • Develop strategies for obtaining new prospects and maintaining a dynamic prospect pool for development officers, while tracking the progress of prospects identified through team and individual development officer queues.
  • Monitor a variety of sources, including relevant websites, newspapers, periodicals, new donor lists, wealth screening data, and development officer referrals to identify prospective donors.
  • Proactively identify, qualify, assess, rank, and prioritize potential major and principal gift prospects through the use of a variety of research tools, interpreting and segmenting prospects based on capacity, affinity, strategy, and readiness.
  • Analyze and synthesize data to identify patterns and trends that can inform fundraising strategies and prospect development efforts.
• Research
  • Partner with development officers to assess information needs and determine the most appropriate level of research support based on the stage of cultivation.
  • Conduct detailed research on prospects and donors using a variety of resources, including internal records, paid databases, and publicly available sources. Research may include financial information, philanthropic interests, personal interests, professional affiliations, and connections to OHSU.
  • Create and maintain detailed individual and organizational profiles that provide informed guidance to Foundation leaders, university partners, faculty, and development staff.
  • Provide customized research and prospect intelligence to support the identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of donors aligned with OHSU priorities.
  • Manage research requests and prospecting projects, providing timely and appropriate support to stakeholders across the Foundation and university.

Qualifications

• You understand development and major gifts fundraising and how prospect development supports development efforts.
• You have advanced research skills: detailed knowledge and extensive use of online reference and information systems, libraries, data screening products and other reference materials and tools; mastery of foundation financial data, and SEC data analysis.
• You have experience using multiple screening strategies and methodologies, including data mining, segmentation, and analytics.
• You have strong interpersonal skills and cultural competency; ability to collaborate professionally, diplomatically and productively with diverse colleagues and contacts, including development officers.

Requirements

• Experience with major and principal-gift level prospect strategy development, research, and prospecting.
• 5-7 years in a development research office or related experience, preferably in healthcare, higher education or complex non-profit environment.
• Experience working in a relational database.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proficient skills in Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint; advanced skills preferred.
• Experience working in a relational database (Kindsight AdvancementRM, Salesforce, or other complex fundraising CRM preferred).
• Experience with prospect research resources such as DonorSearch, Relationship Science, Lexis-Nexis, Candid (Foundation Directory Online and Guidestar), and Blackbaud Giving.

Working Conditions

• Can be a 100% remote position with minimal travel to OHSU, Portland office on occasion/as requested.
• Occasional hours outside of normal work hours for meetings or programs.
• Prolonged use of a computer.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical and dental insurance.
• Pension program (The Foundation contributes 12% of your annual salary to a pension).
• 22 days of paid vacation, 11 paid holidays, 1 float holiday and 2 days of volunteer time off.
• Professional development dollars for each employee.
• Hybrid work allowance and much more!