[Hiring] Manager, Prospect Management & Research @XPRIZE Foundation

Role Description

The Manager of Prospect Management and Research serves as a core driver of XPRIZE’s intelligence-led fundraising system, operating at the intersection of prospect strategy, fundability insight, and pipeline performance. This role is not a traditional research function. It is a strategic partner to fundraisers and leadership, responsible for building and managing a disciplined, prioritized, and insight-driven prospect pipeline that fuels Advancement’s funding priorities.

The Manager will execute a structured prospecting and portfolio management model aligned to XPRIZE’s fundability-informed prioritization framework, ensuring that research effort is directed toward the highest-impact opportunities and that pipeline development is continuous, intentional, and measurable.

This role sits within Integrated Strategy and works in close partnership with Advancement leadership, Strategic Philanthropy, and Community teams to ensure that prospect intelligence informs decision-making, not just reporting.

Responsibilities

• Prospect Strategy & Fundability Alignment
  • Support the fundability assessment process by contributing prospect intelligence, market signals, and sponsor insights that inform prize prioritization (Priority vs. Conditional).
  • Align research and prospecting efforts to enterprise priorities, ensuring resources are focused on high-probability, high-impact opportunities.
  • Continuously feed real-time market insight back into fundability and prioritization discussions.
• Structured Prospect Sourcing & Discovery
  • Execute continuous proactive prospecting across both fundraising engines, Strategic Philanthropy and Community.
  • Lead and manage Prospect Discovery Waves.
  • Deliver assignment-ready prospect pools (quality over volume), aligned with capacity and strategy targets.
  • Monitor wealth creation trends, liquidity events, and emerging leaders to drive new pipeline growth.
• Prospect Management & Pipeline Governance
  • Own and manage Salesforce pipeline architecture.
  • Enforce qualification criteria before prospect assignment.
  • Partner with Advancement leadership on portfolio composition and rebalancing, prospect assignment recommendations, and recycling and acceleration decisions.
  • Monitor pipeline health and velocity, including time in stage, conversion rates, and stagnation triggers.
• Moves Management & Performance Discipline
  • Lead bi-weekly moves management processes across Strategic Philanthropy and Community.
  • Ensure conversations are data-informed and action-oriented, not status updates.
  • Track and report on key performance indicators, including, but not limited to lead-to-conversation conversion, conversation-to-opportunity conversion, opportunity velocity, and close rates.
  • Identify pipeline gaps and intervention points, triggering strategy reviews when needed.
• Executive Travel & Event Intelligence
  • Activate executive travel prospecting strategy by identifying in-region prospects, preparing intelligence briefs, and mapping introductions and access pathways.
  • Support event strategy through pre-event prospect intelligence and seating strategy and post-event conversion recommendations and follow-up prioritization.
  • Ensure events drive measurable pipeline movement, not just engagement.
• Data, Systems & Analytics Partnership
  • Partner with the Manager of Advancement Systems & Analytics to maintain Salesforce as the single source of truth while ensuring research insights are captured and usable.
  • Use tools such as Wealth-X and Salesforce to drive capacity modeling prospect identification and trend analysis.

Qualifications

• 5–8+ years in prospect research, strategy, or fundraising operations.
• Experience supporting major gifts, institutional fundraising, or complex sales cycles.
• Demonstrated ability to operate in a data-driven, performance-oriented environment.

Requirements

• Strategic thinking with ability to translate insight into action.
• Strong understanding of pipeline management and moves management systems.
• Ability to synthesize complex data into clear, actionable intelligence.
• Experience with Salesforce (or similar CRM) and research tools (e.g., Wealth-X).
• Comfort operating in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.

Benefits

• The anticipated base salary for this position is $100,000 to $115,000 and may also qualify for an annual incentive.
• This role is eligible for our extensive benefits package and generous paid time off including vacation, sick, and holidays.