Prospect Research Poised for Leadership? You Bet!

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As I sat down to write this article, my phone rang. It was a human resources recruiter for a well-respected university and he was struggling to fill a leadership role for prospect management. His call to me was “grasping at straws” in the hope of sourcing the name of a good candidate.

It is worth noting that not so many years ago, there were very few prospect research leadership positions. To advance in their careers, some chose to lead advancement operations and even then, it most often required moving to a new city on one of the coasts.

Now organizations are struggling to fill management positions in prospect research. My how things have changed!

But what about the bigger prizes? What about Chief Development Officer or Executive Director, or CEO? What chance does a prospect research professional have of ever achieving those kinds of positions?

Where We Are Right Now

Right now, achieving a top leadership role looks like an awfully tough row to hoe.

In most nonprofit organizations, big or small, top leadership positions play an active role in cultivating donor relationships. Although there are many paths to nonprofit executive roles that start with “Chief” (the “C-Suite”), if one’s career has demonstrated an ability to cultivate donor relationships, one can often translate that into a top leadership role at a smaller organization and continue growing one’s career with that first C-Suite title.

And right now, in most nonprofit organizations, prospect research continues to be viewed as a software tool or an administrative task. Individuals in organizations with larger fund development offices, and who are given some version of the Prospect Research professional title, are frequently viewed as playing a supporting role as part of a cost-center such as Advancement Operations or Development Operations.

What the Future Might Hold

There are trends humming through the walls of offices everywhere suggesting that the importance of data may shift the power structures of the nonprofit C-Suite. I can remember back in the 1990s when Chief Information Officer was a new role that caused a lot of tittering among employees at the insurance company where I worked.

Could the 2020s be the decade when nonprofit organizations recognize how critical technology infrastructure is to every aspect of operations, especially program and revenue?

United Way Worldwide ranked #1 in the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 2018 America’s Favorite Charities list of organizations receiving the most cash support at $3.3 billion. According to its website, United Way Worldwide has a Chief Technology Officer, but no Chief Development Officer:

  1. President and Chief Executive Officer
  2. EVP and Chief Financial Officer
  3. EVP and Chief Marketing Officer
  4. Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer
  5. Chief Investor Relations Officer
  6. Chief Culture and Operations Officer
  7. Chief of Staff
  8. Sr. VP and Chief Technology Officer

Even though there is a Chief Technology Officer, it is the Sr. VP and Chief Transformation Officer at United Way Worldwide that leads Digital Services, including the implementation of the Salesforce Philanthropy Cloud product. That is two C-Suite positions focused on fundraising technology!

The Wounded Warriors Project ranked #95 in the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 2018 America’s Favorite Charities with cash support of $211 million. And it appears we have lost the Chief Technology Officer, but gained a Chief Development Officer:

  1. Chief Executive Officer
  2. Chief of Staff
  3. Chief Financial Officer
  4. Chief Program Officer
  5. Chief Development Officer
  6. Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary

Two organizations on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s ranking is far from a rigorous evaluation of nonprofit leadership trends, but it tickles the notion that a strong foundation in prospect research and its specialties, such as relationship management and fundraising analytics, could lead to the C-Suite of a nonprofit organization.

How You Can Prepare to Lead

According to an article published by Bentz, Whaley, Flessner in 2015, prospect research professionals are in the right place at the right time:

“Consider this: A McKinsey & Company study predicts that, by 2018, the United States could face a shortage of up to 190,000 workers with deep analytical skills and 1.5 million managers and analysts with the ability to use big data analytics to make effective decisions. We are competing globally not just for the “data geeks” but also for decision-makers who can meaningfully apply data to practice and strategy. These positions will become increasingly hard to fill in nonprofits, as private sector salaries increase accordingly.” (emphasis added)

You may aspire to be a “data geek,” but it is the “decision-makers who can meaningfully apply data to practice and strategy” who gain entrance to the C-Suite.

How can you be ready to take advantage of the leadership opportunities data is presenting to our field? Following are a few ideas to get you thinking:

  • At a bare minimum, get comfortable with manipulating data in Excel and an appreciation for how complex and time consuming seemingly simple data tasks can be.
  • Find a medium where you can regularly consume content about information technology, without limitation to the nonprofit sector.
  • Accept and embrace that you will need to add new skill sets for the rest of your life.
  • Decision-making and other leadership skills can be learned; start learning and practicing leadership skills now.
  • Try out new conferences and other in-person learning opportunities; you’ll meet different people and new ideas, and it will broaden your perspective on everything.

You might notice that my ideas on leadership preparation are not very specific. I’m not advocating that you train as a data scientist, for example (unless you relish that idea, of course!). Being a good leader does not require super-deep specialized knowledge on a particular subject matter, such as data science.

Leadership skills become the deep expertise, the most valuable skill, and a solid understanding of how data impacts fund development becomes secondary. And that is how you’ll know that you’re ready for the C-Suite!

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