Cancer Research UK (CRUK)
Prospect Research Manager
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Prospect Research Manager
£37,000 - £43,500 plus benefits
Directorate: Strategy & Philanthropy
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full-time 35 hours per week
Location: Alternating between Stratford & Francis Crick Institute. Office-based with high flexibility (1-2 days per week in the office).
Closing date: Sunday 30th August 23:55pm
Interview Process: Screening call followed by competency-based interview process.
Interview dates: Approximately w/c 7th September
Visa sponsorship: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Cancer Research UK is not able to offer visa sponsorship.
At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.
Our sector leading Philanthropy team has an exciting opportunity to join as Prospect Research Manager. We are looking for a diligent, detail-orientated individual with strong communication skills to join our well-established and proactive Prospect Development team.
The Prospect Research Manager leads the delivery of a proactive, intelligence-led prospect development function across the Philanthropy Directorate, enabling Principal and Leadership Giving teams to identify, qualify and engage high-value prospects, including support for key fundraising areas such as the Francis Crick Institute and Trusts & Foundations.
Partnering with fundraisers across a range of portfolios and priority areas, the role identifies and develops high-value prospects tailored to specific funding opportunities. You’ll build and nurture strong relationships with fundraisers and stakeholders to ensure insight is relevant, actionable, and drives income growth.
The role is responsible for proactive and reactive research, strengthening the prospect pipeline, and supporting a structured approach to prospect identification, qualification, and engagement planning. This includes delivering high-quality research outputs such as biographical profiles, prospect ratings, portfolio allocation, network mapping and regular pipeline, and portfolio reviews.
As a part of the wider CRUK fundraising efforts, the Philanthropy Directorate is one of the largest and most successful high-value fundraising teams in the UK. An ambitious and innovative team of 60 talented philanthropy professionals, our focus is the £400m ‘More Research, Less Cancer’ (MRLC) campaign which has four key priorities: the Francis Crick Institute, Cancer Grand Challenges, Translation & Innovation, and our Future Leaders’ programme. We’ve recently reached the milestone of £200m.
This is a great opportunity for someone from a prospect research background, whether this is through major gift fundraising, sales, business development or academia. You’ll be curious, diligent, and analytical in your approach. In return you’ll join an award-winning team and have the chance to feel the impact of your work in our mission to beat cancer.
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What will you be doing?
- Support prospect development for philanthropy by delivering high-quality research, insights, and actionable recommendations to inform engagement and income generation; taking the lead on specific relationships and associated workstreams as they develop.
- Partner closely with fundraisers to manage portfolios, allocate prospects, prioritise activity, and track pipeline progression.
- Produce high-quality research profiles, briefings, and network insights to strengthen donor engagement, and maximise fundraising success.
- Proactively identify and develop high-potential prospects aligned to strategic priorities, KPIs, and income targets.
- Contribute to and refine prospecting strategies, ensuring a sustainable and effective pipeline of opportunities.
- Manage multiple research requests with agility, ensuring timely delivery to agreed service standards.
- Support the continuous improvement of prospect management processes, systems, and team KPIs.
- Collaborate across teams, sharing knowledge and providing guidance to enhance overall prospect development capability.
- Maintain high standards of accuracy, data integrity, and presentation in all outputs and database records.
- Champion effective use of the CRM database, ensuring data is consistently captured and maintained to agreed standards.
- Contribute to team planning, strategy development, and key organisational initiatives as an active member of the Prospect Development function.
What are we looking for?
- Demonstrable track record of success in prospect research, using a variety of research resources.
- Strong understanding of major gift and Trusts & Foundations fundraising, and the value of prospect research in identifying and advancing fundraising opportunities.
- Strong research and analytical skills, including ability to produce profiles and network lists for individuals and trusts.
- Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to manage personal workload alongside coordinating external stakeholders' requests, driving progress and ensuring delivery against targets.
- Ability to collect and assess information rapidly, identifying key points and drawing conclusions.
- Innovative and always ready to take initiative, solve problems and think laterally.
- Strong relationship-building and collaboration skills across teams with the ability to influence and challenge constructively.
- Familiarity with fundraising databases and prospect management systems (CRM).
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Our organisation values are designed to guide all that we do.
- Bold: Act with ambition, courage and determination
- Credible: Act with rigour and professionalism
- Human: Act to have a positive impact on people
- Together: Act inclusively and collaboratively
We’re looking for people who can believe in and embody these organisation values and use them to drive forward progress in our mission to beat cancer.
If you’re interested in applying and excited about working with us but are unsure if you have the right skills and experience, we’d still love to hear from you.
What will I gain?
We create a working environment that supports your wellbeing and provide a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities, and high-quality tools. Our policies and processes enable you to improve your work-life balance, take positive steps in your career, and achieve your personal wellbeing goals.
You can explore our benefits by visiting our careers web page.
How do I apply?
We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; but we won’t be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you fairly and objectively.
For more information on this career opportunity please visit our website or contact us at recruitment@cancer.org.uk.
For more updates on our work and careers, follow us on: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.
Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures, in particular those from ethnic minority backgrounds who are currently under-represented.
We want to see every candidate performing at their best throughout the job application process, interview process and whilst at work. We therefore ask you to inform us of any concerns you have or any adjustments you might need to enable this to happen. Please contact recruitment@cancer.org.uk or 020 3469 8400 as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, we are unable to recruit anyone below the age of 18, so that we can protect young people from health & safety and safeguarding risks.
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