King's College London

THIS VACANCY IS OPEN TO INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY

About Us

Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement (P&AE) provides a fundraising and alumni engagement function in support of King’s College London. We are proud to work with colleagues across the university and its health partners to help them serve society through world-leading education, research and healthcare.  Our work also includes a partnership with the Maudsley Charity in support of children’s mental health initiatives between the university’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience and the South London & Maudsley NHS Trust. 

We are a committed team that brings together fundraisers working across different channels, alongside colleagues who promote King’s College London’s engagement with its worldwide alumni community. Our work is underpinned and enhanced by a range of dedicated professionals in supporting areas covering proposition development, supporter engagement, supporter operations and business operations.

We have an impressive, well-established track record of success in securing support that allows the university and partners to deliver on their missions. This includes our global, award-winning World Questions: King’s Answers campaign, which set the standard in the sector and enabled us to raise substantial funds to help tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges. Ambitious and innovative, the team has won awards such as a CASE Platinum Award for Fundraising and a CASE Gold Award for Donor Relations and Stewardship. We are strongly values-driven with a focus on sustaining an excellent and supportive culture, which we see as key to creating a successful team that can support the university and its partners in making a real and positive difference to the world we live in.

More on King’s College London

King’s College London is an internationally renowned university delivering exceptional education and world-leading research. The university is dedicated to driving positive and sustainable change in society and realising our vision of making the world a better place.  Through its commitment to exceptional education, impactful research and genuine service to society, King’s College London is creating positive change in its communities, both in London and on the world stage. The Strategic Vision 2029 looks forward to King’s College London’s 200th anniversary in 2029 and sets out ambitious plans in five key areas: 

• Educating the next generation of change-makers
• Challenging ideas and driving change through research
• Giving back to society through meaningful service
• Working with our local communities in London
• Fostering global citizens with an international perspective

About the role

The Prospect Research Officer will play an integral role in enabling the fundraising ambitions of King’s College London. Joining the team as we plan our next fundraising campaign, this role will make a significant contribution towards the campaign’s development and ultimate success by ensuring that the best potential supporters are identified, researched, and allocated in collaboration with the rest of the Prospect Research Team.

This role works across all areas of the team’s remit to deliver strategic insight on our highest-level prospects internationally, including due diligence research, build prospect pipelines for priority fundraising projects, and work directly with fundraisers to manage prospect portfolios. This is a great opportunity for someone in the prospect research profession who wishes to join a larger operation and is looking to hone their skills as a professional prospect researcher.

This is a full time post (35 Hours per week) and you will be offered an indefinite contract. 

P&AE has a hybrid working approach, with a minimum of 40% of time in the office. Typically, this equates to two days per week, but we’re very happy for colleagues to be in more frequently if they so wish.

About You

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Experience in a Prospect Research post in the higher education or charity sector
2. Knowledge and understanding of fundraising, philanthropic motivations and current trends in philanthropic giving
3. Experience of using a CRM for fundraising
4. Strong knowledge of effective internet research with the ability to analyse and objectively assess the relevance of information to fundraising activity
5. Strong organisational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to independently manage multiple competing deadlines and a proactive, initiative-driven work ethic
6. Excellent written and oral communication skills with the ability to distil complex information clearly for a range of audiences
7. Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to build collaborative and respectful working relationships across the team and fundraising partners as required
8. Understanding of relevant data protection policy (EU GDPR 2018 and UK Data Protection Act 2018)

Desirable criteria

1. Interest in higher education fundraising
2. Experience of using a CRM for fundraising

Downloading a copy of our Job Description 

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click “Apply Now”. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further Information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's. We are open to discussing flexible working arrangements, including part-time, compressed hours and/or job shares, as appropriate.

  We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.

Interviews are due to be held on the week of 15 December 2025.