Providing critical business intelligence to assist nonprofits in fulfilling their missions to serve others including identification, qualification, research, and relationship strategies for new and existing funding sources. A 30-year+ veteran in front-line fundraising, prospect development, and consulting, Ms. Darling combines both technical expertise and an understanding of working with donors to offer a unique, well-informed, and comprehensive perspective. Ms. Darling is a well respected prospect development professional who continues to work directly in her given fields. She offers practical yet visionary approaches tailored to your organization's needs. Please contact her directly for specific projects, temporary staffing, training, or on-the-hour research profile needs.

Provide indepth research and analysis for the President of Imperial College London and other senior staff to aid in the cultivation and solicitation of prospective and current principal gift donors and key constituents.Identify new major and principal gift potential donors (individuals, corporations, and foundations) located in the US, Canada, Asia, EMEA, and India to expand Imperial's outreach beyond the United Kingdom.

Served as the first Director of Prospect Development for Imperial College leading a team of four and reporting directly to the Vice President as part of a Senior Executive Team charged with developing collaborative and strategic programs across the Advancement Division and with Advancement's key strategic partners (four schools, Corporate Partners, Corporate Research, Community Outreach, and Events).Introduced streamlined and proactive prospect identification techniques to identify global major and principal gift prospects to develop a stronger pool of potential support for a rapidly-expanding major gift team and to meet elevated fundraising goals.Enhanced information flow and strengthened relationships with fundraisers by providing a regular stream of new and strategic information on assigned prospects through news alerts, improved trip planning support, and updating of business information via LinkedIn and other sources.Created streamlined reports focusing on key data to aid decision-making while reducing research staff time to push out information, as well as enabling fundraisers to more easily mine the database and measure progress and results.Increased the visibility and impactfulness of the prospecting team by proactively and collaboratively working with other divisions across the College to provide comprehensive information to the President and others in order to identify matches to Imperial College's programs with the philanthropic passions of the potential donors, as well as thoroughly identify all linked between the College and the donor (academic, medical, corporate research/partners, and community outreach).

Developed both a proactive and continuous program of identifying potential major gift donors, utilizing both internal and external resources, for the historic and successful $500 million Honor Our Past, Build Our Future Campaign for Washington and Lee University. Ended campaign with $542 million in gifts and pledges and with more identified major gift prospects still assigned than when the campaign started seven years earlier. Implemented partnership approach with fundraisers to keep portfolios full and strong, as well as develop appropriate individual strategies, next steps, and ask amounts. Determined campaign metrics for prospect development and relationship management to share with Campaign Cabinet volunteers. Designed prospect management system within Raiser's Edge to provide accurate forecasting of potential gifts, as well as measure impact of staff and identify areas of opportunity. Prepared succinct research reports on leadership donors to facilitate key cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship visits. Aligned prospect development goals and projects to meet specific fundraising goals on a yearly basis in consultation with the Vice President for Advancement, Executive Director of Development, and the Director of Major Gifts.

Planned and executed all giving streams to Comfort Zone Camp including the Annual Fund, Special and Major Gifts, and Events. Successfully met all budget goals with 30 percent growth in 2006; 25 percent growth in 2007.Initiated cultivation and solicitation of a new donor which led to CZC's first seven-figure grant; an amount more than three times the annual operating budget at the time.Started initiatives to build a major gifts program with re-establishment of a Development Committee and the creation of new partnerships with area business, civic, and nonprofit leaders.

Cultivated, solicited, and stewarded more than 200 donors capable of giving major gifts ($50,000 or more) to Berea College's $150 million campaign.Secured more than $4 million in gifts and commitments (out of $25M raised) in 2005.Obtained 95 percent annual renewal rate from donors in my portfolio.

Created a campaign master plan identifying tasks and timelines for the 7-year $150 million campaign .Identified a prospect pool of more than 1500 potential donors to meet fundraising goals.Coordinated and monitored campaign activities among on- and off-campus constituencies.

Cultivated, solicited, and stewarded a portfolio of 75 major gift donors.Provided in-depth biographical and financial research on prospective donors to the President and Board of Trustees. Worked collaboratively to develop solicitation strategies for the Top 100 prospective donors.Led team of six responsible for prospect identification/research and donor stewardship.

Provided consulting services to nonprofits across the US in the field of prospect development, research, and tracking. Clients included Brown University, University of Cincinnati, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Music Center Opera, University of California-San Diego, and the Mayo Clinic Foundation.Trained and assisted clients in all phases of identifying and qualifying prospective donors (individuals, corporations, and foundations), and in developing systems for tracking progress and managing relationships with donors.Worked with fundraising staffs to build cohesive teams and to develop comprehensive plans to meet funding goals during pre-campaign, campaign, and post-campaign periods.Created enhancements leading to a new version of one of the firm's primary products, Prospect Select, an electronic database screening service.Served as editor for BWF's internationally-known Bibliography: Resources for Development.

Identified, researched, and stewarded major gift prospective donors for campaign and planned giving.