Associate, Institutional Fundraising

Core Spaces•Chicago, IL

14h

About The Position

The Associate, Institutional Fundraising supports the execution of Core’s institutional capital formation strategy across private real estate funds, co-investment opportunities, and separate account relationships. This role serves as a key operational and analytical partner to the fundraising function by helping drive prospecting efforts, maintaining pipeline discipline, coordinating investor engagement activity, supporting diligence and marketing deliverables, and ensuring the accuracy and integrity of investor-related data, materials, and communications. The Associate works closely with the Executive Managing Director, Managing Director, Director of Institutional Fundraising, Investor Relations, and Investment teams to help advance strategic fundraising initiatives and deliver a high level of responsiveness, organization, and professionalism throughout the investor lifecycle. This role requires strong project management capabilities, sound judgment, attention to detail, and the ability to manage multiple workstreams, deadlines, and stakeholders in a fast-paced, high-touch environment. The ideal candidate brings relevant experience in institutional fundraising, investor relations, private markets, real estate investment, or alternative asset management, along with a strong understanding of institutional investor expectations and fundraising processes.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in finance, real estate, business, economics, marketing, communications, or a related field.
3 to 5 years of relevant experience in institutional fundraising, investor relations, private equity, private real estate, asset management, investment banking, consulting, or a related field supporting institutional clients or capital raising efforts.
Working knowledge of institutional investors, private funds, alternative investments, and/or commercial real estate investment structures and terminology.
Experience supporting complex, deadline-driven projects requiring coordination across multiple internal and external stakeholders.
Strong analytical, research, writing, and organizational skills, with the ability to synthesize information into concise and actionable outputs.
Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities with strong attention to detail, follow-through, and quality control.
Strong communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to interact professionally with senior leaders, investors, and cross-functional business partners.
Proficiency in CRM systems such as Salesforce and advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel and PowerPoint.
Ability to exercise sound judgment, handle confidential information responsibly, and work independently within a fast-paced, high-expectation environment.

Nice To Haves

Experience within private real estate, private equity, or alternative asset management.
Familiarity with fundraising databases and market intelligence platforms such as Dakota, IREI, PERE, Preqin, PitchBook, or similar tools.
Experience supporting DDQs, RFPs, investor requests, or institutional diligence processes.
Exposure to separate accounts, joint ventures, co-investments, or commingled fund structures.
Experience preparing investor briefing materials, pipeline reports, or senior leadership updates.

Responsibilities

Support execution of the institutional fundraising strategy by managing day-to-day workflow across the prospecting, outreach, diligence, and follow-up lifecycle for private real estate funds and separate account opportunities.
Maintain and continuously refine investor pipeline data, capital tracking schedules, meeting logs, target lists, and follow-up plans to ensure leadership has accurate visibility into fundraising activity, momentum, and priorities.
Partner with senior fundraising leaders to track active conversations, identify pipeline gaps, organize next steps, and help ensure investor opportunities are advanced in a timely and coordinated manner.
Monitor inbound and outbound fundraising activity, organize investor engagement records, and help ensure commitments, allocations, meeting outcomes, and related updates are accurately documented and communicated internally.
Exercise sound judgment in escalating time-sensitive items, reconciling inconsistencies in prospect or pipeline data, and identifying follow-up actions needed to keep fundraising initiatives on track.
Support internal reporting needs by preparing recurring and ad hoc pipeline updates, prospect summaries, activity reports, and meeting preparation materials for leadership review.
Lead preparation and coordination of materials and logistics for investor meetings, due diligence sessions, conference participation, roadshows, annual meetings, and other fundraising-related events.
Develop tailored briefing materials for internal stakeholders, including investor background summaries, relationship history, portfolio context, strategic considerations, meeting objectives, and recommended discussion points.
Coordinate meeting agendas, pre-read materials, attendee preparation, logistics, and post-meeting action items to ensure interactions are well-organized, strategic, and executed to a high professional standard.
Track follow-up deliverables resulting from investor meetings and ensure requests, commitments, and next steps are clearly documented, assigned, and completed in a timely manner.
Support the team in managing multiple concurrent investor outreach efforts while maintaining consistency, responsiveness, and strong attention to detail.
Conduct detailed research on institutional investors, consultants, family offices, wealth platforms, strategic partners, and relevant market participants to support prospect identification, prioritization, and relationship development.
Analyze investor preferences, product fit, allocation trends, portfolio activity, fundraising developments, and competitive positioning across relevant sectors, strategies, and geographies.
Synthesize findings from databases, publications, internal records, and market sources — including Dakota, IREI, PERE, and other relevant resources — into concise, actionable insights that support fundraising strategy and decision-making.
Monitor competitor fundraises, product launches, capital flows, and broader private markets trends to help inform positioning, outreach strategy, and investor targeting efforts.
Prepare research summaries, briefing notes, and strategic recommendations that help senior team members tailor messaging and prioritize institutional opportunities.
Coordinate the preparation, quality control, and distribution of fundraising and investor communication materials, including presentations, one-pagers, data requests, briefing documents, and other investor-facing content.
Partner cross-functionally with Investor Relations, Investment, Finance, Legal, and other internal teams to gather information, validate content, and ensure materials are accurate, current, and aligned with Core’s strategy, product positioning, and brand standards.
Support the completion of investor inquiries, requests for proposals (RFPs), due diligence questionnaires (DDQs), and other diligence or information requests by organizing inputs, tracking deadlines, drafting responses where appropriate, and ensuring timely submission.
Help maintain a high standard of consistency, accuracy, and version control across fundraising materials and investor responses.
Identify recurring diligence themes, investor questions, and content gaps, and help improve internal processes, materials, and readiness for future fundraising activity.
Maintain and update Salesforce and other relevant systems used by the Fundraising and Investor Relations teams to ensure data quality, consistency, and reliable reporting across investor contacts, pipeline stages, meeting activity, and fundraising outcomes.
Serve as a key steward of fundraising data integrity by reviewing records for completeness, resolving discrepancies, and ensuring information is entered in a timely and organized manner.
Help establish and reinforce disciplined processes around data entry, tracking conventions, reporting cadences, and document management to support transparency, operational efficiency, and informed decision-making.
Generate reports, dashboards, and activity summaries for leadership and cross-functional partners, translating underlying data into clear and useful business insights.
Recommend process improvements to strengthen workflow efficiency, reporting accuracy, investor responsiveness, and overall execution across the fundraising platform.
Partner closely with fundraising, investor relations, investment, finance, legal, and operations stakeholders to support coordinated execution of capital formation priorities.
Build strong internal working relationships and act as a reliable point of coordination across teams involved in investor communications, diligence support, and fundraising deliverables.
Manage multiple priorities simultaneously while maintaining strong organization, follow-through, and accountability for deadlines and quality of work product.
Handle sensitive investor and business information with a high level of discretion, professionalism, and confidentiality.
Contribute to the continuous improvement of fundraising processes, tools, templates, and operating procedures to support scalability and execution excellence.
Perform all other duties and tasks as assigned by management

Benefits

A culture that provides you with a sense of belonging
Competitive pay that values your contributions
Incentives designed to reward your achievements
Paid flexible PTO to disconnect or celebrate life milestones
Paid 14+ holidays, including your birthday, to disconnect and celebrate
Paid Parental Leave that begins after 90 days
Paid volunteer time off to give back to your community
Monthly workshop weeks; fewer meetings & more collaboration
Robust health plan options that begin within at least 30 days of your employment
Monthly phone reimbursement
Wellness allowance and perks, including a yearly subscription to a meditation app
An environment that provides you a voice to share your perspectives
Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for access to confidential support services
Company retirement options including 401(k) + matching & Roth account option