Wanting to transition from investor relations into fundraising? It is one of the most common conversations I have with real estate professionals, and it is also one of the most winnable moves in this market, provided you approach it in the right order.
The good news is that the line between the two functions is already blurring.
The role is already changing underneath you
NAREIM’s review of what today’s market demands from IR teams, published in December 2025, found that only 34 percent of IR professionals say their capital raising responsibilities are very clearly defined. Two thirds describe the role as unclear, with responsibilities now stretching across ESG reporting, secondaries coordination, private wealth operations and regulatory interpretation.
The same work found that 53 percent of the most frequent LP conversations now centre on liquidity and DPI, and that 68 percent of respondents identified handling tough questions as the area where they most need training.
Read that carefully, because it is the argument for your move. IR is already the function taking the hardest questions from allocators. The distance between that and fundraising is smaller than most job specifications suggest.
1. Look at internal options first
This is the best place to start and the most frequently skipped.
You already have the product knowledge, the reporting history and the internal credibility. The question is where there is either something to supplement in the existing coverage, or a new LP channel that nobody is currently working.
Look for the gaps. Is there a channel your firm talks about but does not systematically cover? Is there a segment of existing LPs that nobody is calling for re ups? Is there a region, a consultant relationship or a wealth platform where the firm has no coverage at all?
The private wealth channel is the obvious candidate at the moment. Stanger reported that alternative investment fundraising reached 75.0 billion dollars through May 2026, and while the overall figure was down 9 percent year on year, real estate and infrastructure rose 33 percent. iCapital’s global survey of 870 financial professionals across 15 countries, published in August 2026, found 39 percent of advisers expect to increase alternatives allocations, up sharply from 14 percent the year before, with 89 percent planning to maintain or increase.
If your firm is not covering that channel properly, that is a proposal you can write this month. It is far easier to get permission to build something that does not exist than to be handed relationships that belong to someone else.
2. Work out where you are competitive in the market
If internal does not work, be realistic about how you will be assessed externally.
The two questions that come up in fundraising interviews are “how much have you raised” and “what does your rolodex look like”. If you are moving from a pure IR seat, you will not have the strongest answer to either, and no amount of framing changes that.
So do not compete where those questions decide the outcome. Look at roles with a genuine mix of fundraising and IR responsibilities. In a hybrid mandate your reporting, communications, ODD and existing LP experience are assets rather than a gap, and you will be more competitive in the selection process because you cover both halves of the role.
Play your strengths. Complex LP reporting, secondaries and liquidity conversations, consultant relationships, data room and ODD readiness, and the ability to handle the hard questions the NAREIM work flagged. Those are increasingly the things that lose or win a mandate.
3. Target IR vacancies with a route across
The third route is to find GPs hiring for an IR vacancy who are open to you taking on a degree of capital raising responsibility, with the intention of moving across over time.
It is even better if they can demonstrate that people have done this before. Ask directly. Who in the firm moved from IR into a raising seat, how long did it take, and what changed in their remit? A firm that can name someone is a firm where the path exists.
If they cannot name anyone, that is not necessarily a no. It just means you need an open conversation in the interview about how the transition would be achieved over the medium to long term. What would need to be true at twelve months. Which LPs or which channel you would start with. Whether the compensation structure would change and when. Get it discussed before you accept, because it is much harder to renegotiate a remit from inside the seat.
Handling the rolodex question honestly
One more thing on those two interview questions.
The strongest answer I hear from people making this move is not a defensive one. It is specific. Name the LPs you already deal with directly, even if the relationship was originally sourced by someone else. Describe the conversations you have handled that were commercial rather than administrative, the re ups you supported, the ODD processes you carried, the questions you fielded when performance was bad. Then say what you would target and why.
That is a credible answer. Pretending to a rolodex you do not have is not, and it tends to unravel in the first ninety days.
Practical takeaways
- Start internally. Write a one page proposal for an uncovered channel rather than asking for a title change.
- Target hybrid IR and fundraising mandates where your existing skills count in the scoring.
- Ask any prospective employer to name someone who has made the move inside their firm.
- Get the transition milestones agreed in writing before you start.
- Build one channel of your own. A capital raiser with 25 relationships they own is more employable than one with a broad but borrowed network.
The market is moving in your favour on this. Fundraising is getting harder and slower, which means the skills that IR professionals have spent years building are worth more to a GP than they were in an easier cycle.
Capital raising and IR search in US real estate is all Francis King does, so I see which of these routes is actually working at the moment and which firms are open to it. If you are planning this move, message me privately and I will give you a straight view.