Senior Data Analyst - University Advancement

The Tufts University Advancement Division (UA) is a comprehensive development and alumni relations enterprise with a staff complement of approximately 200 staff members. Functional units within UA include Development/Fundraising, Alumni Relations, Stewardship and Donor Relations, Special Events, Gift Processing, Research, Prospect Management, Gift Planning, Corporate and Foundation Relations, Information Systems and Management, and Infrastructure Services. UA's mission is to build strong, lifelong relationships with Tufts University's constituents, match donors' interests with the university's needs and priorities, and secure the financial resources necessary for Tufts to achieve excellence in teaching, research, and scholarship. The division is strongly committed to serving the academic agenda of the university, creating a culture of philanthropy in the extended Tufts community, and pursuing excellence and best practices in its work. Integrity, collegiality, diversity, accountability, mutual trust, and respect for the individual as well as the intentions of our donors are the values that guide the division's work.

The Office of Prospect Development and Strategic Analysis (OPD) gathers and analyzes information on, and facilitates and tracks communication with, the university's current and potential prospects and donors, including individuals, corporations, and foundations. OPD is primarily responsible for one of UA's key strategic priorities: the expansion of the university's base of support, which complements the other fundamental priorities of building relationships and raising funds. OPD addresses this need by conducting sophisticated research and analysis, identifying new prospects, and managing the processes of assigning the most promising prospects to development officer portfolios and assessing portfolio performance. OPD is also responsible for maintaining current and accurate information on all prospects and ensuring the Advance database represents UA's full knowledge of prospect-related activity.

In this newly created role, the Senior Advancement Data Analyst will be responsible for designing and mapping a new analytics program for University Advancement, evaluating tools, and developing procedures to ensure the effective use of data across the division. The role will provide full data analysis and actionable insights through available constituent/prospect data to drive fundraising strategy and to support UA's strategic priorities. They will conduct extensive fundraising analysis; extract, organize, manipulate, mine and model data in order to use information to provide a reliable foundation for decision-making, opportunity realization and targeted business improvements related to matters of portfolio management, staff deployment and goal-setting. Reporting to the Associate Executive Director, the Senior Advancement Data Analyst will lead the development of analytical strategies, tools and reports to support portfolio management, prospect identification and assignment, portfolio analysis, portfolio penetration, proposal activity, etc. to provide on-going assessments of the program's effectiveness. In collaboration with members of UA and the OPD team the position will plan, develop, and implement custom predictive models and refresh vendor models to facilitate the identification of high quality prospects and to develop an understanding of donor behavior

The Senior Advancement Data Analyst will serve as subject matter expert in data manipulation and data analysis and reporting. They will develop and maintain substantial knowledge of applicable information technology and how data are structured within the development database and complementary reporting tools, such as Tableau. This position will closely partner with colleagues throughout UA, including Information Systems and the various frontline fundraising units. The Senior Advancement Data Analyst will collaborate closely with senior leadership across University Advancement and Tufts University, delivering data-driven insights to inform strategic decision-making. The position plays a critical role in shaping fundraising goals, evaluating the feasibility of campaigns and funding initiatives, and advancing innovation in the allocation of University Advancement resources, while also supporting other high-level projects central to the organization's success. The successful candidate will possess exceptional communication skills, with the ability to translate complex data into clear, actionable insights for nontechnical audiences, and will demonstrate confidence in working with senior-level staff and stakeholders across the institution.

Essential Functions:

Reporting and Data Analytics

• Understand and utilize data to analyze prospect pipeline
• Create visual analysis utilizing Excel, and other tools as needed to analyze and describe gift and prospect data in an accurate and effective manner
• Participate in campaign-relevant analysis
• Develop custom descriptive and predictive scoring models that will allow enhanced priority-specific identification and segmentation of the alumni, donor, and prospect base to support the development of short- and long-term engagement and fundraising strategies
• Update existing predictive models, as needed
• Use SQL and other reporting tools to pull complex data queries to support data analysis projects and other UA reporting needs

Project Planning, Management, and Participation

• Manage projects to help the division become a more data-focused organization as identified in UA's New Blueprint
• In collaboration with OPD staff, provide recommendations to staff and fundraisers for how to interpret, understand, and apply scoring in various fundraising activities
• Provides consultation and expertise regarding gift, prospect data, and engagement analysis
• Recommend new or enhanced components of prospect data architecture to support analytics
• Lead or assist with special projects defined as priorities
• Assist with cross-cutting inter- and intra-departmental projects that will advance the strategic direction of the department and division
• Serve as a subject matter expert on reporting, data analysis and data science projects
• Maintain documentation of processes and procedures
• Ensure appropriate training and support is made available to OPD and UA staff on the appropriate use of the information made available through analytics

General Responsibilities

• Participate in organization-wide committees, task forces or other appropriate groups.
• Participate in staff meetings, projects and team building opportunities

Basic Requirements:

• Knowledge & skills as typically acquired through a Bachelor's degree and 5-7 years of related experience
• Knowledge and experience in higher education, non-profit or healthcare advancement
• Ability to communicate and explain complex concepts to a varied audience
• Experience with complex relational databases
• Proficient in SQL
• Proficiency in Python or R
  
  

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Salesforce
• Master's degree in statistics, business analytics, data science, or related field