Fundraising Intelligence Analyst

Fundraising Intelligence Analyst

Job #: 042682

Location: Syracuse, NY

Pay Range: $62,400 - $69,000

Hours:
Standard University business hours
8:30am - 5:00pm (academic year)
8:00am - 4:30pm (summer)
Hours may vary based on operational needs.

Job Type: Full Time

Job Description:

This role plays a key role in supporting data-driven fundraising efforts by building technical infrastructure, ensuring data quality, and creating reports and visualizations that inform fundraising strategy. This position is responsible for developing and maintaining data transformation workflows, writing SQL queries, and building dashboards and reports to support donor engagement, stewardship, and campaign planning. The position ensures the integrity and accuracy of fundraising data through regular audits and quality assurance processes. The analyst supports predictive modeling initiatives and advanced analytical projects while serving as a technical resource for development staff across the division. The ideal candidate is highly technical, detail-oriented, and skilled in data engineering, with experience in SQL, Tableau, and fundraising databases. This role requires the ability to translate complex data into clear, actionable insights that support donor retention, prospect identification, and overall fundraising success.

The Division of Advancement & External Affairs expresses a shared mission that is collaborative, trusted, respectful, future-focused and is aligned with the overall University. All current and new employees embrace and demonstrate dedication to promoting shared values in an inclusive work culture to propel the future of advancement operations in their everyday work.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelors degree in Data Analytics, Information Systems, Nonprofit Management, Business, or a related field; masters degree preferred.
• 1-3 years of experience in fundraising analytics, donor research, or business intelligence.
• Proficiency in SQL, Python, or R for data analysis and reporting.
• Experience with data transformation and ETL tools such as Tableau Prep.
• Experience with data visualization and reporting tools such as Tableau, Power BI, or Excel.
• Proficiency in fundraising CRM/databases (e.g., Blackbaud CRM, Salesforce, Ellucian Advance, or similar platforms).
• Experience working in a higher education, healthcare, or nonprofit development environment is preferred.

Skills and Knowledge:

• Knowledge of annual giving, major gifts, and capital campaign fundraising strategies.
• Familiarity with predictive modeling, wealth screening, and donor segmentation techniques.
• Understanding of fundraising principles, donor lifecycle, and prospect research methodologies.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret complex donor data.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills. Ability to present insights clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively with fundraising and development teams.

Responsibilities:

• Build and maintain data transformation workflows using Tableau Prep to clean, structure, and prepare fundraising data for analysis and reporting.
• Write SQL queries to extract, manipulate, and analyze donor and gift data from advancement databases.
• Develop and maintain automated reporting processes to reduce manual effort and improve efficiency.
• Conduct regular data audits to verify accuracy and integrity within the donor database, identifying and resolving data quality issues.
• Enhance existing technical processes and workflows to improve scalability, performance, and reliability of fundraising analytics infrastructure.
• Design and develop dashboards, reports, and data visualizations in Tableau and Excel to support fundraising decision-making across annual giving, major gifts, and capital campaign efforts.
• Respond to data requests from development officers and fundraising units, providing timely and accurate information.
• Create standardized reporting templates, query building blocks, and analytical tools that enable consistent metrics and KPIs across the division.
• Maintain existing reports and dashboards, ensuring they remain current and continue to meet stakeholder needs.
• Support predictive modeling initiatives including donor propensity scoring, retention analysis, and acquisition forecasting.
• Conduct ad-hoc statistical analysis to answer specific fundraising questions and evaluate campaign effectiveness.
• Apply data science techniques such as segmentation, trend analysis, and donor behavior modeling to identify opportunities and inform strategy.
• Collaborate on advanced analytical projects led by senior team members, contributing technical skills and analytical insights.
• Present analytical findings and technical solutions to development staff, leadership, and other stakeholders in clear, accessible formats.
• Partner with fundraising units to understand their data needs and translate requirements into technical specifications.
• Document data processes, workflows, and best practices to enable knowledge sharing and maintain operational continuity.
• Provide guidance to colleagues on data retrieval, query tools, and self-service analytics capabilities.
• Other duties as assigned.