Gift Processing and Fundraising Analytics Associate

The Obama Foundation’s mission is to inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world. We seek to build an active democratic culture where people are equipped and motivated to make change in their communities. On Chicago’s South Side, we’re creating a global center for change with coordinated programming, community outreach, and educational opportunities that invite visitors to turn hope into action.

About the role

As a member of the Development Operations team, the Gift Processing and Fundraising Analytics Associate manages and processes gifts, pledge donations, and pledge agreements while maintaining the donor database. This position ensures donations are recorded accurately, donors are appropriately acknowledged, and fundraising efforts are tracked and analyzed for future strategy. You will report directly to the Senior Director, Development Operations, and work collaboratively across teams to deliver outstanding customer service to donors and support Development-related systems.

Responsibilities

• Extract, review, and process gifts and pledges in Salesforce, reconciling with the Finance team. Maintain pledge reminders and gift invoicing. Oversee weekly gift processing reviews for all Development transactions.
• Manage gift and grant accounts with third-party databases and Helpdesk items. Assist in pledge reconciliation between Development and Finance.
• Design and deliver training on data integrity, database management, analysis techniques, and donation processing to enhance team skills. Develop curriculum and conduct quarterly training for Development Analysts.
• Develop and implement new database features. Address Salesforce and data-related questions during bi-weekly office hours.
• Serve as the subject matter expert for gift entry, resolving issues, and revising procedures as needed. Consult with internal teams to ensure data integrity.
• Support the delivery of pledge agreements, reminders, overdue notices, and acknowledgment letters. Establish baseline reporting for quarterly pledge reviews.
• Document gift processing procedures, including financial adjustments, donor-advised fund grants, matching gifts, and automated processing. Create and maintain templates for automated gift batch entry.
• Create and manage Salesforce reports and campaigns to ensure accurate and up-to-date data for the Development team. Maintain the donor database, including handling duplicate account merges, and develop procedures for effective data management.
• Assist staff in creating queries and reports and oversee database maintenance to ensure data accuracy and adherence to best practices.
• Provide quality assurance testing and analysis in the Salesforce testing environment to optimize and identify issues before final enhancements and bug fixes are delivered into production.
• Troubleshoot Salesforce and other system issues reported by Development staff to address bugs and training opportunities via the FreshServices ticketing system.
• Work closely with external vendors and IT to develop fundraising solutions, leveraging their expertise and resources to enhance fundraising capabilities.
• Capture and maintain accurate donor and prospect information. Serve as the Development team’s primary point of contact for incoming donor phone and email inquiries.
• Other duties as assigned.

Key Deliverables

• Incoming donations, pledge agreements, and donor contact information are accurately recorded and maintained in Salesforce.
• Gift receipts, pledge reminders, overdue notices, and acknowledgments are punctually and accurately generated.
• Collaborate with the Finance team for pledge and ledger reconciliation, including notifying key staff members concerning outright gifts, pledge payments, and gift agreement amendments.
• Accurate documentation of the manual and automated gift processing workflows is created and maintained.
• Work closely with the IT team to test and implement new database features for the Development team and to deliver system updates for the foundation’s end users.
• Train the Development team on new system features. Troubleshoot database issues promptly.
• Incoming donor inquiries are addressed promptly and with outstanding customer service.

Requirements

• A minimum of three (3) years of experience in nonprofit Development operations, accounting, data management, or a similar field.
• Proficiency with data entry and extraction in a high-volume, multi-channel giving environment.
• Previous experience with CRMs, data cleanup, and project management. Experience with Salesforce is preferred.
• Strong interest in advancing database management skills.
• Familiarity with technological instruction or customer service and comfort interacting with nonprofit constituents from diverse cultural and organizational backgrounds.
• Strong prioritization skills to effectively juggle short-term and long-term tasks and responsibilities in an entrepreneurial, fast-paced environment.

Pay

The salary range for this role is between $59,755 and $74,670.

Schedule

This is an onsite role based at the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park.