At The Obama Foundation, our 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 the communities where they live, work, and play. Right here on the South Side of Chicago, we’re building a home for this vision, a global center for change with a range of opportunities - coordinated programming, community outreach events, educational moments, and more - that invite visitors from down the block or across the globe to turn hope into action.
Achieving our ambitious goals starts with an exceptional team built on our Hope to Action Values - Courage, Empathy, Integrity, Accountability, Community, Inclusivity, Pragmatism, Resilience, Imagination, and Hope. A Framework that anyone, anywhere, can use to build trust, activate participation, and expand opportunity in their community.
Purpose of the Role
Reporting directly to the Manager of Development Data, the Development Data & Systems Analyst is a critical technical role responsible for optimizing, maintaining, and innovating within the Foundation’s Salesforce CRM ecosystem. As the Foundation expands its Principal Gifts function, this role ensures our data architecture, donor recognition tracking, and reporting pipelines run with peak efficiency.
The Analyst serves as the primary technical lead for the Development division's internal data ticketing system, fulfilling custom report requests, troubleshooting user issues, and delivering technical support to frontline fundraisers. Additionally, this role co-designs and tests new Salesforce workflows - specifically for duplicate management, activity tracking, and complex grant reporting - while performing regular database quality control audits. While not a primary gift processor, the Analyst maintains cross-training in gift intake to serve as strategic backup during peak fiscal thresholds and PTO coverage.
Core Job Responsibilities
Division Ticketing Lead & Technical Support
- Help Desk Management: Take direct ownership of the Development team’s Salesforce ticketing system. Receive, prioritize, triage, and resolve incoming data, reporting, and system access requests from frontline fundraisers and operations staff within established SLAs.
- Frontline Technical Support & Training: Provide technical guidance and user support across the team. Assist in drafting technical documentation, SOPs, and user guides, co-leading quarterly database training sessions for development analysts and lead onboarding Salesforce training for new Development staff.
Salesforce Systems Optimization & Custom Tracking
- Recognition & Benefit Tracking: Partner with the Manager to design, build, and enforce standardized Salesforce workflows to accurately track donor naming opportunities, physical/digital recognition, and bespoke benefit fulfillment for OPC and Principal Gift donors.
- Grants & Gift Reporting Architecture: Build custom tracking frameworks, reports, and dashboards in Salesforce to capture the full lifecycle, financial milestones, and reporting triggers for complex institutional gifts and grants.
- QA Testing & System Enhancements: Conduct rigorous quality assurance (QA) testing in the Salesforce sandbox environment for new features, bug fixes, third-party integrations, or automation flows that are deployed to production.
Data Hygiene, Auditing & Quality Assurance
- Data Integrity & Auditing: Execute regular data cleanup initiatives, quality control queries, mass data uploads, and duplicate record merges to maintain a pristine CRM database.
- Workflow Automation & Documentation: Identify manual, repetitive data entry pain points across the department and recommend automated solutions. Maintain comprehensive, up-to-date documentation of database configurations and data standards.
Cross-Functional & Revenue Backup
- Gift Processing Backup: Cross-train on all gift processing, lockbox, wire transfer, and batching procedures under the guidance of the Gift Acceptance team, serving as vital cross-functional surge backup during fiscal year-end and peak fundraising cycles.
Key Deliverables / Outcomes
- Rapid, high-touch resolution of all internal data ticketing requests, maintaining reliable and timely responses to internal stakeholders, in support of strong customer service to donors and prospects
- Standardized, fully functional Salesforce tracking systems, reports, and dashboards for donor benefits, OPC recognition, and fundraising revenue .
- Clean, accurate, and regularly audited Salesforce data, ensuring a trusted source of truth for the Development team.
- Comprehensive, updated user documentation and technical knowledge-base resources for the Development team.
Required Qualifications
- 1-2 years of hands-on experience in database management, data analytics, or systems administration, specifically within a non-profit development/advancement environment preferred.
- Proficiency with Salesforce CRM in a non-profit context (Salesforce NPSP or Nonprofit Cloud experience strongly preferred); ability to build complex custom reports, dashboards, and fields.
- Proven experience managing a data request queue or ticketing help desk system, with a track record of translating complex technical concepts for non-technical frontline staff.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and quality-assurance skills; meticulous attention to detail regarding data accuracy and hygiene.
- Familiarity with non-profit fundraising mechanics, including major gifts, principal donor recognition, multi-year pledge schedules, and grant tracking.
- Ability to manage competing priorities, work collaboratively across cross-functional teams, and adapt to a fast-paced, high-growth organizational environment.
- Commitment to the values and mission of the Foundation.
The salary range for this role is between $51,965 and $64,980.
This is a remote role based in the Chicago area.
For an overview of our benefits package, including insurance, paid time off, retirement & more, please visit https://www.obama.org/careers/.
Don’t check off every box in the requirements listed above? Please apply anyway! If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to still consider submitting an application. You may be just the right candidate for this role or another one of our openings!
Equal Opportunity Employer
The Foundation is committed to creating a diverse work environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. The Foundation does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability, parental status, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable laws. We encourage individuals of all backgrounds to apply. If you are a qualified candidate with a disability, please e-mail us at careers@obama.org if you require a reasonable accommodation to complete this application.
