Associate Director, Donor Insights

The Associate Director of Donor Insights is a new role in Vanderbilt’s Annual Giving department with the purpose of amplifying donor and giving insights for maximized annual giving impact. This individual is responsible for understanding donor behavior and preferences to drive Vanderbilt’s donor pipeline, amplify annual giving and current use fundraising, and identify actionable insights to impact fundraising and development strategies. 

The Associate Director will analyze donor giving and engagement data to provide actionable insights that drive fundraising strategies and goals. The Associate Director will report to the Senior Director of Annual Giving and Engagement Operations with a dotted line to the Director of Data Analytics in the Office of Data and Strategic Analysis. 

About the Work Unit:

The Department of Development and Alumni Relations (DAR) assists Vanderbilt University in securing the resources, both human and financial, that are required to achieve its mission and goals.  The Department is responsible for the identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of individuals and organizations whose charitable objectives are consistent with those of Vanderbilt University’s teaching and research programs.  You can find more information at https://www.vanderbilt.edu/dar/

Key Functions and Expected Performance:

• Conduct direct response and annual giving campaign reporting and analysis using SQL, CRM data, and visualization tools to make data-driven business recommendations, craft storytelling with data, and make key business recommendations
• Leverage engagement data and individual and constituent trends for propensity modeling, persona/interest tracking, and marketing channel insights to help develop more personalized and targeted solicitations and impact stewardship campaigns
• Partner cross-functionally with Office of Data and Strategic Analysis, Information Management, Research and Prospect Development and MarTech to analyze donor data and validate insights
• Provide actionable donor and giving insights to support strategic decision-making and business planning, driving departmental goals such as donors, dollars, and pipeline donor growth
• Help set and track progress toward Direct Response and Annual Giving goals, including retention, reactivation and acquisition and develop strategies to grow donor pipeline 
• Serve in a leadership role on the Giving Day Donors, Dollars and Data working team to ensure a cohesive approach to gift tracking, coding and reporting; conduct detailed analysis of results 
• Conduct benchmarking analyses to understand donor trends, landscape, and opportunities
• Consult on direct response and specialty campaign mailing lists and audience/segmentation strategies
• Design and conduct donor research to gather data on behavior, preferences, and attitudes
• Prepare detailed donor insights reports and clearly present research findings to stakeholders
• Develop coding criteria and processes for VQ reporting and monitor for any problems or issues
• Serve on relevant DAR project teams such as Interest Codes and Personas to represent the voice of the donor
• Serve as subject matter expert for DAR colleagues and other VU campus partners on donor analysis and insights
• Consult on strategy for engaging annual giving toolkits for Development Officers to ensure that a culture of annual giving is part of the major gift strategy
• Assist with creating strategic and engaging specialty campaign stewardship based on donor insights
• Assist with ad hoc reporting and analysis
• Perform other duties as assigned

Work Environment:

This position will be hybrid located in the Nashville area.  The expectation will be 1 day in the office per week or more depending on business needs.

Supervisory Relationships:

This position reports administratively and functionally to the Senior Director of Annual Giving and Engagement Operations and no people management responsibilities. This position has a dotted line reporting function to the Director of Data Analytics in the Office of Data and Strategic Analysis.

Education and Certifications:

A bachelor’s degree, or the equivalent, is necessary, preferably in Marketing, Psychology, Sociology, Business Administration, or a related field. A master’s degree in a related field can be beneficial. 

Experience and Skills:

Experience:

• Three or more years of experience, or the equivalent, is necessary (including internships, and relevant master’s level coursework). Higher education experience is not required
• Strong experience with data, analytics, and insights is required such as consumer i