Swarthmore College is a highly selective liberal arts college located in the suburbs of Philadelphia, whose mission combines academic rigor with social responsibility. Swarthmore has a strong institutional commitment to inclusive excellence and nondiscrimination in its educational program and employment practices and encourages candidates who will further advance the goal of fostering a diverse and inclusive community. As one of the nation’s finest institutions of higher learning, Swarthmore College is global in outlook and draws students from around the nation and world. The 425‐acre campus is a designated arboretum, complete with gardens, rolling lawns, a creek, wooded hills, and hiking trails in the Crum Woods.
Who We Are:
The Office of College Advancement builds and strengthens relationships with alumni, families, and friends to advance College priorities through joyful engagement and celebration, philanthropic and volunteer support, and stewardship of Swarthmore’s contributions to the common good. We work intentionally as a collaborative group that drives innovation, creates space for rich dialogue, inspires trust, and develops a community rooted in inclusivity and belonging.
The opportunity:
The Senior Associate Director, Reporting and Analytics, is responsible for producing strategic, value-added technology solutions for end-users to meet organizational challenges. The incumbent collaborates with Advancement and campus colleagues to identify technological opportunities and guide operational decision making through data driven analytics to increase philanthropic goals and constituent engagement. The Senior Associate Director oversees technical systems used by Advancement and develops through software programming knowledge reporting and data visualization for Advancement staff, College leadership, and College volunteers. Additionally, this position develops documentation and training, including written, video, and live sessions, for colleagues in order to make technology and data accessible to the end users. Through this work, the Senior Associate Director acts as a key partner in the strategic planning and effective operation of fundraising and engagement programs at Swarthmore College.
Essential Responsibilities
CRM Reporting and Management
- Collaborate with the Director of Data & Technology Services and the Executive Director of Operations to build and maintain a culture of data-informed decision making within Advancement.
- Lead collaboration with other team leaders, primarily the Director of Prospect Discovery & Development and Assistant and Associate Vice Presidents across Advancement, to provide analysis and recommend strategies that guide and enhance our fundraising and engagement programs.
- Facilitates discussions between leadership, fundraisers, and technical resources to ensure a complete understanding of project needs and to develop new policies and procedures.
- Proactively develops relationships with staff and departments across the College, especially communications, admissions, Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility, Chester Children’s Chorus, Center for Innovation & Leadership, and career services to support their work with constituent engagement and to acquire and understand available relevant data.
- Manages and collaborates in cross-campus projects on such topics as data sharing, learning, and training. The Slate Advancement CRM replaces the previous system of over 25 years, and all cross campus access needs re-evaluated, established, and maintained with all campus departments. Oversee the planning, implementation, and successful delivery of each project.
- Ensures the successful implementation and continued infrastructure development of new technologies, including the Slate CRM and related systems. Work strategically with colleagues to design, test, create and implement new reporting and dashboard solutions.
- Test, deploy, and validate regular updates, feeds, and/or new functionality delivered by Technolutions.
- Slate CRM has few built in features, the incumbent will develop new views, tabs, prompts, rules and more to meet the needs of the division, evolving the product continuously. This involved the technical programming needs and the oversight and partnership required with colleagues to plan and implement policy and procedure change.
- Write and execute queries and API calls against the College databases using SQL Server; data systems include Slate and Banner. Working knowledge of SQL, HTML, and CSS to create queries, reports, forms, portals and dashboards in Slate and desire to increase proficiency.
Data Analytics and Visualization
- Evaluates and implements new data visualization technology(s) to enhance and extend Advancement’s current reporting and data visualization capacity.
- Programs and develops interactive dashboards in order to simplify and encourage effective data exploration/analysis among leadership and non-technical staff. Utilizing the Advancement CRM, Slate, and additional industry leading interactive visualization software, such as Tableau or Microsoft Power BI.
- Leverage advanced data analysis skills to synthesize information and disseminate results through well-designed, visually engaging dashboards, reports, maps, charts, graphs, and presentations.
- Assists the Advancement Research team with the creation of a fundraising analytics program, spearheading unique projects involving predictive modeling, forecasting, data mining, and visually engaging reporting.
- Working knowledge of SQL, HTML, and CSS to create queries, reports, forms, portals and dashboards in Slate.
- Develop algorithms and build predictive models from the ground up, using machine learning and deep learning frameworks (AI) in the CRM. Preprocessing data, ensuring the quality and accuracy of data fed into models, and deploying these models into production.
Training, Documentation, & ITS Support
- Develops and delivers training, including appropriate documentation, on the systems used by Advancement.
- Manages documentation for reports library to facilitate ease of use among colleagues.
- Trains colleagues throughout the College in the Slate Advancement and additional tools deployed by Advancement to support the division’s goal and mission for the College.
- Maintain proficiency in all Advancement Software tools to lead training and use.
Advancement Vendor Management
- Lead in partnership with the Director of Data and Technology Services in the identification, evaluation, and selection of external vendors of data, analytics, and related technology software and services used in Operations and across the Advancement Division.
- Acts as technical point of contact for Vendors, including but not limited to: AlumnIQ, CyberSource, GiveCampus, Double the Donation, and Technolutions.
- In collaboration with Advancement colleagues, works to maintain, develop, and implement the various tools provided by vendors.
- Collaborates with the Business Office to maintain payment gateways for gift and event credit card transaction reconciliation.
- Coordinates exchange of data between Slate and various tools, implements solutions, and ensures appropriate testing of applications.
- Works with Advancement colleagues to determine technical needs, including identifying needed systems, tools, or services, writing RFPs, and assessing resources needed for implementation and maintenance.
- In collaboration with ITS, helps Advancement to prioritize technology vendor needs and ensures a realistic timeline for all parties.
- Supports Advancement and ITS colleagues in managing and testing Software tools for the division.
Who you are:
- Strong organizational skills, demonstrated experience in project management, and ability to respond to multiple priorities. Extreme accuracy and attention to detail with the ability to handle multiple and varied tasks both independently and collaboratively. Data management skills demonstrating the ability to manage large amounts of data and organize it into meaningful reports.
- Excellent analytical, communication, and interpersonal skills. A talent for listening, interpreting, and synthesizing information. Ability to effectively bridge communications between non-technical software end-users and the technical team.
- Strong sense of collegiality and ability to establish collaborative professional relationships using tact and diplomacy, and the ability to maintain a high level of confidentiality. Strong customer service skills.
- Ability to travel locally or nationally for professional development.
- Appreciation for the value of higher education.
- Ability to synthesize information and suggest recommendations.
- Exceptional ability to analyze data, clearly articulate findings, and translate that to a strategy for expert and non-expert audiences.
What you bring:
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s Degree with five years of job-related experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Experience working in institutional advancement with complex relational databases, reporting, and development software.
- Experience with a fundraising database and an excellent understanding of the general underlying database structures and rules to support fundraising efforts.
- Well-versed in configurable joins and database querying.
- Expertise in working with databases and building reports.
- Exceptional computer skills with experience evaluating, mastering, and implementing peripheral software applications, and training colleagues in various applications.
- Highly proficient in Windows operating system, Microsoft Suite, Google Suite, HTML, and Transact SQL (Structured Query Language).
- Demonstrated experience in the design, deployment, maintenance, and documentation of large-scale software applications and databases.
- Ability to work evenings, weekends, or as needed to complete projects or meet heavy demand.
Preferred Qualifications
- Advanced degree or certifications.
- Expertise in SQL, HTML, CSS.
- Familiarity with R and/or Python.
- Experience in Slate CRM developing Queries, Reports, and Portals.
- Experience with Power BI or Tableau building reports and dashboards.
- Understanding of e-commerce integration and processing, and a variety of desktop software, e-mail packages, and network applications.
What You Will Get:
You’ll work at one of the world’s most renowned liberal arts Colleges, with incredible benefits, a stunning 420-acre campus, and a collaborative work environment. Join a team of passionate, creative people who work hard and have fun supporting the College students, faculty, and staff.
We want to hear from you if you are excited about this role! For full consideration, submit applications with pay expectations, including a resume and cover letter, by September 30, 2024. Applications received after this date may be reviewed on a rolling basis until the job has been filled.
PA Criminal Required
Swarthmore College requires a PA Criminal background check for all staff positions prior to the start of employment.
Education Verification Required by Position
An education verification is required for this position because a college degree is a required qualification for this position.
Review the 2024 Benefits Flyer. We offer benefit plans starting at zero cost! Upon benefit eligibility, the College contributes 10% of an employee’s salary to their retirement account. Employees are 100% vested in their accounts on the date participation begins.
Swarthmore Benefits Guidebook
Retirement Plans
Tuition Grant Program
Tuition Reimbursement Program
Paid Time Off (Staff)
Holiday Schedule
Swarthmore College actively seeks and welcomes applications from candidates with exceptional qualifications, particularly those with demonstrable commitments to a more inclusive society and world. Swarthmore College is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Women and those with underrepresented identities are encouraged to apply.