Development Associate

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 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. In this role, 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. Core Job Responsibilities Data Entry: 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. Development Training: 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 as a Development Operations team member. Technical Writing and Policy Documentation: 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. Database Management: 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. Quality Assurance and Testing: Provide quality assurance testing and analysis in the Salesforce testing environment to optimize and identify issues and limits 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. Third-Party Vendor Collaboration: Work closely with external vendors and IT to develop fundraising solutions, leveraging their expertise and resources to enhance fundraising capabilities. Record-keeping and Correspondence: 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 / Outcomes 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. Trains the Development team on new system features. Troubleshoots database issues promptly. Incoming donor inquiries are addressed promptly and with outstanding customer service. Required Qualifications A minimum of three (3) years of experience in nonprofit Development operations, accounting, data management, or a similar field is required. Proficiency with data entry and extraction in a high-volume, multi-channel giving environment is required. Previous experience with CRMs, data cleanup, and project management is required. 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. The salary range for this role is between $59,755 and $74,670. This is an onsite role based at the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park. 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 View email address on click.appcast.io if you require a reasonable accommodation to complete this application. At the Obama Foundation, we are guided by a core belief: that ordinary people working together can change history. We seek to inspire those people to take action, empower them to change their world for the better, and connect them so they can achieve more together than they can alone. We were founded by community organizers, so when we seek change, we do it by bringing people together. That approach begins at home, on the South Side of Chicago, where we are building the Obama Presidential Center. The Center represents a historic opportunity for Chicago: a chance to build a world-class museum and public gathering space that celebrates our nation’s first African American President and First Lady, steps away from where he began his career, where she was raised, and where—together—they made their home. But that approach extends to all our work, whether it’s holding leadership training sessions in communities throughout the U.S., bringing local leaders together in countries around the world, working to support the global education of girls, or ensuring young men of color have pathways to opportunity. As President Obama has said, “we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together.” So join us. For more information, please visit #J-18808-Ljbffr