Director of Research & Analytics

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international humanitarian organization that delivers impartial medical care to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from health care in over 70 countries.

We welcome candidates who bring a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences to join us in working toward MSF’s common mission.

Department

Our dynamic Development Department is responsible for raising over $500 million annually to support the mission of the organization.

Project

The Director of Research & Analytics will lead the creation of a new functional unit in the Development Department, serving as a visionary champion and expert for integrating data-informed, donor-centric strategies into MSF-USA’s fundraising mission. This role will serve as a thought leader in the organization in the fields of market research, prospect research, and data analytics. Responsibilities include developing, refining, and tangibly bringing to life a behavioral donor segmentation; overseeing development and delivery of primary audience research; leading long-term donor-value analyses; marketing test design and analysis; predictive modeling; and ongoing data mining. The Director is responsible for helping to improve the impact of fundraising campaigns, prospect research, analytics tools and platforms, and enabling moves management, while also looking for new, integrated ways to build and better engage our current audiences.

The Director of Research & Analytics serves on the Development Management team, providing strategic and tactical leadership and supporting the Director of Development with planning and implementing data strategy, governance, and analytics processes. This role oversees a team of 8-10 staff, including 3 senior managers in Market Research, Prospect Research, and Analytics, plus multiple vendor relationships. Ultimately serving the audience managers in reaching their ambitious fundraising goals, the Director of Research and Analytics is charged with incorporating a research and analysis foundation into all fundraising strategies.

Tasks

Market Research (40%)

This role oversees all Market Research initiatives and manages the Senior Manager, Market Research and vendor relationships. The role includes active hands-on implementation of Market Research projects.

• Oversee donor & market research projects, both quantitative and qualitative, to drive insights and deeper understanding of MSF-USA’s current and potential donor base.
• Model donor engagement – fundraising, events, email engagement, volunteering, etc. – and work with audience leads and channel strategists to increase insight and improve donor engagement.
• Create and lead the implementation of audience segmentation strategies for effective donor acquisition.
• Working with the Senior Market Researcher, provide strategic leadership for market research projects, making use of internal staff as well as external consultants and agencies to answer MSF’s most critical fundraising strategy questions and to expand its fundraising effectiveness over time.

Prospect Research (20%)

Supervising the Senior Manager, Prospect Research and their team, the Director of Research and Analytics will oversee the identification of key prospect individuals, foundations, and corporations to evaluate potential or existing donors’ personal backgrounds, giving histories, wealth indicators, and philanthropic motivations to evaluate a prospect’s ability to give and affinity toward MSF-USA.

• Lead the prospecting strategies for Major Gifts, Mid-Level, Planned Gifts, Corporate, and Foundations. Consult with audience leads regarding fundraising strategies, key challenges, and decision-making to inform research and insights work.
• Optimize the prospect research process utilized to meet industry best practices.
• Oversee critical prospect research and analytical support needs for high value audience growth. Oversee exploratory research efforts for innovation (pilots).
• Evaluate, acquire, and integrate new datasets to support prospecting and file analysis.
• Monitor external environment including direct/indirect competition and key prospect research trends.
• Tie together data from multiple internal and external sources, including MSF-USA’s internal donor file, wealth profiling data and other sources to gain insights that support Audience lead campaigns for donor acquisition, growth, and stewardship.

Data Analytics & Governance (30%)

Supporting the Senior Manager, Data Analytics and their team, ensure the organization is using best practices for knowledge building and creating a data-driven decision-making culture.

• Consult with audience managers and channel teams, internalizing their business models and unique needs and approaches. Provide leadership to the Data Analytics team in their work making recommendations according to relevant analytics methodologies, including quantitative, qualitative, and other research methodologies in line with short- and long-term goals.

• Oversee the data analytics team’s work in the areas of strategic selection and implementation of data infrastructure and tools for reporting and analytics on fundraising data across channels.
• Collaborate with the Director of Technology, Products and Services to ensure tools used for research and analytics are best-in-class and that staff are trained on technology and process.
• Working with Systems, oversee the establishment of a fundraising data governance program. Articulate and ensure adoption of best practices for data governance, data hygiene, and reporting standards.
• Lead the implementation of a Development-Department-wide testing program.

Leadership & People Management (10%)

• Support the Development Management Team with industry expertise and encourage data-driven innovation across giving programs and audiences.
• Manage, recruit, and build out a highly skilled and motivated research and analytics team, including data analysts/scientists, market researchers, prospect researchers and support staff.
• Mentor staff in their skills and professional goals to prioritize learning and individual growth, promoting staff retention and job satisfaction.
• Ensure all staff are trained on all research and analytics platforms and that skills are up-to-date according to industry standard practices.
• Build strong relationships across teams within Development and across the organization.
• Collaborate effectively with other data and research professionals within MSF-USA.

Qualifications

Required

• Minimum 7 years working in a quantitative research or analytics role, analyzing data and making actionable recommendations to business partners or clients in a business, political, or non-profit setting, with a strong focus on fundraising and marketing.
• 3+ years of management or leadership experience supervising analysts and researchers.
• Understanding of current trends in fundraising, marketing, market research, identity building, and communication strategies.
• Familiarity with statistical methods, machine learning techniques, testing, and predictive analysis in service of real-world business challenges.
• Experience overseeing multiple vendor relationships, with the ability to lead meetings and monitor output/impact of vendors and consultants.
• Strong interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills and comfort working in a high-energy, fast-paced and collaborative environment.
• Ability to work independently; move projects from conceptual stages to launch; and handle multiple and often competing deadlines.
• Outstanding, proven time management and organizational skills.
• Ability to deal calmly with pressure and deadlines and to communicate with diplomacy.
• A strategic fundraising mindset with a service-oriented approach.
• Deep, demonstrated commitment to principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Preferred

• For-profit market research experience and non-profit fundraising experience

• Experience leveraging data warehousing, business intelligence, ETL, and analytics tools

• Familiarity with Salesforce platform

No phone calls or emails please. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Application Deadline: Open Until Filled.

Please note that relocation assistance or visa sponsorship will be offered for this position.

This role location is in our NYC HQ office

MSF-USA/Doctors Without Borders is an Equal Opportunity Employer. No employee, or applicant for employment, shall be discriminated against in any term or condition of employment because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, or sexual orientation or any other characteristic protected by law. We are constantly striving to make our organization anti-racist. Diversity, equity and inclusion are core values. As an employee, you become part of that mission. We expect this same commitment from our staff.

Type

HQ

Pay Class & Contract Type

Regular FT Salaried Exempt

Compensation

Starting salary High 110's to mid 120's (commensurate with experience)

Working Time (Hours Per Week)

35