Development Operations Associate

Reports To: Senior Manager of Development Strategy & Operations
Job Type: Full-time
Region: United States
Location: Cambridge, MA or Remote in the US
Start Date: Immediate
Contact: Please apply using the form below.

Summary

The Development Associate will support the Partnerships Team's ability to raise $100M as part of Root Capital’s campaign to achieve our 2025 Strategic Plan impact ambitions. The Development Associate will support Root Capital’s individual and institutional donor cultivation and stewardship efforts, including by serving as the primary administrator for donor information in Salesforce. The Associate is responsible for a broad range of tasks related to the efficient operation, management and mining of donor information, including: data entry and quality maintenance, generating and formatting donor acknowledgement and stewardship letters, and providing data and analysis in report form to staff. The Associate is a critical member of the Partnerships Team who will help Root Capital optimize its donor data management and system for all of its fundraising needs.

Mission & History of Root Capital

Root Capital is a nonprofit whose mission is to grow rural prosperity and build the resilience of farming families around the world. We support the growth of agricultural enterprises so they can transform rural communities. These businesses purchase crops such as coffee, cocoa, or grains from smallholder farmers. With growth, they become engines of impact that can raise incomes, create jobs for the next generation of leaders, level the playing field for women, and take urgent action against climate change.

We supply these businesses with vital credit and capacity building to foster their growth and resilience. We work in hard-to-serve communities where others don’t. To date, we’ve distributed $1.6 billion to improve the lives of over 10 million people in farming families. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Root Capital currently has associated offices in Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, Ghana, and Kenya.

Responsibilities

Data management, integrity, and coordination (60%)

• Serve as primary database administrator of donor data within the Salesforce platform (10+ users).
• Support Development team on data extraction, integration, and systems management for other information systems and platforms, including: Adaptive Insights (Workday), Box, and other proprietary databases.
• Maintain the data integrity and quality of donor information in the database platforms, including regular data improvement and clean-up, and enforcement of adherence to database input standards.
• Manage third-party database integrations, including Mailchimp, iWave, and Classy. Support data integrity between systems by ensuring accurate data flow and tracking reconciliations.
• Maintain a deep understanding of the available Salesforce tools and help communicate and coordinate business needs between technical and non-technical audiences as needed to enable creation and maintenance of custom fields, workflows, and validation rules as needed.
• Streamline systems and create and maintain uniform processes for data entry and tracking for the Partnerships team, including but not limited to: meeting entry, reporting and tracking, and donor affinity entry and tracking.
• Maintain and improve Partnerships’ database platform standard operating procedures manuals for Root Capital's evolving information systems and data management and analysis practices, documenting donor-related and other customizations as applicable.
• Support Partnerships team Salesforce users by providing training, answering user questions, and troubleshooting issues.
• Lead the effort to evolve Salesforce to meet the fundraising arm of the organization’s changing needs, including maintaining and updating database-enabled dashboards and KPI trackers.
• Facilitate appropriate and accurate donor recognition in external publications, such as the Annual Report.

Fundraising Support (25%)

• Ensure timely and accurate entry of gift records.
• Generate, format, prepare, and ensure delivery of high-quality donor acknowledgement and stewardship letters.
• Serve as primary support for Development strategy and operations reporting needs.
• Enable consistent Frontline Fundraiser donation projection entry and affinity scores and perform quarterly Frontline Fundraiser’s portfolio health-checks and updates.
• Create, support, generate, and disseminate regular reports including but not limited to: weekly gift reports; monthly year over year updates; and quarterly progress reports.
• Deliver standardized gift report and notification to team members, with ad hoc team member notification as gifts come in as needed.
• Add newly identified prospect accounts to the system and facilitate new account research and Frontline Fundraiser assignment.
• Coordinate with external prospect research team to conduct prospect research and new donor reviews and monitor developments with key prospects and donors and within philanthropy, sustainability, and CSR generally.
• Support Frontline Fundraiser in completing donor follow-up tasks, as requested.
• Engage with external development-focused contractors and consultants as needed, including coordinating compliance with state fundraising registration requirements.

Administrative/team support (15%)

• Maintain rosters for Governance and Giving programs, and update additional lists including Google Groups and Calendars as appropriate.
• Coordinate logistics for Development Committee related meetings, site visits, and events including calendaring, note taking, and follow up.
• Keep up to date on Salesforce activities and liaise with other operations staff in other departments to ensure cohesive use of the system.
• Update Development intranet page and serve as intranet administrator.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for questions on Development database policy, procedures, and data.
• Support development colleagues to address Salesforce questions related to other department’s use of the system and policies regarding system use.
• Handle administrative functions in Salesforce applications including maintenance of user accounts, profiles, roles, security/data access, setting up workflows, sharing rules and permission sets
• Manage the process of individual and mass record deletion, updates, and imports in coordination with the Salesforce team.

Perform other relevant duties as assigned.

Skills and Experience

• Minimum 1-3 years of database management experience; nonprofit database management preferred.
• Demonstrated understanding and experience with Salesforce (Lightning) and strong understanding of Salesforce best practices and functionality preferred.
• Self-motivated to independently learn new systems and technologies required.
• Experience maintaining CRM data, including experience in report writing and analyzing data.
• Familiarity with Classy, Mailchimp, iWave integrations with Salesforce preferred.
• Demonstrated experience providing technical support to database users, with emphasis on responsiveness and patience with users of varying levels of database experience and abilities.
• The ability to “translate” between the Partnerships department and IT.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to complete work within established time frames, as well as prioritize and coordinate multiple projects and competing work demands.
• Ability to maintain the confidentiality of information regarding constituents, along with organizational financials and other information.
• Strong written and oral communication skills, including the ability to articulate instructions for how to use tools, systems, and processes.
• Ability to think creatively, take initiative, and work independently, while also enjoying collaboration with the team.
• Root Capital is a bilingual organization. Spanish proficiency (written and spoken) is a plus but not critical to the role.
• Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States.

Salary

Commensurate with experience.