Senior Gifts and Records Analyst

CSU Careers•San José, CA

About The Position

The Senior Gifts and Records Analyst performs advanced, highly complex administrative, analytical, and technical duties under broad direction to ensure comprehensive data integrity, regulatory compliance, and operational efficiency of the university’s philanthropic gift processing and constituent records infrastructure. The incumbent serves as the department’s operational lead and subject matter expert on advanced gift processing, proactive data quality management, and CRM workflow optimization and is accountable to results associated with these business standards. The position assesses, formulates, and evaluates the impact of implemented policies from an operational perspective, administering highly non-standard and complex charitable contributions in strict accordance with IRS regulations, Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Global Reporting Standards, Association of Advancement Services Professionals (AASP) guidelines, and California State University (CSU) system-wide policies. This role translates strategic division initiatives into tactical program procedures, manages system validations, designs robust quality assurance protocols, and serves as a consultative liaison to internal and external campus stakeholders.

Requirements

A bachelor's degree and/or equivalent training
Four years of administrative work experience involving study, analysis, and/or evaluation leading to the development or improvement of administrative policies, procedures, practices, or programs
General awareness of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), and a willingness to develop skills in their appropriate, responsible, and ethical use in a higher education environment, consistent with institutional policies and practices
Expert-level command of charitable giving laws, asset valuation rules, and comprehensive counting standards established by the IRS, CASE (2024 Global Updates), AASP, and the CSU Chancellor's Office
Thorough, deep knowledge of institutional bookkeeping methods, public non-profit financial structures, relational database architecture, and fundamental accounting internal controls
Advanced technical proficiency with enterprise-level advancement databases (e.g., Salesforce, Blackbaud CRM/NXT, Ellucian, Affinaquest) alongside specialized data manipulation tools and productivity suites (Google Workspace, Microsoft Office)
Superior quantitative ability to navigate voluminous raw data, discover systemic structural anomalies, troubleshoot complex software integration failures, and formulate creative, structured corrective interventions
Outstanding verbal and written communication skills; a proven ability to translate intricate and technical financial and gift data into highly comprehensible, persuasive prose for non-technical university staff leadership
Exceptional capacity to self-manage vast, conflicting operational deadlines within a rapidly evolving, high-stakes campaign environment while organizing workflows for oneself and others to achieve key institutional milestones
Ability to communicate with constituents in a professional and respectful manner

Nice To Haves

Three to five (3-5) years of direct experience specifically embedded within university advancement services, public higher education foundations, or complex multi-unit non-profit gift administration
Advanced experience navigating, testing, or building validation rules within a modern relational CRM database (e.g., Salesforce, Blackbaud CRM)
Prior professional experience operating within the California State University system, including a functional familiarity with the CSU State Administrative Manual (SAM) or CSU auxiliary compliance structures

Responsibilities

Evaluate, interpret, and independently execute the recording of highly complex, non-standard philanthropic contributions, including but not limited to stock transfers, real estate gifts, corporate matching programs, donor-advised funds (DAFs), complex planned giving commitments, and cryptocurrency
Audit legal document frameworks, complex memoranda of understanding (MOUs), and donor gift agreements to verify, code, and execute donor intent while enforcing strict adherence to CASE campaign counting rules, IRS guidelines, and CSU auxiliary standards
Participates in the planning and development of activities with the Tower Foundation Finance team and the Director to monitor and execute monthly financial reconciliation metrics between CRM gift data, online transactional giving gateways, and financial ledger accounts to meet departmental operating goals
Review and finalize auditable adjusting journal vouchers, batch corrections, and transaction modifications
Oversee the secure categorization of source documentation to maintain flawless internal controls and complete audit readiness for annual foundation and State Administrative Manual (SAM) evaluations
Actively monitor the university clearance accounts, tracking matching eligibility and collaborating with colleagues to successfully resolve conditions for formal institutional acceptance
With the Advancement IT and Advancement Analytics and Insights teams, design, schedule, and execute deep-dive diagnostic data quality audits to systematically discover and repair anomalies, structural tracking omissions, duplicates, broken biographical, relational, and employment attributes across stakeholder records
Track and evaluate systemic operational metrics (e.g., historical error rates, data completeness gaps, throughput bottlenecks) to diagnose patterns in data entry errors and deliver actionable analytical summaries to division leadership
Champion and enforce strict multi-tier data governance rules to protect constituent privacy, data security, and systemic confidentiality in compliance with FERPA, PCI-DSS, and university information security policies
Continuously evaluate core gift recording and records management workflows to identify programmatic inefficiencies; research, engineer, and implement research-backed optimization strategies in collaboration with the Director and the Advancement IT and Advancement Analytics and Insights teams
Independently lead the development, structural revision, and deployment of comprehensive Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the Analyst team to preserve institutional knowledge, solidify compliance standards, and stabilize data handling consistency
Partner with the Advancement IT team to drive user acceptance testing (UAT), script validation rules, build automated gift tracking scenarios, and manage validation cycles for new feature rollouts and CRM and platform system integrations