Business Analyst, Strategy & Innovation

DonorsChoose makes it easy for anyone to help a teacher in need, moving us closer to a nation where students in every community have the tools and experiences they need for a great education.

Since 2000, more than 5 million people and partners have contributed $1 billion to support 2 million teacher requests for classroom resources and experiences. Projects range from art supplies to build the set for a school musical, to books and puzzles that affirm students’ identities, to bird seed for an at-home science project. We proudly serve all US public schools, public charter schools, and Head Start centers, and we combat systemic inequity by driving a majority of donations to schools that have been historically underfunded due to economic and racial inequity.

DonorsChoose has been recognized as a best place to work by GOOD Magazine and the Nonprofit Times, while Fast Company named DonorsChoose one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World—the first time a charity has made this list. Our dedicated team works from across the United States to bring classroom dreams to life.

About the Strategy & Innovation Team

The Strategy & Innovation team is responsible for guiding organizational strategy and exploring, defining, incubating and launching new business ideas to expand our organization’s impact on equitable access to resources in US public schools. In the year ahead, this team will pilot an expansion of our services to Puerto Rico, and explore a few other key initiatives from our strategic plan, including discovery around how we might develop a product for school or district leaders. 

As the Strategy and Innovation team, we drive org-level direction and alignment and incubate new ideas for future growth. This includes codifying and iterating on a cohesive organizational strategy co-developed by our leadership team, identifying and evaluating high impact challenges and opportunities, and surfacing and experimenting with future areas of opportunity to help determine ‘what’s next’ for the organization.

About the Role

Recurring, holistic and rigorous monitoring of our business is especially important with the level of investment we’re making to grow our impact. The role will include a mix of reporting and ad-hoc analytics to dig into business performance to drive speedy, insights-driven decision-making and inform future areas of investment for the organization. The focus of the analyses will be on our strategy, portfolio of investment, and overall business health.

In this role you will: 

Dive deep into analysis:

• Develop a very clear mental model of our business drivers and structure analyses around it to drive efficiency across the entire business
• Conduct portfolio analysis of our investments and make recommendations on shifting strategies
• Define clear hypotheses to identify new opportunities, and build business cases and quantitative models that will inform and influence our strategy
• Address ad hoc analysis requests and inquiries to support decision making for the Strategy & Innovation team and across the leaders of our strategic plan and key areas of our business
• Communicate your findings to senior leaders across the company in a compelling and digestible formats

Conduct business performance reporting:

• Act as the linchpin between data and decision-making, by elevating the performance of our strategic plan toward our multi-year goals, taking charge of core KPI tracking across the plan
• Building out the necessary tools and frameworks to help guide decision-making at senior levels (i.e. business health reviews, modeling/projecting outcomes)
• Analyze quarterly performance to provide meaningful commentary and strategic insights to leadership

Contribute to our larger data community of practice:

• Partner closely with business stakeholders to identify and unlock opportunities, and with other data teams to improve platform capabilities around data modeling, data visualization, and data architecture
• Share best practices across our data community; actively participate and mentor others across the organization

This role may be perfect for you if you:

• Are passionate about equitable access to quality education and have experience applying an equity lens to analytical work
• Have 8 years of experience, at least 5 of which should be relevant, applied experience in finance/accounting, operations, business strategy, or consulting, preferably as a management consultant or at a data-driven product/technology company
• Are a structured thinker with the ability to frame and reason through sophisticated business problems, even in the face of ambiguity or imperfect information
• Have high aptitude and enthusiasm for complex problem solving utilizing financial modeling and analysis, including advanced Excel
• Experience with SQL/Redshift and Business Intelligence tools (Looker, Tableau) - you will be required to eventually learn and apply these skills on the job
• Can fluidly transition between high-level synthesized executive presentations and in-depth, rolling-up-the-sleeves detailed support and analysis
• Have outstanding communication skills; an ability to communicate complex topics concisely but without over-simplifying 
• Are a self-starter who is proactive, intellectually curious, and seeks to understand the desired outcomes deeply so they can oversee projects independently
• Are willing and able to engage in conversations about race, representation, and equity; you are comfortable leading discussions, offering your perspective, and listening to learn
• Have the following experience or qualifications (but not required):MBA or significant business operations experience
• Expertise in data visualization using Looker or similar tools (Tableau, D3.js, Shiny, Dash)
• Experience with scripting languages such as Python or R
• Experience conducting competitive analysis or market research

Compensation & Benefits

Our compensation philosophy ensures that we are both externally competitive with tech-forward nonprofits of a similar size and internally fair in our pay practices. For this role, we are open to hiring either a Business Analyst I or a Business Analyst II, and the following ranges represent the target offer range given the scope and experience expectations for this role at each level.

• Business Analyst I: Shows proficiency in contributing to strategy development on complex matters related to the program. Brings a solid understanding of the field with strong transferable skills from related experiences. Demonstrates growing expertise in business analytics and strategy development, with experience in collaborating on projects and initiatives. Demonstrates a strong learning orientation and ability to grow beyond current proficiency.The hiring salary range for this role is $91,000-$110,000
• We have a hiring salary range of $103,000-$122,500 for specific higher cost of labor locations, which include New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, and Washington, D.C.
• Business Analyst II: Demonstrates a strong ability to develop strategy on complex matters related to the program. Brings a specialized knowledge of the field and is considered a subject matter expert with direct, relevant experience in business analytics and strategy development. Has experience independently developing strategies and planning efforts rooted in the mission of an organization and its equity focus.
• The hiring salary range for this role is $110,000-$127,000
• We have a hiring salary range of $123,000-$144,200 for specific higher cost of labor locations, which include New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, and Washington, D.C.

Once employees are hired, everyone at DonorsChoose is eligible to receive annual performance-based raises as they grow in their role. We are open to a variety of experiences, and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced or more senior than this job description as posted. If you don’t check every box listed here, or you know you’d bring additional experience to the table, we hope you’ll submit your application. 

In addition, we offer full-time staff 25 paid vacation days per year and 11 paid holidays, a rich employer-paid individual and family health plan, a matching 401(k) plan (up to 5% of base salary), annual professional development stipend, and casual and flexible work environment. To learn more about what it is like to work for DonorsChoose, visit our careers page.

Hybrid Workplace and Other Details

In this role, you’ll have the option to work a flexible hybrid schedule in our NYC office, or to work fully remotely from CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, ME, MA, MD, MI, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, TX, VA, WA, WI.

Candidates who are not in the NYC area should expect to travel to our NYC office on an as-needed basis, about 4-6 times per year. All work-related travel expenses will be covered by the organization.

DonorsChoose participates in E-Verify. We will provide the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with information from each new employee’s Form I-9 to confirm work authorization. 

DonorsChoose Core Values

EQUITY

Combating systemic inequity is crucial to a brighter future for all. This reality fuels our ambitions and drives us to persevere.

INGENUITY

Complex problems require innovative solutions. We dream big, get creative, roll up our sleeves, and take action. We believe the best products can change the world.

HUMANITY 

People are the heart of our team and the communities we serve. Our compassion informs our goals and how we work together to achieve them. 

INTEGRITY

We strive to do right. We’re up-front about the facts. We boldly learn and grow from mistakes.

LEARNING

Education is the beating heart of our organization, inside and out. We’re curious. We listen. We know we don’t know everything. 

GRATITUDE

We begin and end with thanks. We take joy in our mission, our communities, and each other.

To Apply

Please submit your resume and answer the application questions online. Since we’re trying to get to know you through our hiring process, we ask that you please refrain from using AI writing tools to craft your response to our application questions. A cover letter is optional and may be addressed to Barbara Cvenic, VP, Strategy & Innovation.

A Final Note

The DonorsChoose team works toward a nation where students in every community have the resources needed for an excellent education. To do this we hire and support a diverse team of the best and the brightest talent available.

We are an organization increasingly representative of the varied races and ethnicities, genders and sexual orientations, religious and political beliefs, and abilities that comprise our nation. DonorsChoose focuses on attracting, retaining, and advancing diverse talent because it makes us more effective, high-performing, creative, and resilient.  

If you are passionate about our mission, highly skilled in your field, and looking for a place where you can bring all of yourself to work, we want you.