Business Intelligence Analyst

Purpose of the job The Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst generates, analyses, and interprets both quantitative and qualitative data from internal and external sources relevant to fundraising. They transform this data into strategic insights that enable evidence-based decision-making, data-driven actions, and the development of effective fundraising tactics and strategies. By delivering predictive analytics, automated reporting, and actionable fundraising performance insights, the BI Analyst drives a data-driven fundraising culture that maximises MSF Southern Africa's private fundraising results through the identification of emerging opportunities, risks, and challenges. As the fundraising data and systems expert, the BI Analyst provides technical and analytical leadership across Salesforce, marketing automation platforms, digital fundraising systems, and business intelligence solutions. They leverage statistical techniques, predictive modelling, automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and continuous optimisation to improve fundraising performance, guide strategic investment decisions, and increase private income.

Duties and

REPONSIBILITIES: Strategy & Planning:

• Develop and present actionable insights, strategic recommendations, and business intelligence from analytical outputs to support strategic decision-making and fundraising investment priorities.
• Develop long-term fundraising forecasting models covering income, donor growth, retention, return on investment (ROI), and donor Lifetime Value (LTV), providing data-driven recommendations to inform strategic decisions.
• Support the annual strategic planning and budgeting process by developing comprehensive budget models, calculation methodologies, and financial and non-financial scenario modelling to evaluate future opportunities and risks.
• Produce investment modelling and business cases to support new fundraising initiatives, optimise resource allocation, and maximise fundraising performance.
• Develop strategic donor segmentation models and continuously optimise fundraising performance through data analysis, predictive modelling, and ongoing evaluation.
• Conduct predictive analyses to identify future fundraising opportunities, emerging risks, and trends that inform strategic planning and fundraising investment.
• Participate in benchmark studies and lead the strategic evaluation, interpretation, and translation of benchmark findings into actionable recommendations.
• Develop, maintain, and continuously enhance the fundraising technology and business intelligence ecosystem, including data integration, data warehousing, reporting, predictive analytics, and dashboard solutions to support long-term planning and decision-making.
• Evaluate emerging fundraising technologies, analytical tools, and business intelligence solutions, recommending scalable innovations that improve fundraising effectiveness and operational efficiency Reporting & Analysis:
• Establish and monitor fundraising key performance indicators (KPIs) across acquisition, retention, digital, and one-to-one fundraising channels, providing comparative analysis against previous years, MSF movement performance, and the South African fundraising market.
• Design, develop, automate, and maintain real-time reporting solutions, dashboards, and business intelligence tools using Power BI, Salesforce dashboards, and other reporting platforms to support fundraising operations and strategic decision-making.
• Develop executive dashboards for the Senior Management Team (SMT), Board, Fundraising Director, and Fundraising Managers, providing clear visibility of fundraising performance and strategic priorities.
• Produce weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual fundraising performance reports, translating complex analyses into clear visualisations, written insights, and strategic recommendations for stakeholders at all levels.
• Build automated KPI monitoring and early warning indicators to proactively identify performance trends, risks, and opportunities requiring management intervention.
• Measure and analyse fundraising effectiveness using key financial and fundraising metrics, including Return on Investment (ROI), Cost per Acquisition (CPA), Lifetime Value (LTV), Payback Period, Net Income, revenue performance, and expenditure.
• Support fundraising revenue forecasting, budget reviews, financial reconciliations, and variance analysis, identifying the causes of actual versus forecast deviations and recommending corrective actions.
• Analyse MSF Southern Africa fundraising performance and benchmark results against the wider fundraising sector and other MSF offices to identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Train and support campaign managers and fundraising staff in the effective use and interpretation of dashboards, KPIs, and campaign analysis, promoting data literacy and evidence-based decision-making across the fundraising department. Donor behaviour:
• Develop strategic analyses of donor segments and portfolios, providing actionable recommendations to optimise acquisition, retention, reactivation, upgrades, cross-selling, and overall fundraising performance.
• Develop and maintain donor segmentation models using behavioural, demographic, digital engagement, and giving history data to improve targeting and personalisation across fundraising programmes.
• Develop donor profiles and propensity models, working with external service providers where required, to identify donors' likelihood to acquire, retain, upgrade, reactivate, or make additional gifts.
• Build statistical and predictive models to forecast donor cancellations, retention trends, donor Lifetime Value (LTV), and other key fundraising performance indicators, sharing insights with fundraising channel and campaign owners.
• Analyse donor journeys across all fundraising channels, identifying key drivers of donor acquisition, engagement, retention, cancellation, and long-term value, and recommend improvements to the donor experience.
• Analyse digital engagement behaviour and campaign performance to identify opportunities for optimisation and increased donor conversion and retention.
• Provide data-driven recommendations to improve donor journeys and fundraising strategies through the analysis of revenue generation, donor engagement, and retention activities.
• Assist in rating donors and prospects according to their propensity, inclination, and capacity to give, providing strategic insights to the fundraising team during cultivation, solicitation, and pipeline management activities. Data, processes and systems:
• Lead the development and continuous enhancement of the fundraising business intelligence (BI) architecture and technology stack, ensuring scalable, integrated, and data-driven solutions that support fundraising strategy and decision-making.
• Act as the fundraising business lead for Salesforce reporting and analytics, developing and maintaining Salesforce reports, dashboards, fundraising performance metrics, and analytical solutions that support operational and strategic decision-making.
• Work closely with the Database/CRM Manager and external vendors to improve CRM functionality, data quality, reporting capabilities, and overall data usability across fundraising systems.
• Develop and maintain data models, data warehouses, and analytical datasets that support reporting, dashboard development, predictive analytics, and advanced data visualisation.
• Conduct advanced data modelling, mining, and statistical analyses, in collaboration with internal teams and external service providers, to address key fundraising business questions and identify growth opportunities.
• Support digital fundraising analytics by analysing website performance, donor conversion funnels, campaign attribution, and digital engagement, integrating web analytics, CRM, and fundraising data to provide a complete view of donor performance.
• Identify and impl