Senior Director, Research & Insights

Senior Director, Research & Insights

At DonorsChoose, we believe every student deserves the opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive. We also know that too many public school classrooms lack the resources students need to reach their full potential.

Since 2000, DonorsChoose has connected teachers who know exactly what their students need with generous supporters who want to help. Together, more than 6 million people and partners have contributed nearly $2 billion to fund classroom resources and experiences for students across the country. Today, teachers at more than 90% of U.S. public schools have used DonorsChoose to bring learning to life for their students.

Our impact extends beyond delivering classroom resources. Every teacher request gives us a unique window into what's happening in America's classrooms: from emerging learning trends to the evolving needs of students and educators. These insights help inform our own strategy and equip partners across philanthropy, business, and education with a deeper understanding of where opportunity exists and where support can make the greatest difference. By combining the expertise of teachers with the generosity of supporters, we're helping unlock the potential of every student while building a stronger future for public education.

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 Impact & Insights Team

The Impact & Insights team exists to help DonorsChoose become the most trusted source of insights about America's classrooms. We believe teachers are among the first to see emerging needs, changing student experiences, and new opportunities—and that those closest to classrooms should help shape the conversations happening far beyond them.

By combining educator perspectives, research, data, and organizational intelligence, we produce insights that inform strategy, strengthen fundraising, shape partnerships, and help leaders across education, philanthropy, and business better understand where opportunity exists for students.

About the Role

DonorsChoose is seeking a Senior Director of Research & Insights. Reporting to the Chief Impact & Insights Officer, this role is not a traditional research leadership role. While research rigor and methodological expertise matter, the primary value of this position is helping DonorsChoose build an organizational intelligence capability rooted in classroom resource needs that informs strategy, influences decisions, strengthens fundraising, shapes partnerships, and advances student opportunity. 

This context matters for a K–12 organization like ours, as we are not seeking someone whose primary orientation is academic research, publication, or evaluation for its own sake. We are seeking a strategic thinker and translator who can identify meaningful signals, connect disparate sources of information, generate relevant intelligence, identify where classroom realities intersect with broader opportunities, and help leaders act on what we learn.

Our point of view

We believe one of DonorsChoose's greatest strategic advantages is our proximity to America's classrooms. Teachers are often the first to see emerging student needs, changing classroom experiences, and new opportunities. The successful candidate will share our belief that these perspectives are not simply stories to collect: they are strategic signals to investigate, synthesize, and translate into intelligence that helps others make better decisions.

We're looking for someone with informed perspectives and a deep curiosity about K–12 education, but also the intellectual humility to let evidence shape (and sometimes change) their thinking.

This role sits at the intersection of education, research, data, strategy, and organizational learning. The ideal candidate is a builder, combining strong analytical instincts with exceptional communication skills. This role may be for you if you’re equally comfortable discussing survey methodology, collaborating with data scientists, briefing a wide range of internal and external stakeholders on insights, shaping a funder narrative, and speaking externally about what educators are experiencing.

What You’ll Lead 

Intelligence capability development  

Partner closely with Data Science to co-design and scale DonorsChoose's organizational intelligence capability. Help define the questions the organization should be answering through data, intelligence, and emerging signals

Collaborate on initiatives that uncover patterns, trends, and opportunities within DonorsChoose's unique classroom dataset

Partner on the continued evolution of currently in-flight organizational intelligence products

Ensure the organization's intelligence capabilities are both analytically rigorous and, above all, highly relevant to the needs of our stakeholder audiences

Thought Leadership

Partner closely with Strategic Communications and Marketing to translate research findings into compelling narratives that strengthen fundraising, engagement, and organizational influence

Help shape how DonorsChoose communicates classroom needs, student opportunity, impact, and emerging education trends

Ensure insights are accessible and relevant to a wide range of audiences, including educators, funders, policymakers, journalists, partners, and the public

Proactively track areas of growing interest and investment across K-12 education to align external demand with strategic opportunities

Contribute to external thought leadership through reports, presentations, media opportunities, partnerships, and convenings

Impact Measurement & Organizational Learning

Lead the organization's approach to impact measurement and learning

Oversee measurement frameworks focused on student outcomes, historically underfunded schools, and school engagement

Guide impact studies and validation efforts, internally and through external partners

Ensure research and measurement efforts generate organizational learning, strategic insight, and decision support, not simply reporting

Help build evidence that strengthens the DonorsChoose case for support and informs organizational priorities

Success in This Role

Within the first year, this leader will:

Establish a clear intelligence agenda that elevates DonorsChoose's status as a trusted source of insight about classrooms, student opportunity, and emerging education trends

Produce highly relevant intelligence that informs fundraising, partnerships, communications, product strategy, and executive decision-making

Strengthen collaboration across Research & Insights, Data Science, Product, Strategic Communications, Development, and Executive Leadership

Who We're Looking For

Must-Have Capabilities

Strategic thinking and organizational judgment

Exceptional written and verbal communication

Ability to translate complex findings into compelling narratives for funders, executives, partners, and non-technical audiences

Experience influencing senior leaders and organizational decision-making

Strong understanding of both qualitative and quantitative research approaches

Ability to distinguish signal from noise and identify emerging trends and opportunities

Ability to identify where classroom realities intersect with donor interests, funder priorities, workforce trends, policy shifts, and emerging opportunities

Experience turning insights into action, strategy, investment decisions, or organizational change

Nice-to-Have Capabilities

Deep K–12 education expertise

Survey design and educator listening experience

Impact measurement and evaluation experience

Experience managing external research partners

Experience working with large-scale datasets, data science teams, or analytical products

Experience serving as a public-facing thought leader

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. The following ranges represent the target offer range given the scope and experience expectations for this role.

The hiring salary range for this role is $140,000 - $155,000 

We have a hiring salary range of $150,000 - $170,000 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, MA, MD, MI, MN, NC, NJ, NY, OR, PA, TN, TX, VA, WA, or 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. 

An important note on communications: All messages from our hiring team will come from an official @donorschoose.org email address. If you ever receive a message about a role with us from a different domain, it’s not from us, and you should not reply or click on any links. We care deeply about your time, your privacy, and your experience—thank you for your interest in joining the DonorsChoose mission!

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 Kristina “Steen” Lyles, Chief Impact & Insights Officer.

 

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 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.