Direct Response & Donor Engagement Manager

Job description

Direct Response & Donor Engagement Manager Remote/fulltime/Travel-less than 10% JOB SUMMARY The Direct Response & Donor Engagement Manager plays a critical role in ensuring the smooth execution of direct response fundraising campaigns across mail, and digital channels. This role is responsible for coordinating timelines, managing approvals, maintaining logs and assets, and serving as a central point of contact across internal teams and external partners. In addition to managing direct response campaign operations, this role serves as a key liaison between the organization and its donors by overseeing outbound donor cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship activities. The Direct Response & Donor Engagement Manager supports fundraising objectives through coordinated outreach initiatives that complement direct response campaigns, helping strengthen donor retention, increase donor lifetime value, and deliver an exceptional donor experience. Working closely with internal teams and external vendors, this role ensures donor communications are timely, consistent, and aligned with organizational fundraising strategies. The ideal candidate is highly organized, detail oriented, and proactive,someone who anticipates needs, tracks dependencies, and keeps campaigns moving forward. This is an execution focused role with strong project management components, exposure to direct response fundraising strategy, and regular opportunity to directly engage directly with donors. The successful candidate will be equally comfortable managing campaign details, coordinating across teams and vendors, and building meaningful donor relationships that support fundraising goals and long-term donor retention. ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES CAMPAIGN OPERATIONS & PROJECT MANAGEMENT • Coordinate direct response campaign review workflows, including creative briefs, internal reviews, approvals from initial art to final art. • Send and collect feedback from internal stakeholders and ensure revisions are completed on schedule. • Project‑manage tasks and deadlines in Asana, flagging upcoming and overdue items, identifying roadblocks, and engaging stakeholders to resolve issues. • Work with vendors and internal teams to manage dependent due dates and production schedules that require internal stakeholder involvement. • Participate in weekly status meetings and provide clear updates on timelines and risks. • Maintain seed lists for mail and email campaigns, keeping them current as staff are hired or leave. • Support execution of new direct response initiatives, including ringless voicemail campaigns for new donors. LOGS, TRACKING & DOCUMENTATION • Maintain a comprehensive email log, including: • HTML versions of sent emails saved to SharePoint • Subject lines, preheaders, send dates • Notes on testing performed and performance results (open, click, opt out) • Maintain logs of advertising and creative tests, including performance notes where available • Enter mail and send dates for direct response appeals into shared calendars. • Ensure all final campaign files are saved and organized in designated SharePoint folders according to SOP. OUTBOUND DONOR COMMUNICATION • Support direct response fundraising by executing and coordinating outbound communication that align with direct response fundraising appeals. • Participate in donor thank-you calls, follow-up outreach, campaign-specific solicitations, and stewardship initiatives. • Work closely with the Direct Response & Database Officer to ensure donor outreach messaging, timing, and strategy align with active fundraising campaigns. • Accurately document outreach activities, donor interactions, and engagement outcomes in the CRM. • Assist in identifying opportunities for donor cultivation, reactivation, and stewardship through personalized outreach efforts. • Provide feedback and insights from donor conversations to help inform fundraising strategies, messaging, and campaign planning. INTERNAL COORDINATION & COMMUNICATIONS • Work closely with the President & CEO’s Executive Assistant to ensure video and ringless voicemail projects are executed on time. • Assist in the distribution of final, approved campaign files to internal stakeholders. • Collect visuals and key dates for upcoming appeals across channels and compile weekly PowerPoint updates for internal staff communications. ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS The Direct Response & Donor Engagement Manager works closely with internal stakeholders across Global Giving, Finance, Program, Marketing, and Partnership teams to coordinate fundraising campaigns, donor communications, and stewardship activities. Externally, the Direct Response & Donor Engagement Manager maintains relationships with donors, and vendors, including creative agencies, and digital fundraising platform providers. The role regularly engages with a diverse donor base, including individuals from Christian and evangelical faith traditions, and may participate in faith-based conversations or prayer with donors when requested. Through these relationships, the Direct Response & Donor Engagement Manager supports donor retention, campaign effectiveness, and a positive donor experience. QUALIFICATIONS To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. EDUCATION AND/OR EXPERIENCE • Bachelor’s degree required; degree in Marketing, Communications, Nonprofit Management, Business, or related field preferred. • 3–5 years of experience in nonprofit fundraising, marketing operations, project coordination, or a related field. • Strong project management and organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple deadlines simultaneously. • Exceptional attention to detail and follow‑through. • Experience using project management tools (e.g., Asana or similar). • Comfort working with file-sharing platforms (e.g., SharePoint or similar). • Clear written and verbal communication skills. • Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with donors, internal stakeholders, and external vendors. • Proficiency in using donor database and CRM systems, including maintaining donor records, ensuring data integrity, and documenting donor communications and interactions. OTHER SKILLS AND ABILITIES • Experience supporting direct response fundraising team. • Familiarity with email marketing, QA testing, or campaign reporting. • Exposure to creative review processes or vendor coordination. • Interest in learning direct response fundraising strategy and performance analysis. • Experience executing outbound donor communication plan preferred. • Ability to engage respectfully and knowledgeably with individuals from Christian faith traditions, including participating in faith-based conversations and offering prayer when requested by donors. PHYSICAL DEMANDS The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear. The employee must be able to travel, specifically involving long-haul International flights. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus during significant computer related work. Employee must be able to read, write, and speak English fluently.