Director, Direct Response

Job Details

Job Location
Washington, DC - ,, DC

Description

The Student Conservation Association (SCA) is seeking a Director of Direct Response (Director) with exceptional drive, technical skills, and insights to lead an innovative and effective direct mail and digital fundraising strategy. Using data as their guide, the Director is responsible for the development, oversight, and execution of high-performing direct marketing strategies and tactics designed to drive donor response and overall fundraising growth. A leader in best practices, the Director will oversee keystone direct marketing campaigns whose success will contribute to a diverse and expansive pipeline of annual and planned giving donors. The salary range offered for this role is $93,000 - $104,000. Location: Remote; DC, New York, Chicago, Houston, or Atlanta preferred.

About the Position

Reporting to the Vice President of Philanthropy, the Director will serve as a member of the Philanthropy Leadership Team, providing recommendations for maximizing ROI on acquisition, retention, and solicitation campaigns through mail, digital, and other marketing channels. Working collaboratively with the annual fund, donor relations, major gifts, and marketing teams, the Director will determine the appropriate benchmarks for determining how it is SCA maximizes its ROI on digital and mail marketing investments.

In addition to serving as the in-house expert for optimizing success of an integrated Direct

Response fundraising strategy, the Director also leads the day-to-day management of SCAs

direct marketing agency and vendor partners in offline channels, including, but not limited to campaign coordination and oversight, budget management, expense tracking, and compliance with regulatory agencies. Strategically utilizing data to inform and create a robust donor-centric fundraising plan, the Director will help expand and diversify SCAs donor base.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategy

• Oversee direct response campaigns and projects from inception to completion, including list rental strategy, data modeling, creative, and post-campaign analysis.
• Lead all direct mail and digital funding initiatives, specifically focused on increased acquisition, donor retention, revenue growth, and donor upgrades.
• Contribute to direct mail and digital list growth planning as a foundational driver to increasing fundraising performance.
• In partnership with individual giving team, design and implement a mid-level track of consistent touch points for an integrated annual giving program.
• Analyze donor giving trends via CRM system, marketing analytics, campaign costs, and industry benchmarks to recommend strategic shifts and direction.

Delivery

• Identify, develop, and drive the optimization of high-performing fundraising campaigns, especially in rapid-response moments.
• Contribute to direct mail and digital list growth planning as a foundational driver to increasing fundraising performance.
• Provide workflow design, management and oversight for related marketing and business functions including budget development and monitoring, invoice processing, expense tracking, departmental communication, timely execution of campaign production, and enablement of shared project management systems and platforms.

• Develop framework to onboard newly acquired donors, including welcome kits and stewardship opportunities.

Engagement

• Regularly convene progress-to-goals meetings as a means by which to share best practices and establish a learning community, providing formal training when necessary and helpful to individual campaigners or specific teams.
• Work with relevant stakeholders to create compelling, donor-centric messaging aligned with SCAs mission, core values, ethical and legal standards.

• Partner closely with Donor Relations, Annual Fund, and Marketing & Communications teams, leading a collaborative effort in the development of relevant, actionable metrics, analytics, and coherent cross-channel creative and messaging content.

Qualifications

Requirements:

• Bachelors Degree

• 8 years of progressive experience in direct response fundraising.
• 5+ years demonstrated track-record of effective fundraising using list-based email program and digital fundraising best practices.
• Data driven mindset with exceptional analytic skills required: test design, ability to read and interpret large data sets, to include synthesizing and leveraging KPIs.
• Nonprofit budget management experience, preferred.
• Established history of managing cross-functional projects and teams.

• Strong communicator with the ability to tell stories through data and visuals, to educate effectively, and to instill confidence motivating stakeholders to act on recommendations.
• An entrepreneurial spirit that uses creativity to uncover novel pathways.
• General experience with SCAs full range of technology and CRMs, including Raisers Edge NXT, Luminate Online, ThankView, and Salesforce.

SCA1957

The Student Conservation Association, Inc. is an Equal-Opportunity Employer.