Job Title: Donor Relations Manager
Reports To: Vice President of Development and Communications
Teach Democracy is one of the nation’s premier K-12 civic education organizations. Founded in 1963, Teach Democracy is a non-profit, non-partisan, organization. Teach Democracy works with thousands of schools across the country, engaging teachers and students in programs and lessons that make learning about history and civics interesting and relevant. Teach Democracy runs the LA County and California Mock Trials, a summer internship program for underserved youth, and has several programs and curriculum materials that help students gain critical thinking skills and participate in civic engagement activities.
The Opportunity
As the donor relations manager you will work closely with our vice president of development and communications to prospect, steward and engage new and existing donors. You serve as the primary steward and solicitor for individual donors, support the development team with research and prospecting and help manage the annual e-appeal campaigns.
The person in this position will be responsible for engaging with donors and potential donors at all levels. They should enjoy interacting with donors and building relationships. They will have strong writing skills and an understanding of solicitation emails. They will work with different departments to execute the individual giving campaigns and will steward donors at all levels. They will actively prospect utilizing donor tools and maintain prospect databases and calendars.
You are organized and a strong communicator, both written and verbal. You understand how to work collaboratively with team members to develop realistic and achievable goal-oriented plans.
Key Objectives and Responsibilities:
Ensure Teach Democracy meets or exceeds its annual income goals from individual lower and mid-level donors by maintaining current donors, building relationships, managing an annual e-appeal campaign and actively prospecting while supporting the development department.
Primary responsibilities:
Individual Donor Program
- Using the developed annual calendar, write e-appeals throughout the year
- Write e-appeals and collaborate on fundraising strategy for identified strategic giving days including Giving Tuesday, and end-of-year fundraising campaigns
- Acknowledge donations between $1 and $5000
Stewardship
- Manage a portfolio of prospects and donors by creating and executing engagement plans and strategies to secure ongoing and new contributions.
- Ensure that donor and gift records and reports are maintained accurately and updated in a timely fashion in CRM
- Create and send tax receipts for all donations annually
- Review information tracking processes regarding acknowledgement, recognition, on-going communications, and continued cultivation of past and current donors to enhance their relationship with the organization and increase the likelihood of continued contributions
- Help devise consistent, accurate, and appropriate information-sharing mechanisms for stewarding prospects and donors across the organization.
Prospecting
- Support the Development team in building a consistent mid-level and major donor prospect pipeline
- Document donor interactions in the CRM and conduct appropriate research on donors and prospects
- Create a system to track prospects and move them through the donor cycle
- Build database of prospective corporate sponsors
Solicitation
- Be the primary solicitor for portfolio of mid level and major donors
- Make asks for donations and donation increases via a variety of communications
- Collaborate with vice president of development and communications on creating sponsorship kits for Annual Celebration and year-round donors
Board
- With the vice president of development and communications, staff the board development committee, create draft agendas and take notes
- Follow up with board requests for event assistance and the
creation of individual fundraising pages
Key Competencies/Experience
Qualified candidates will:
- Have at least 5 years of experience in donor relations and fundraising, ideally in a nonprofit or advocacy setting
- Experience in securing major gifts of $2,500 - $5,000
- Have at least 3 years experience working in a CRM, preferably Salesforce
- Must be able to multi-task and demonstrate good judgment and decision making when working with donors.
- Have excellent organizational, interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills
- Exhibit excellent social skills, with large groups as well as with individuals
- Be detail-oriented, well organized, focused and goal-oriented, with a high level of initiative and energy
- Exhibit problem-solving skills and using judgment in situations requiring independent initiative and tact
- Have experience directly asking for donations
- Demonstrate experience in writing compelling fundraising emails and other materials
- Have experience creating and maintaining a stewardship calendar
Research shows marginalized groups are less likely to apply for positions unless they meet 100% of a job description; please consider applying even if you don’t 100% meet these criteria.
Additional Competencies/Experience (not required, but a plus)
- Experience with Teams, Zoom, Google Hangouts, or other video conferencing program
- Experience with Donor Search or other prospecting database
Salary and Benefits
- This is a full-time permanent position with a salary of $70,000 - $75,000
Will consider onsite, hybrid or remote