The Director, Donor Communities & Engagement will be responsible for developing and evolving a vision for successful events and engagement experiences for national and regional donors, designing and continually updating a comprehensive set of resources, and executing highly successful fundraising and engagement events. These events and engagements should represent a range of topics, audiences, and mediums (e.g. in person events, virtual events, phone calls, site visits, etc.), based on the analyzed needs and interests of our most significant national and regional donors and prospects. Central to this will be collaborating with regional teams to drive the planning and management of regional events attended by Teach For America National Board members. As the number of national board members who visit regions in support of regional fundraising goals increases, the Director, Donor Communities & Engagement will support these visits in varying capacities to ensure both a successful engagement for the region and a positive experience for the national board member.
The Director will also be responsible for identifying opportunities for engaging national and regional donors in existing national and regional events (e.g., regional fundraising galas, Social Innovation Awards, Educators Conference) and helping with the coordination of organization-wide logistics to ensure excellent communication and execution as relates to our donor audience. The Director, Donor Communities & Engagement will report directly to the MD, Donor Communities & Engagement and work closely with other senior leaders across the Development team and in regions across the country.
70% Event Development, Management and Execution:
- Analyze national and regional donor motivations and interests to assess highest potential events needs and opportunities
- Set vision, strategy, and long term plan for nationally and regionally targeted development events
- Oversee all aspects of each event’s management, marketing, and logistics
- Create and manage overall project plan for all events
- Ensure monthly and weekly event benchmarks are being met with appropriate buy-in and alignment from relevant stakeholders
- Direct the procurement of marketing services needed for any event materials and messaging required
- Oversee event programmatic vision and preparation of speakers, videos, etc.
- Liaise with vendors and venue management
- On-site management of select in-person events, in partnership with the partner regional or national team, including but not limited to staffing plans, task masters, itineraries, program orders, contract sheets, production schedules, and RSVP and check-in lists
- Recruit and manage event staffing and volunteer needs
- Track, manage, and report on event data, ensuring that all information is uploaded into TFACT, Teach For America’s internal data management system
20% Event Strategy:
- Lead and execute strategies to achieve overall event goal and collaborate with development team members to achieve specific team and stream goals (e.g., fundraising goals, attendance goals, message goals)
- Conduct regular donor research and craft strategy for driving attendance, and (as appropriate) event sponsorships, ticket sales, night-of pledges, and other donations
- Collaborate alongside Development team leadership, regional Executive Directors, and regional Heads of Development to strategize and act toward achieving event attendance and revenue goals (where applicable)
- Draft correspondence, set up meetings, and leverage national and regional board members for planning, solicitations, and outreach efforts.
10% Donor Engagement and Team Support:
- Provide support on projects intended to engage a donor audience (e.g. annual report)
- General team planning work
- Setting and evolving project/team vision and direction
- Planning, managing, executing strong large scale and small scale events
- Ability to coordinate and manage the planning of multiple events simultaneously
- Drawing from data and prior knowledge to develop insightful conclusions and strategic solutions
- Identifying and acting upon learnings from both accomplishments and less-successful experiences by reflecting and proactively seeking feedback
- Building relationships and networks across a broad range of people and teams
- Influencing others to achieve outcomes without formal management authority
- Writing and communicating in an effective and compelling manner
- Ability to handle multiple tasks at once with a high level of organization and attention to detail in a deadline-driven environment
- Identifying opportunities; using data and sound judgment to prioritize actions
- Highly motivated self-starter with strong results-orientation
- Ability to successfully navigate a constantly changing work environment
- Excellent customer-service ethic and follow-through
- Excels in an entrepreneurial environment
- Minimum of five years of work experience, preferably in nonprofit development
- Prior experience in an entrepreneurial environment, developing new systems, or event planning and execution a plus
- Prior experience planning fundraising-focused events a plus
- Prior development/fundraising experience a plus
Work Demands
- Travel periodically (3-4 trips per quarter) for events and team meetings