Washington, DC

The Organization

The Wilderness Society (TWS) is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to protect wilderness and inspire Americans to care for our wild places. We believe public lands belong to and should benefit all of us. We strive to ensure our organization and work embodies the cultures and perspectives of people and communities across our nation, and connects and inspires people to care about the outdoors.

Position Overview

Reporting directly to the Director, Stewardship, the Donor Communications Manager is responsible for developing and providing collateral material to appropriately steward all audiences and to provide front line fundraisers with the resources necessary to develop individualized donor strategies to connect them to the TWS mission. The Donor Communications Manager will oversee the Development Communications Specialist and work with the rest of the Stewardship Team to support our TWS donors. She/he will be responsible for the ensuring the integrity of our messaging framework so that we speak as one organization across multiple channels and various donors audiences, including major donors, planned giving donors, corporate and foundation donors, mid-level members, and other special donor types.

This position plays an important role in supporting an inclusive organizational culture that is grounded in trust and accountability to shared goals and outcomes. TWS has made diversity, equity, and inclusion strategic priorities for the organization and the Donor Communications Manager will integrate these priorities throughout our Philanthropy work. Across our team, we aspire to be campaign oriented, nimble, collaborative, innovative, transparent, and supportive of staff – our greatest asset.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Work with Stewardship Team to develop and execute a communication strategy that supports the Philanthropy Department’s needs to deepen relationships with current donors and to bring new donors into the fold.
• Manage the development and execution of all stewardship communications for the PHL team. Focused on, but not limited to quarterly stewardship communications, event invitations, victory updates, donor reports, and other highly-personalized stewardship messaging.
• Manages the development and execution of personalized solicitations for major and principal gift donors as needed. This includes all DC-managed solicitations at fiscal year-end and calendar year-end as well as working with the Major Gifts Team to develop special proposals or other special asks for major or principal-level donors.
• Create and maintain updated collateral (both print and digital) for high value donors. Including creating or updating program one-pagers, case statements and conservation fact sheets; working with GIS/Cartography team to develop maps for donor proposals or meetings; and working with Digital team to incorporate appropriate infographics and other digital material into donor communications.
• Manages Donor Communications Specialist in creating donor profiles for collateral created in collaboration with TWS Communications/Marketing colleagues, such as the Annual Report and tri-annual newsletters, as well as other general stewardship writing projects.
• Coordinates with the President’s Office on high level donor communication, including the president’s handwritten acknowledgement notes, President’s Circle phone briefings, and review of materials for Governing Council meetings.
• Ensures in-house acknowledgements for major donors and foundations are processed and appropriately personalized. Works with Donor Communications Specialist to personalize and ensure templates are regularly updated.
• Responsible for working with the team to ensure open communication between Philanthropy, Communications/Marketing, and Conservation and to ensure the donor communications program utilizes best practices in developing donor relationships.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS

Experience, Competencies, and Education

• 5-7 years of donor development experience with strong commitment to providing excellent donor experience.
• Strong writing skills required with ability to adapt tone to various signers as needed.
• Excellent project management experience needed with a solid understanding of donor life-cycle and moves management.
• Excellent time management, interpersonal, and organizational skills and strong attention to detail.
• Track record working successfully in teams representing a rich mix of talent, backgrounds, and perspectives—across race and gender.
• Ability to work independently with limited supervision in a fast paced environment.
• Desire to work as part of a team.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite.

Desired Characteristics

• Ability to lead and motivate staff.
• Strong customer service mindset. Ability to work with all levels of internal management and staff as well as outside vendors and donors.

Ability to lead and motivate staff.

Strong customer service mindset. Ability to work with all levels of internal management and staff as well as outside vendors and donors.