Reporting to the Director of Development, the Annual Giving Specialist will play an important role in maintaining and increasing funding from individual donors and to enable Gladney to provide services to meet clients’ evolving needs. The Annual Giving Specialist will coordinate and implement annual giving programs, including the year-end giving appeal, Mother’s Day/Father’s Day appeal, North Texas Giving Day, New York City Marathon charity partner program, corporate engagement mailing, planned giving mailing, and monthly giving program, with a focus on retaining previous donors, growing giving of current donors, and onboarding new donors. The Annual Giving Specialist will also coordinate and implement annual stewardship programs, including the Annual Report, donor impact updates, and community engagement brochure; assist the Grants Manager with grant applications and grant reports; and support the Development team with individual donor requests and individual donor stewardship reports. The Annual Giving Specialist will work closely and collaboratively with the Director of Development to implement an annual giving plan that is based on Agency strategy and with the Development team to achieve the organization’s goals and objectives, including executing a 4M+ fundraising annual budget, 300K+ of which is funding from annual giving programs and 500K+ of which is grant funding.
Responsibilities:
- Collaborates with the Director of Development and the Development team to make decisions regarding annual philanthropic strategies.
- In collaboration with the Director of Development, and in concert with external contractors as required, implements and manages annual giving campaigns and participates in the development of annual giving strategies, goals, priorities, and timelines.
- Maintains a clear understanding of the agency and its strategic direction.
- Cultivates and maintains positive relationships with Development, Accounting, and Communications team members and program staff throughout the organization to maximize relationships and philanthropic giving to the organization.
- Meets or exceeds established annual fundraising goals and metrics.
- Assumes responsibility for systems, tracking, and tactical program management for annual giving programs that provide a pipeline of donors.
- Manages vendor relationships, including direct mail, material content production, and other contracted creative services as needed.
- Manages annual giving program budgets for the greatest efficiency and stewardship.
- Ensures annual giving programs are in line with Gladney’s branding and are consistent with Gladney’s mission and core messaging.
- Manages the production and distribution of annual giving solicitation and stewardship materials; including direct mail, email, social media, corporate engagement letter, planned giving letter, Annual Report, community engagement brochure, and donor impact updates; collaborating with the Communications team.
- Collaborates with the Development team and program staff to review and update report criteria and individual donor records prior to each annual giving program.
- Collaborates with the IT (Information Technology) team to update or create reports to pull distribution lists for each annual giving program.
- Reviews each distribution list for necessary manual edits on the list and for necessary updates in individual donor records.
- Implements an agreed-upon stewardship plan for all annual giving programs in line with the Development team’s overall stewardship plan.
- Utilizes CRM tools and collaborates with the IT Team to evaluate progress, ROI, retention rates, and giving trends in annual giving programs.
- Runs frequent reports to gather, analyze, and share metrics and results for each annual giving program and presents recommendations, anticipating campaign-related issues and addressing problems judiciously.
- Runs reports to self-audit the coding of annual giving program contributions and collaborates with the Development team to make necessary corrections.
- Develops and expands the monthly donor program, including cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.
- Develops concise, impactful donor requests and reports in a timely and high-quality manner.
- Refreshes solicitation and stewardship approaches for current donors to increase donor retention and giving levels.
- As needed and assigned by the Grants Manager:
- Manages and stewards an established group of public, family, and corporate foundation grantors.
- Researches new public, family, and corporate foundation grant opportunities, as well as government grant opportunities.
- Drafts and compiles grant applications, stewardship reports, and supporting documents.
- Submits grant applications and stewardship reports.
- Creates and maintains digital records in donor database for grant applications and communications with grantors.
- Contributes to the overall success of the Development department by performing all other duties as assigned.
Skill Required:
- Strong writing and communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex concepts clearly and concisely.
- Ability to synthesize narrative information and analyze client data to present the most relevant and compelling message for each annual giving program, grant application, grant stewardship report, individual donor request, and individual donor stewardship report.
- Detail-oriented, process-minded, and extremely organized.
- Curious, critical thinker—thinks of and asks the next question.
- Strong work ethic with project management skills of planning ahead, establishing priorities, and managing time effectively, in order to meet deadlines.
- Demonstrated interpersonal, verbal, listening, and written communication skills to share organization’s mission, vision, and goals with clarity, passion, and persuasion.
- Must possess positive energy, have a client-focused attitude, be self-motivated, and be able to consistently contribute towards a positive work and team environment.
- Ability to build effective relationships and earn trust.
- Ability to work both independently and collaboratively.
- Solution-focused. Notices trends/challenges/successes, thinks creatively, and adjusts strategies and processes accordingly.
- Ability to work well with diverse groups of constituents and colleagues.
- Highly skilled in utilizing Microsoft Office 365, Basecamp, reports, and CRM systems.
- Ability to maintain confidentiality.
Minimum Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree and 2 or more years of project management and fundraising experience in annual giving.
- High school diploma (or equivalent) and 4 or more years of project management and fundraising experience in annual giving.
- Demonstrated success managing annual giving programs and raising total contributions at six-figure levels.
- Ability to use data, CRM systems, and Office 365 applications to set fundraising strategy for annual giving programs’ priorities, create and maintain project budgets, document processes, manage projects, run reports, measure outcomes, and drive superior performance.