Director, Donor Engagement and Stewardship

NRDC is a non-profit environmental advocacy organization. We use law, science, and the support of 3.1 million members and online activists to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure the rights of all people to clean air, clean water, and healthy communities. NRDC was founded in 1970 and our people helped write some of America's bedrock environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act and many of the implementing regulations. Today, our team of more than 700 lawyers, scientists, economists, policy advocates, communications experts, and others work across the United States and the globe from our offices in Beijing; Bozeman, Montana; Chicago; New Delhi; New York; San Francisco; Santa Monica; and Washington, D.C.

NRDC is seeking a Director, Donor Engagement and Stewardship to work with the Development team in our Washington, D.C., New York City, Santa Monica, San Francisco, or Chicago office.

Position Summary

Reporting to the Senior Director of Donor Relations and Special Events the Director of Donor Engagement and Stewardship will manage a team of engagement and stewardship professionals responsible for designing, implementing, and directing an integrated and comprehensive donor engagement and stewardship program for NRDC's major and principal gift donor community. The Director is a donor-focused, forward-thinking, innovative and energetic professional with proven success in donor engagement and stewardship, capable of developing and orchestrating the implementation of a multi-year plan to advance institutional efforts. The incumbent will possess the skills to create and design engagement and stewardship plans that engage NRDC's top philanthropic supporters and Board of Trustees. The Donor Engagement and Stewardship Team's responsibilities include gift reports and gift management, endowment management and tracking, donor travel program, high-level cultivation events, digital engagements, donor gifts, board event support, and donor conferences and educational programming.

As a member of the Donor Experience leadership team, the Director collaborates regularly with the Director of Donor and Board Communications and their teams while cultivating and maintaining relationships with fundraisers, program staff, and a wide range of partners in Development.

Develops and implements a strategic donor engagement and stewardship plan that appropriately acknowledges, stewards, recognizes, and engages donors with a strong emphasis on major gifts.
• Responsible for developing and managing a donor reporting system for impact, endowed, and matching gifts and serving as lead writer for gift reports.
• Coordinates and oversees fund agreement process and fund reporting to donors, particularly endowed funds, as well as fund stewardship activities that ensure donor funds are spent appropriately and donors are kept well-informed about the use and impact of their gifts.
• Develops and manages a donor acknowledgement program that recognizes and thanks donor in a thoughtful and timely manner.
• Identifies opportunities to engage NRDC's top philanthropic supporters through events and travel.
• Manages and mentors direct reports.
• In partnership with Director of Donor and Board Communications manage the Donor Experience calendar for donor communications and major giving stewardship and engagement activities.
• Other duties and special projects as assigned.

Required

• Commitment to NRDC's mission and values.
• 7-10 years' experience in direct and varied areas of stewardship, development, or donor relations, with at least 5 years of leading and managing a team.
• Ability to compose professional level correspondence and donor reports and meet deadlines with excellent proofreading skills and command of language, grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• Demonstrated skills, knowledge and experience in the design and execution of stewardship and engagement activities.
• High proficiency in project management, attention to detail, prioritization of work and organizational skills required.
• Highly collaborative with an appreciation of the benefit of a multidisciplinary team approach.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and priorities simultaneously.
• Inspiring team leader who can mentor and guide a team of two direct reports, including an associate director of stewardship and an assistant director of engagement, and a total team of 7.
• Experience setting team strategy and developing a suite of materials.

Preferred

• Excellent interpersonal skills and a sense of humor.

NRDC is committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, both in our work and in our workplace. We believe that celebrating and actively welcoming diverse voices and perspectives is essential to solving the planet's most pressing environmental problems, and we encourage applications from candidates whose identities have been historically under-represented in the environmental movement.

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, marital status, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

We offer competitive salaries, excellent benefits, and a supportive working environment. Salary is based on a nonprofit scale and is commensurate with skills and experience. Internal equity will be reviewed and considered to determine a final offer. For this position, the salary range is $145,000 to $155,000.

Our offices are open and we are operating in a hybrid model. We offer NRDCers flexibility, and we ask them to come into the office and spend meaningful time there in collaboration with their colleagues. We call this purposeful presence.

As a science-based organization, NRDC aims to do our part to help contain the COVID-19 public health crisis. For the sake of health, safety, and equity, we ask that people be vaccinated unless they have an approved medical or religious accommodation or other exemption in accordance with state and local law. We consider a person to be vaccinated two weeks after receiving one full course of a CDC-approved vaccine. In accordance with state or local law, new hires will be asked to attest to vaccination, those wishing to do so may request medical or religious accommodations or other exemptions via NRDC Employee Relations. NRDC treats all vaccine-related data confidentially, in keeping with local, state, and federal laws.

To apply, visit www.nrdc.org/careers and upload your resume and cover letter. Please mention where you saw this posting and upload any additional materials that showcase your abilities. Due to the high volume of applications, we will contact only those candidates we would like to interview. Please no phone calls, emails, or in-person resume drop-offs.

If you experience technical problems while applying or if you are a person with a disability and need assistance applying online, please reach out to iCIMS Customer Care at 1-800-889-4422.

For more about NRDC, visit www.nrdc.org.