Title: Donor Relations Manager
Manager: Executive Director
Status: Full-time Employee
Location: Remote, U.S.
Compensation: $70,000-$80,000/year, plus standard employee benefits
YES! Media seeks a bold and innovative frontline fundraising professional to cultivate, solicit, and steward individual donors for a $2.5M independent media non-profit organization. This position is a member of the Audience Engagement and Development Team, with a focus on a portfolio of about 500 donors who give $500+ per year.
It’s an exciting time to join YES! Media. For 27 years, YES! has inspired people to create a more equitable, sustainable, and compassionate world by publishing stories about community-led solutions to society’s biggest systemic challenges. Today, the need for our work has never been greater, and YES! is evolving to meet the moment. This position will help us have an even greater impact in the world.
YES! is dedicated to fostering an inclusive internal culture that prioritizes equity and diversity. We actively seek team members who share our commitment to nurturing an equitable environment that values all aspects of individual and social identity, including race, ethnicity, gender, and more. Our team is deeply committed to Community-Centric Fundraising principles, emphasizing the intersections of race, class, power, and privilege in fundraising efforts. As an organization, we aim to operate with respect, integrity, accountability, transparency, ingenuity, and excellence. If you’re a self-motivated team player interested in expanding individual giving support for a longstanding solutions journalism publisher, this is a special opportunity to make a meaningful impact.
Sound like something that would make you want to join our team? Fantastic — read on!
The ideal candidate has…
- Passion for the YES! mission of promoting equity, sustainability, and compassion
- Demonstrated commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, including experience navigating fundraising and anti-oppression/racism principles
- Strong goal-setting and strategic execution skills
- Enthusiasm and experience in nurturing ongoing donor relationships
- Effective rapport-building with diverse individuals
- Results orientation with excellent organizational and project management skills
- Profound grasp of ethical fundraising and storytelling
- Strong writing and interpersonal communication abilities
Key Responsibilities
- Develop strategies and execute plans to increase giving at the $500+ level, including cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, and budgeting.
- Contribute to the design and assessment of a comprehensive individual giving program, spanning mid-level, major gifts, and planned gifts.
- Manage a portfolio of 500 donors and prospects, with a more active focus on 150 donors giving at the mid-level.
- Collaborate closely with the Audience Engagement and Development Team on campaign design, solicitation materials, and cultivation and stewardship activities for all individual giving levels and prospective donors.
- Support the executive director with major donors, including implementing robust stewardship plans for major donors to enhance their engagement and impact awareness.
- Foster inclusive and equitable spaces through a commitment to diversity, inclusion, and anti-oppression principles.
- Secure multi-year commitments from mid-level donors.
- Conduct donor research and segmentation for personalized cultivation strategies.
- Lead efforts to secure planned gifts and legacy contributions.
- Leverage events (virtual and live) to strategically advance fundraising objectives.
- Engage board members in donor cultivation and stewardship.
- Maintain accurate donor records and pledge coding in alignment with data policies.
- Draft and distribute high-quality proposals, presentations, and other internal and external communications.
- Work with the Finance Department to ensure the accurate recording of pledges and gifts with donor restrictions.
- Utilize data analytics to assess and optimize fundraising strategies.
- Stay closely informed and well-versed in the YES! mission, theory of change, content, programs, and priorities, and use this information to cultivate and steward donors.
- Actively seek out learning opportunities (e.g. webinars, conferences) to improve donor cultivation and stewardship
- Represent the organization publicly as opportunities arise
Required Skills and Experience
In addition to authentic excitement for the YES! mission, qualified applicants should have:
- 5+ years of nonprofit fundraising experience, including individual donor management
- Successful solicitation of 4+ figure gifts
- Understanding of the process of systems change, progressive movements, and anti-oppression theory
- Excellent 1:1 relationship building skills with a diverse donor base
- Strong interpersonal, communication, and analytical skills
- Lived experience and/or demonstrated skills working within a diverse workplace
- Detail-oriented, self-starter with the ability to handle multiple fundraising initiatives in a deadline-driven environment
- Knowledge of ethical fundraising practices
- Proficiency using Salesforce or a similar CRM, and office productivity tools (e.g. Office 365, Google office apps)
- Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment
- Availability for occasional travel and willingness to work nights and weekends for live events or conferences as needed
Desired Skills and Experience
- Lived and/or work experience relevant to racial, climate, economic, and/or gender, justice movements, with a focus on solutions
- Familiarity with solutions journalism
- Familiarity with community-centric fundraising
- Familiarity with Slack, Airtable, Asana, and/or similar office tools to work more efficiently
- Experience in working with leadership team and board members in an environment with multiple priorities
- Proven experience working remotely with strong self-direction
About YES! Media
YES! is a nonprofit, independent publisher of solutions journalism that inspires people to create a more just, equitable, regenerative, and compassionate world. What started out as a quarterly print publication in 1996, has evolved into a vibrant storytelling platform. By reporting on individuals and communities who are modeling ways to safeguard the well-being of all people and the planet, and by disseminating those stories on our own and others’ platforms, YES! reaches millions of people with a vision of a better world and real-world pathways for getting there. For 27 years, these stories have influenced our audience’s attitudes and behaviors, and inspire them to push for change in their own communities and beyond.
Compensation: This is a full-time position with a salary range of $70,000 to $80,000 per year, depending on experience. Benefits include fully paid medical, dental, and vision insurance; a 32-hr work week, generous vacation, holiday, and sick leave; and retirement contribution.
Ready to apply? Please complete the short application form at yesmagazine.org/DRM, including your cover letter, resume, and a writing sample (individual donor communication). No paper applications or phone calls, please. This position will be open until filled, though applicants are strongly encouraged to apply by December 11, 2023.
YES! Media is a proud equal opportunity employer committed to creating an equitable and inclusive workplace and encouraging people from underrepresented communities to apply. We encourage the following applicants: Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian people, people with disabilities, people of diverse sexual orientations and gender expressions, and other marginalized identities that are underrepresented in nonprofit media organizations.