Director, Membership

How You’ll Contribute

The Advancement team identifies, cultivates, solicits, and stewards individuals, as well as foundation, government, and corporate partners who invest in the Society to drive impact through science, technology, education, exploration, and storytelling. The team collaborates across the Society to build transformative and impact-driven strategic partnerships. The team also produces global events that deepen connections and leverage the Society’s power to convene, and directs robust annual, major, and planned giving programs empowering the Society with a broad base of public support.
The Annual Giving and Membership (AGM) team manages a high impact fundraising and stewardship program through integrated and data-driven marketing and communications campaigns across multiple channels.

Reporting to the Vice President, Annual Giving & Membership, the Director, Membership will oversee all aspects of the Contributing Membership program and annual giving efforts for gifts from $1 to $999.99. They will be a strong communicator and collaborator who is creative in their approach to solving problems, confident with internal and external stakeholders, and resolute in uncovering insights that drive staff, campaign, and program success. The Director is responsible for guiding audience-first fundraising and stewardship strategy, managing a small team of direct reports who are responsible for increasing direct mail and integrated channel revenue, broadening the base of support, and strengthening the leadership giving pipeline. The Director will be a direct response fundraising expert and enhance reporting, workflow, and collaborative SOPs with external partners, vendors, and internal teams including Advancement Operations, Strategic Insights, and Communications, as well as with other AGM Directors so the Advancement team meets growing revenue goals across channels.

Your Impact

Responsibilities Include

Strategy Development and Team Leadership: 40% 

• Collaborate with the Vice President, Annual Giving & Membership, Director, Digital Fundraising, Director, Member Services and the Senior Manager, Mid-Level in setting the overall strategic direction for the annual giving and membership program to strengthen current annual giving fundraising and contribute to the broader agenda for the Advancement divisions fundraising efforts. 

• Create annual and long-term program strategy, incorporating feedback from colleagues and in collaboration with VP.

• Supervise assigned staff to orchestrate effective techniques with direct marketing “art” (copywriting, design, brand) with direct marketing “science” skill sets (segmentation and data analytics) and collaborate with the digital team to ensure cross-channel integration and audience-first strategies.

• Help colleagues and direct reports understand strategy, map and achieve goals, and expand the direct response fundraising program.  

• Lead strategic development of membership-level benefits strategy, integration pathways with Museum and related in-person, national, and virtual stewardship and engagement opportunities.

• Prioritize knowledge-sharing and mentorship, educating colleagues and direct reports on best practices and the latest industry trends to foster a culture of continuous learning and innovation.

Manage Annual Giving Campaigns: 25%

• Create strategies to effectively acquire, retain, upgrade, and steward annual giving prospects throughout the donor journey from acquisition through repeated giving.

• Work closely with the overall team to design and manage targeted and integrated, multichannel outbound and inbound campaigns primarily through direct mail, but also integrating with telemarketing, digital, SMS, and new channels, that engage donors through one-to-many direct marketing channels and ultimately moves them into personal relationship-based fundraising efforts.

• Create and contribute to overall strategy for focused fundraising campaigns such as Giving Tuesday, Earth Month, year-end, the staff campaign, and other identified key NGS fundraising days and significant occasions.

Donor Engagement, Retention, Stewardship, Pipeline: 15% 

• Implement and oversee a Contributing Members benefits program and special engagement opportunities that encourage upgrade gifts and move donors to higher levels of annual giving.

• Increase the engagement of key annual giving constituencies (such as sustainers, consecutive donors and staff) across channels (including digital, SMS, telemarketing, and other experiences).

• Maximize donor retention rates and identify key life-cycle touchpoints for increased stewardship with new and/or repurposed content as needed.

Program Analysis: 15%

• Benchmark and continually review the health of annual giving channels identifying points of weakness to address and points of strength to build upon.

• Share program results and insights proactively, regularly, and on an ad-hoc basis as needed.

• Monitor and continually improve the movement of donors out of one-to-many marketing channels and into a relationship based fundraising program.

• Collaborate on data analysis and annual giving reporting to create data-driven approaches, track results, and ensure programs, revenue targets, and expenses meet overall AGM strategies and objectives.

• Oversee all aspects of the direct mail fundraising program budget, collecting recommendations for investments and ROI scenarios from channel and program managers, to manage a single workbook with cash flow, revenue targets, and actuals. 

Perform other duties as assigned (5%)

What You’ll Bring

Educational Background

Bachelor's degree required

Minimum Years and Type of Experience   

10+ years of annual giving experience with a proven record of cultivating and soliciting direct response gifts, especially through direct mail programs, and at least 3+ years managing a direct response fundraising team.

Necessary Knowledge and Skills

• Demonstrated effective leadership skills

• Proven donor/member strategy and fundraising skills, including experience in creating effective direct mail and omnichannel campaigns. 

• Excellent strategist able to leverage data to increase results.

• Must be detail-oriented, highly organized, and capable of managing multiple projects simultaneously.

• Ability to effectively manage vendor and/or consultants to create, review, and implement direct response campaigns.

• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a goal- and deadline-oriented matrixed team environment.

• Must be service- and solutions-oriented with strong relationship management and interpersonal skills.

• Strong analytical skills, including ability to gather and analyze a variety of information and develop appropriate recommendations for action.

• Ability to exercise good judgment and work with minimum of instruction and supervision when necessary. 

• Ability to maintain high standards of confidentiality and professional integrity.

• Competency in word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software (MS Office or Google Workspace) required. 

• Knowledge of best practices and industry trends with a focus on innovating and improving strategies for consistent growth.

 

Desired Qualifications

• Ability to relate to people of diverse backgrounds, training, and experience.

• Possess a growth mindset and high emotional intelligence.

• Successful experience working collaboratively across multiple diverse teams to drive activity that achieves or exceeds individual and team goals.

• Working knowledge of Raiser's Edge (or similar) database preferred.

Supervision

3 Direct Reports

Salary Information

The National Geographic Society offers a competitive and holistic total rewards package. Our compensation structure and transparent pay philosophy are based on industry-specific market data for similar-sized nonprofit organizations.

The salary range for this position accounts for a wide range of factors including but not limited to organizational need; specific skill sets; experience and training; certifications; and more. At the National Geographic Society, individuals are typically hired at or near the starting point of the salary range for their role, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case.

The salary range for this position is $128,200.00 - $135,000.00.

In addition, the National Geographic Society offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits package that includes, but is not limited to, medical, dental, and vision insurance; engaging and comprehensive wellness program; 401(k) retirement savings plan with matching contributions after 6 months of employment; flexible paid time off benefits with up to 22 days of paid annual leave per calendar year (15 days for new hires in their first year, prorated based on the number of pay periods remaining in the year) and 10 days of sick leave; 12 paid holidays and a paid winter break between December 25 and 31; paid parental leave, adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility benefits; learning and development opportunities; Lifestyle Spending Account; pet adoption assistance and insurance; pre-tax transportation benefits with a generous employer subsidy; employer-paid life insurance and disability benefit; and a variety of National Geographic discounts and perks.

Job Designation

Remote - Our Remote designation includes staff who must work in another location in the U.S. or abroad, such as our regional leads for our Education and International teams or regional fundraisers in Advancement. Staff may also be designated as Remote by their supervisors (with approval by the Senior Team lead) because of their job duties, and are afforded this status when it is beneficial to NGS, their respective team, and the employee.

Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States. This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

We encourage you to apply even if your experience is not a 100% match with the position. We are looking for someone with relevant skills and experience, not a checklist that exactly matches the job description. We want to help you grow and in return, you help us grow into a stronger, more inclusive organization.