Director, Annual Giving & Donor Engagement

OVERVIEW

The Director of Annual Giving and Donor Engagement is responsible for developing and executing comprehensive fund-raising strategies for The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis to acquire, retain, engage, steward, and grow the museum’s community of individual donors and donor members. The director provides strategic leadership for the annual fund, donor membership, donor acquisition and stewardship, donor engagement & recognition, donor retention and reactivation, giving societies, donor communication, and Advancement events.

The incumbent is accountable for annual contributed-revenue goals while building a strong and sustainable pipeline of donors who can deepen their philanthropic relationship with the museum over time. Using data and donor insights, the director leads an integrated donor experience from first gift through renewal, increased giving, leadership annual giving, and qualification for major and planned giving, strengthening donor loyalty, philanthropic participation, and long-term donor value.

The Children’s Museum is building and sustaining an inclusive culture that encourages, supports, and celebrates differences. We believe that collaboration and open dialogue among people with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives best support our vision and mission.

REPORTS TO: Vice President of Advancement

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Develops and executes comprehensive annual giving strategies to achieve contributed-revenue, donor participation, retention, and growth goals. Establishes annual plans, budgets, calendars, audience strategies, and performance measures and leads an integrated multi-channel solicitation program that may include direct mail, digital, email, telephone, onsite, peer-to-peer, giving days, and personal outreach.

Develops differentiated strategies for donor acquisition, renewal, reactivation, upgrade, and leadership annual giving. Maintains a select portfolio of leadership annual donors and prospects and personally cultivates, solicits, and stewards relationships in support of established individual and team revenue goals. Monitors revenue and donor performance, evaluates return on investment and fundraising effectiveness, adjusts strategies and resource allocation based on results, and partners with Advancement leadership to maintain reliable revenue forecasts and address performance variances.

Builds intentional pathways that move donors through a philanthropic continuum from initial participation to increasingly significant engagement and support. Owns the advancement-wide donor experience and stewardship framework. Leads the annual giving strategy, establishes qualification and transition processes among annual, leadership, major, and planned giving, and partners with Individual Giving and Prospect Intelligence and Analytics to identify donors ready for deeper relationships.

Provides leadership for the donor membership strategy. Develops and deploys donor member acquisition, retention, upgrade, and engagement strategies; evaluates giving levels, benefits, communications, and recognition; and ensures donor membership is positioned as philanthropy while maintaining appropriate distinctions from transactional membership benefits.

Leads the museum’s comprehensive donor relations and stewardship strategy. Establishes standards for acknowledgment, recognition, stewardship, giving societies, engagement, impact reporting, and fulfillment of commitments associated with major, campaign, restricted, endowed, and named gifts, partnering with frontline fundraisers and museum colleagues as appropriate.

Directs and oversees Advancement cultivation, stewardship, recognition, and fundraising events. Establishes objectives, audiences, follow-up plans, revenue and expense expectations, sponsorship strategies, and measures of success, evaluating events based on fundraising outcomes, donor engagement, relationship advancement, and return on investment rather than attendance alone.

Partners with colleagues in Brand Strategy & Sales and Advancement to develop donor-centered fundraising and stewardship communications. Creates audience-specific messages and solicitation strategies based on donor interests, behavior, giving history, and engagement, and coordinates communications to provide an intentional and cohesive donor experience throughout the year.

Uses donor data, analytics, segmentation, testing, and fundraising results to inform strategy and improve performance. Monitors key measures including revenue, donor count, acquisition, retention, reactivation, upgrade rates, average gift, leadership giving, donor movement, and return on investment, and promotes continuous improvement based on results.

Serves as an active member of the Advancement leadership team and partners with Individual Giving, Institutional Giving, Advancement Strategy and Campaign Operations, and museum leadership to align annual giving and donor engagement with broader fundraising and institutional priorities.

Leads, coaches, and develops staff responsible for annual giving, donor membership, donor relations, stewardship, and Advancement events. Establishes clear revenue goals, performance expectations, priorities, and accountability; ensures staff have appropriate tools, training, data, and resources; and fosters an integrated, collaborative, inclusive, and high-performing team culture.

Manages budgets, vendors, consultants, and external partners supporting annual giving and donor engagement and represents annual giving and donor-relations priorities in institutional planning and decision-making.

REQUIREMENTS

Bachelor’s degree preferred with five (5) years of fundraising management experience focused on annual giving, donor relations, membership, direct-response fundraising in a major nonprofit or similarly complex organization.

Three (3) years of people management experience, with demonstrated ability to lead, coach, develop, and hold professional fundraising and donor-engagement staff accountable for measurable results.

Demonstrated success developing and executing annual giving strategies that achieve revenue, acquisition, retention, reactivation, upgrade, participation, and donor-growth goals across multiple fundraising channels.

Demonstrated understanding of donor lifecycle and pipeline development, including leadership annual giving and the identification and transition of donors with potential for major and planned giving.

Experience leading donor relations, stewardship, recognition, giving societies, donor engagement, and fundraising or cultivation events with clear relationship and fundraising objectives.

Experience using donor data, segmentation, testing, analytics, performance measures, and return-on-investment analysis to improve fundraising results and inform resource allocation.

Experience working across fundraising, communications, program, operations, and other teams to create coordinated donor experiences and advance organizational priorities.

Highly self-directed with strong strategic judgment, initiative, problem-solving, organizational, and project-management skills and the ability to manage competing priorities and consistently achieve individual and team goals.

Exceptional written and oral communication skills, including demonstrated ability to develop compelling donor-centered fundraising and stewardship messages for varied audiences and channels.

Demonstrated expertise in fundraising principles, ethics, donor-centered practices, and the appropriate distinction between philanthropic giving and transactional member benefits.

Places a high value on diversity and inclusion by promoting diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion activities. Maintains a professional demeanor through inclusive language, tact, and sensitivity.

Proficiency with and ability to learn and utilize fundraising CRM, database, digital fundraising, analytics, reporting, event-management, and productivity software platforms.

ADA REQUIREMENTS

• Must be able to perceive space, read documents and reports, analyze donor and fundraising information, and view a computer monitor.
• Must be able to communicate in person, virtually, and telephonically in one-on-one and group settings with donors, members, colleagues, volunteers, vendors, and community partners, including presenting ideas and planning and executing projects and events.
• Must be able to lift objects up to 25 pounds of weight.
• Required ability to remain stationary for extended periods and to traverse the campus and grounds regularly. Must be able to navigate local and regional travel as required for donor engagement and Advancement events.