Description
Job Title: Digital Fundraising & Growth Manager
Reports to: Senior Associate Director of Annual Giving
Salary range: $80,000 – 95,000
Location: Los Angeles, CA (Hybrid – 4 days in office, 1 day remote)
Must submit a cover letter addressed to: Lauren Dascher Griscom
To apply: Click on the link to our career page and create an account. Submit your resume and cover letter (under additional documents). NO PHONE CALLS OR EMAILS SENT DIRECTLY TO HIRING MANAGER.
https://www.brailleinstitute.org/about-us/careers-at-braille-institute/
Role Summary
The Digital Fundraising & Growth Manager is a high-impact role within the Development Department, responsible for the strategy and execution of Braille Institute’s digital fundraising ecosystem focused on donor acquisition and retention. Reporting to the Senior Associate Director of Annual Giving, this individual identifies, builds, and scales digital fundraising campaigns and appeals to increase revenue, that sit outside of our direct response fundraising program. This role requires strong relationship-building skills and an engaging, present communication style, enabling effective connection with stakeholders both virtually and in person.
This role is a "Strategic Doer", someone who can look at the industry landscape to design a growth strategy to drive revenue and act as the technical lead. You'll serve as a strategic thought partner on our vendor-led efforts, ensuring their digital strategy aligns with our internal annual giving efforts and Marketing, to create one seamless donor journey. Simultaneously, you will create and execute digital communications for team leaders' individual programs (Planned Giving and Corporate/Foundation Partnerships) across the department.
Our Vision Statement:
Our development team transforms lives impacted by vision loss through the power of philanthropy. We make Braille Institute's life changing services free and accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world.
Core Responsibilities
1. Comprehensive Strategy & In-House Growth
Develop and execute a comprehensive digital fundraising plan and appeal schedule that drive year-over-year revenue growth from all digital giving channels and donor journeys. Establish clear, measurable goals for the program, including but not limited to targets for dollars raised, participation rates, and qualitative outcomes.
Identify, evaluate, design the strategy and launch new digital revenue streams (e.g., SMS, Double the Donation, mobile-giving, and Peer-to-Peer) that grow our digital donor base and complement but remain independent of vendor-led efforts.
Develop and implement strategies to drive year-over-year growth in donor acquisition, retention, and average gift size. Develop and test new initiatives and innovative annual digital campaigns that drive revenue and retention. Leveraging content from other program areas and across the organization as appropriate.
In collaboration with Sr. Associate Director, continue to improve and develop strategies for our internal giving program through digital-first channels, ensuring a low-friction donor experience.
2. Internal Partnership & Thought Leadership
Collaborate with internal and cross-departmental teams as a strategic thought partner.
Act as a primary partner to team leaders, advising them on how to leverage digital tools to meet their specific program goals.
Work closely with the Marketing team to manage a shared MarCom calendar, align on campaign timing, and ensure a cohesive supporter experience across channels.
Collaborate with Marketing and IT teams to align on tools, timelines, and technical dependencies to ensure scalable and sustainable implementation of digital initiatives.
In collaboration with Development Communications Manager, create and execute compelling email copy for internal programs, ensuring each "ask" is optimized for digital conversion as appropriate.
Proactively research and pilot emerging technologies to determine what makes sense for the organization’s long-term growth.
3. Retention & Donor Lifecycle Architecture
Design automated donor "journeys" that move beyond standard receipts to focus on long-term loyalty, upgrading, sustainer program growth, and lapsed donor reactivation. Analyzing and distinguishing by segment, program, channel and donor journeys.
Audit and optimize the digital "giving funnel", from the website layout and initial click to the final confirmation page, to maximize conversion and donor retention, partnering with Marketing and IT to test and implement improvement.
4. Reporting
Proactively track the progress of appeals to determine effectiveness and ROI.
Track, analyze, and report on digital fundraising performance and effectiveness, completing comprehensive quarterly reviews that distill complex donor journey data into clear insights and actionable recommendations. Ensure thoughtful breakdown of data, identify gaps and opportunities, and drive ongoing improvements in testing, content, copy, and program strategy.
5. Management of Digital Platforms & Quality Control
Serve as the primary super user of digital fundraising platforms (Mailchimp, Double the Donation, Giving Platforms etc.), managing configurations and day-to-day operations while coordinating with IT on integrations, security, and system-level changes.
Act as a "second pair of eyes" and creative editor for all vendor-provided digital communication copy, ensuring it is mission-authentic.
Be the technical lead for all email sends, following appropriate segment lists (and suppressions) for direct response program and internal emails.
The “Reliable Executor”: You take detailed notes with precision in your follow through. You flag a blocker or an open question the moment you hit it, to keep a project moving forward.
The Ideal Candidate Profile
The "Entrepreneurial" Strategist: You treat the digital donor base like a growth-stage portfolio, constantly looking for ways to scale and optimize.
You understand the psychology of the "digital ask" and can move fluidly between advising a colleague and writing a high-stakes appeal.
You have the "Super User" skills to know exactly what is possible within our platforms and how to build it.
Required Skills & Experience
4+ years of nonprofit fundraising campaign execution as primary role with focus on annual giving and digital fundraising.
A proven track record of executing omnichannel campaigns and comprehensive donor communication journeys.
Strong project management, organizational skills and ability to manage competing demands. Ability to track tasks, deadlines, and follow-through across multiple concurrent campaigns and stakeholders.
Strong relationship-building ability is a must.
Exceptional ability to write and edit persuasive, high-conversion digital content.
Superb analytical skills, able to synthesize complex data accurately and critically. Able to present it in a digestible way to others.
Proficient in platforms like Salesforce, Funraise, Double the Donation and similar digital giving platforms and systems. Proficient in Hubspot or similar email/marketing automation platforms.
Experience using data-driven performance-based measures and outcomes.
Comfortable creating graphics for email and campaign use (in Canva or similar design tool) – you don’t need to be a designer, but can produce on-brand visuals.
Knowledge of Microsoft Office.
Fluency in leveraging AI to enhance business operations and drive innovation.
Nice to Have (Not Required, but a Plus)
Experience partnering with influencers or content creators to complement digital fundraising campaigns.
Working knowledge of paid digital media (ie: paid social, paid search, performance max)
Why This Role is Different
You aren't just following a calendar; you are building the strategy for how we grow. You have the autonomy to identify new opportunities and the technical/creative skills to bring them to life as a partner to the entire development team and across the organization.
https://www.brailleinstitute.org/about-us/careers-at-braille-institute/
Requirements
- 4+ years in annual giving and digital fundraising, with a proven track record of building and managing similar growth programs.
- Strong relationship-building ability is a must.
- Fluency in artificial intelligence (AI) tools and concepts. This includes using AI to enhance business operations and drive innovation.
- Exceptional ability to write and edit persuasive, high-conversion digital content.
- Superb analytical skills, able to synthesize complex data accurately and critically. Able to build and maintain tracking frameworks (UTM parameters, conversion tracking) and leverage analytics tools (CRM reporting and dashboards) to track performance and present in a digestible way to others.
- Proficient in platforms like Salesforce, Funraise, Double the Donation and similar digital giving platforms and systems.
- Experience using data-driven performance-based measures and outcomes.
- Ability to manage competing demands.
- Abides by ethical industry fundraising best practices.
- Knowledge of Microsoft Office.
