Senior Manager, Donor Retention & Direct Response
- Salary
- $85K–$110K
- Hiring from
- United States
- Work type
- Hybrid
- Posted
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Salary Range: $85,000.00 To $110,000.00 Annually
Ronald McDonald House New York (RMH-NY) is seeking a strategic, data-driven fundraising professional to lead donor retention, engagement, and revenue growth through integrated direct response fundraising. This role will focus on increasing donor lifetime value, reactivating lapsed supporters, and inspiring donors to deepen their commitment to our mission.
The Senior Manager, Donor Retention & Direct Response will oversee multichannel fundraising strategies, including direct mail, email, SMS, and digital campaigns, with responsibility for donor retention, monthly giving, donor reactivation, and upgrades to higher giving levels. Working closely with Development and Digital leadership, Communications, Data Analytics, and external agency partners, this individual will leverage donor insights, segmentation, testing, and performance analytics to optimize campaigns and drive measurable fundraising results.
This highly collaborative role requires a strategic thinker with strong execution skills, a commitment to continuous improvement, and a demonstrated ability to translate donor data into effective fundraising strategies.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Donor Retention & Engagement Strategy
- Develop and execute donor retention and engagement plans aligned to the direct response strategy, delivered in email, direct mail, SMS, and digital campaigns.
- Lead new digital and direct mail donor onboarding and second-gift conversion, mapping and improving the donor journey from first gift through renewal and upgrade.
- Lead sustainer (monthly giving) conversion, retention, and engagement, including onboarding, stewardship, payment recovery, and upgrade journeys.
- Plan and run recapture and re-engagement campaigns for lapsed and at-risk donors, using segments and recommendations developed with the DevOps and Salesforce teams.
- Identify high-potential donors through direct response fundraising campaigns and collaborate with the Development team to support donor upgrades and movement into the major gifts pipeline.
- Partner with DevOps/Data Analyst to identify donors with upgrade potential and build journeys that move new and smaller donors toward mid-level giving
2. Email Strategy & Channel Ownership
- Own email strategy as a revenue channel, including the calendar, cadence, segmentation, and conversion rate optimization, in collaboration with the Communication and Development departments.
- Manage lifecycle programs (welcome, sustainer, win-back, upgrade), balancing appeals with stewardship and impact content that builds long-term donor loyalty.
- Lead across teams on Marketing Cloud journeys, dynamic content, personalization, and send time optimization; write clear requirements for each campaign and QA builds before launch.
- Protect list health, deliverability, and compliance with email regulations, donor communication preferences, and best practices. Demonstrate sound judgment in the use of donor data, segmentation, personalization, and donor privacy.
- Partner with Communications Department on copy and brand approvals.
3. Campaign Coordination & Vendor Accountability
- Coordinate agency and vendor partners and hold them accountable to established timelines, campaign requirements, revenue and expense goals, and quality standards.
- Coordinate integrated campaigns across direct response channels and maintain the master campaign calendar.
- Manage direct mail review routing and production timelines, coordinate landing pages and QR codes, and align email and digital touchpoints to in-home dates.
4. Audience Insights & Performance
- Track and report weekly, monthly, and by campaign on KPIs set with the Chief Digital Officer, including donor retention rate, second-gift conversion, sustainer churn, reactivation rate, revenue per recipient, and donor lifetime value.
- Run a structured A/B testing program for email, using holdout groups where appropriate to measure incremental revenue; document learnings and apply them across channels.
- Partner with the Data Analyst to use donor behavior and performance data to recommend upgrade candidates, segmentation, and suppression for email, direct mail, and digital campaigns.
QUALIFICATIONS & COMPETENCIES
Education
- Bachelor's degree required.
Experience
Required:
- 5+ years of relevant direct response fundraising or lifecycle marketing experience, including significant nonprofit fundraising experience, with demonstrated results in donor retention, sustainer (monthly giving) programs, or lapsed donor recapture.
- 5+ years of experience leading email journey strategy on an enterprise marketing automation platform, including segmentation, automation, dynamic content, and personalization. Proven experience setting, tracking, and assessing fundraising KPIs, and using data to form hypotheses and make decisions.
- Hands-on A/B testing experience, from test design through analysis and applying results.
Preferred:
- Hands-on Salesforce Marketing Cloud experience (Journey Builder, Email Studio).
- Campaign coordination experience, including production and results analysis.
- Experience with Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud or NPSP, Google Analytics 4, and BI dashboards such as Amazon QuickSight.
- Experience with SMS fundraising, donor segmentation, and strategies to grow mid-level giving programs.
Skills & Competencies
- Data-led decision-making: leads with evidence and hypotheses, not hunches, and brings a test-and-learn mindset to every campaign.
- Strong understanding of the donor lifecycle, retention, and upgrade strategy, including monthly giving and mid-level pathways.
- Creative, and willing to think out-of-the box, about ways to emotionally connect with donors and prospective donors.
- Curious and willingness to track and experiment with emerging trends in tech and AI to ensure cutting edge strategies benefit RMHNY.
- Sound judgment on fundraising copy for email and web, with the ability to strengthen drafts based on performance data.
- Excellent time management skills, including the ability to prioritize, manage complex schedules and multiple campaigns, and meet time-sensitive deadlines.
- Strong attention to detail and a disciplined approach to QA, with a positive roll-up-your-sleeves attitude and the desire to deliver premium-quality work.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to turn data into clear recommendations.
- Ability to work well under pressure, remain results-driven, and balance competing priorities with tight deadlines.
- Polished professional presentation and strong interpersonal skills, including when interacting with Board members, donors, and guests on site.
- Ability to build trust and confidence with senior staff, gift officers, Board members, Communications, and agency partners.
WORK ENVIRONMENT & TRAVEL
Work Environment
- This is a hybrid role that typically requires three days per week on-site at the House. However, the schedule may be adjusted based on organizational needs, including special events, content capture, meetings, and other activities requiring an on-site presence.
- The work environment characteristics described herein are representative of those an employee may encounter while performing the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the job.
- The office for this position is located within the same facility where RMH-NY provides temporary accommodations to pediatric patients and their families while patients undergo active medical treatment at area hospitals. For some RMH-NY guests, treatment may include radiation therapy. Although radiation therapy is never administered at RMH-NY, there is a potential for trace amounts of radioactive material to be present in guests who have received such treatment. Based on radiation measurements conducted throughout RMH-NY, it is not expected that individuals working at RMH-NY will receive radiation exposure exceeding the general public limit of 100 millirem per year.
- The office for this position is located within the same facility where families reside temporarily during a child's medical treatment. The building operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As a result, occasional evening, weekend, and holiday work may be required.
- The noise level in the work environment is generally moderate to loud. Noise levels may increase due to the presence of families and children residing in the House, as well as guests, volunteers, and performers participating in special events.
- This position operates primarily in an office environment and routinely requires the use of standard office equipment, including computers, telephones, photocopiers, filing systems, and other office technology.
Physical Demands
- The physical demands described herein are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the job.
- Work is performed primarily in an office setting; however, some outdoor work may be required.
Travel
- Occasional local travel may be required in support of this role.
Other
- This job description provides an overview of the primary duties, responsibilities, and activities associated with the position.
- It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, or qualifications required for the role.
- Responsibilities may change based on the evolving needs of the organization.
Equal Employment Opportunity
Ronald McDonald House New York is committed to providing Equal Employment Opportunity to all employees and applicants.
RMH-NY does not discriminate against any employee or applicant on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, sex, gender, age, marital status, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, citizenship status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law, provided the individual can meet the essential mental and physical requirements of the position, with or without reasonable accommodation.