Mission/Authority:
Under the direction of and in partnership with the divisional campaign director of Africa/Middle East, implement and oversee a comprehensive strategy to enhance the mission partner experience of sponsors and donors. This role includes providing leadership, creativity, tenacity and expertise on the path to more deeply engage our partners in the ministry.
Responsibilities:
Donor Care
- Drive the donor thanking strategy and execution throughout the year, including Christmas gifts, annual sponsorship acknowledgment gifts, staff sponsor thank you notes, end-of-year appeal, etc.
- Create regional reports for distribution to donors annually and according to the Development calendar rhythm.
- Own responding to donor inquiries or connecting them to the appropriate sponsorship team member.
- Partner and coordinate with the divisional campaign director, campaign manager, sponsorship managers, regional team directors and Expeditions lead.
- Identify new givers of all sizes on a monthly basis and ensure thank you notes or calls happen, coordinating closely with Development team colleagues.
- Full participation in execution of development-driven donor events throughout the year.
Engage Sponsors with Their Sponsored Staff/Country Representatives
- Communicate with prospective donors/sponsors, sharing sponsorship vision and answering questions.
- Execute and enhance the sponsorship onboarding process.
- Ensure our African and Middle East staff develop a strong relationship with their sponsor.
– Prepare and send a custom welcome packet for each sponsor using a standard template.
– Host and facilitate an introductory call between the sponsor and sponsored staff to introduce and help them become acquainted and conclude with the exchange of plans for future communications between the sponsor and staff.
– Set-up WhatsApp communications (or preferred sponsor method) between sponsored field staff and their sponsor and monitor interactions to support excellence in communications. - Send monthly communication to all sponsored staff reminding them to send updates to their sponsors, offering encouragement, tips and coaching when needed.
- As an accountability partner with the sponsored field staff, follow up with each staff quarterly to assess quality and consistency of their communication with their sponsor.
- Identify staff who have not been communicating on a regular basis and check in with them.
- Report to country leadership as needed or from time-to-time.
- Execute quarterly (or as preferred by the partner) country sponsor updates.
Sponsorship Campaigns (Continent, Regional, Country, Staff, Camp)
- Collaborate with the divisional campaign director and campaign manager in executing campaigns.
- Prepare and execute assigned pre-campaign tasks, providing logistical support throughout the campaign.
- Coordinate with the regional team directors to support regional team efforts around campaigns.
- Develop and coordinate sending post-campaign thank you packages to donors.
Tracking and Administration
- Develop sponsorship best practices/new ideas.
- Send pledge giving statements twice a year (or as requested by the sponsor) showing total giving amount for the fiscal year.
- Manage monthly sponsorship giving reviews with finance and the Development sponsorship team.
- Report monthly the divisional sponsorship receivables to Operations and Finance, according to the establish rhythm.
- Maintain sponsorship tracking and collaborate with the divisional campaign director in reporting methods.
- Create and maintain development sponsorship materials for use by the team in working with donors and prospective donors.
- Maintain development materials in the Development team's Dropbox.
- Maintain and update camp campaign goal tracking for all forms of camp sponsorships from fundraising efforts.
- Drive tracking of donor gifts across gift ranges.
- Prepare and maintain division donor lists working with the divisional campaign director on format and usage.
- Collaborate with the divisional campaign director on monitoring lapsed givers and create an outreach action plan.
- Active participation in Development team weekly meetings and other special initiatives that arise throughout the year driven by the Development team.
Personal Fundraising
- Develop, communicate with and care for personal financial partners.
- Raise personal network support to meet or exceed annual goals.
Measures of Success
- Excellent and consistent staff-initiated communication by email and other communication methods.
- Sustained sponsor involvement in Young Life Africa | Middle East.
- Consistent, sustainable and streamlined communications sent to sponsors throughout the calendar year in line with overall outreach strategies.
- Staff feels well supported, equipped and encouraged to communicate regularly with their sponsors.
- Donors feel connected and engaged with field staff and on-the-ground ministry.
Working Conditions
- This is a position that will require fundraising to support salary, benefits and other directly related costs such as travel and training.
- It is expected this employee will work from a home office.
Qualifications:
Skills and Experience Required for the Job
- Ability to interface with a sophisticated donor audience.
- Proven ability to work with the utmost of confidentiality.
- Excellent communication abilities — both written and verbal.
- Highly organized and self-motivated.
- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work well with others within and across the organization.
- Works well remotely, finding ways to keep connected with a disbursed team in the U.S., as well as in Africa and the Middle East.
- Partner with the divisional campaign director to make continuous improvements.
- Known to be filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom.
- Flexible and a constant learner.
- A team player.
- Be able to laugh and take joy in life, even on hard days.
- Pray and listen to the Lord.
- Deep desire to serve in a Christian mission.
- Deep knowledge of Young Life practices and culture.
- Mastery of Microsoft Office Suite and proven ability to learn new software programs.
- Undergraduate degree.
- Strong knowledge of Young Life.
This description is not intended, and should not be construed, to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skills, efforts or working conditions associated with this job. It is intended to be an accurate reflection of the principal job elements essential for making compensation decisions.
How to Apply:
If you are interested in applying or have questions, please click the button below to send your resume and cover letter to Candace Grisdale.