Director, Annual Giving & Donor Engagement

The Children's Museum of Indianapolis•Indianapolis, IN

10d

About The Position

The Director of Annual Giving and Donor Engagement develops and executes comprehensive fundraising strategies for The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis to acquire, retain, engage, steward, and grow its community of individual donors and donor members. The role provides strategic leadership for the annual fund, donor membership, acquisition and stewardship, donor engagement and recognition, retention and reactivation, giving societies, donor communications, and Advancement events. The director is accountable for annual contributed-revenue goals while building a sustainable pipeline that supports deeper philanthropic relationships over time. Using donor data and 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. The role oversees the donor experience and stewardship framework, directs fundraising and donor-engagement events, manages budgets and external partners, and leads the staff responsible for these functions. The director serves on the Advancement leadership team and reports to the Vice President of Advancement. The Children’s Museum is committed to an inclusive culture that encourages, supports, and celebrates differences. The organization believes collaboration and open dialogue among people with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives best support its vision and mission.

Requirements

Five years of fundraising management experience focused on annual giving, donor relations, membership, or direct-response fundraising in a major nonprofit or similarly complex organization.
Three years of people-management experience, with demonstrated ability to lead, coach, develop, and hold fundraising and donor-engagement staff accountable for measurable results.
Demonstrated success developing and executing multichannel annual-giving strategies that achieve revenue, acquisition, retention, reactivation, upgrade, participation, and donor-growth goals.
Understanding of donor lifecycle and pipeline development, including leadership annual giving and identifying and transitioning 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 and inform resource allocation.
Experience collaborating across fundraising, communications, program, operations, and other teams to create coordinated donor experiences and advance organizational priorities.
Strong strategic judgment, initiative, problem-solving, organizational, and project-management skills; ability to manage competing priorities and achieve individual and team goals.
Exceptional written and oral communication skills, including the ability to develop compelling donor-centered fundraising and stewardship messages for varied audiences and channels.
Expertise in fundraising principles, ethics, donor-centered practices, and the distinction between philanthropic giving and transactional member benefits.
Commitment to diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion, demonstrated through inclusive language, tact, and sensitivity.
Proficiency with, and ability to learn, fundraising CRM, database, digital fundraising, analytics, reporting, event-management, and productivity software platforms.
Bachelor’s degree preferred.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute annual giving strategies, plans, budgets, calendars, audience strategies, and performance measures to achieve contributed-revenue, donor participation, retention, and growth goals; lead an integrated, multichannel solicitation program.
Develop acquisition, renewal, reactivation, upgrade, and leadership annual-giving strategies; manage a portfolio of leadership annual donors and prospects; personally cultivate, solicit, and steward relationships; monitor performance, evaluate return on investment, adjust resource allocation, and support revenue forecasting.
Build donor pathways from initial participation to deeper engagement and support; lead the donor experience and stewardship framework; establish qualification and transition processes across annual, leadership, major, and planned giving; and collaborate to identify donors ready for deeper relationships.
Lead donor membership strategy, including acquisition, retention, upgrade, and engagement; evaluate giving levels, benefits, communications, and recognition; and distinguish philanthropic donor membership from transactional membership benefits.
Lead donor relations and stewardship, establishing standards for acknowledgment, recognition, giving societies, engagement, impact reporting, and fulfillment of commitments associated with major, campaign, restricted, endowed, and named gifts.
Direct Advancement cultivation, stewardship, recognition, and fundraising events; establish objectives, audiences, follow-up plans, revenue and expense expectations, sponsorship strategies, and success measures; evaluate events for fundraising outcomes, donor engagement, relationship advancement, and return on investment.
Partner with Brand Strategy & Sales and Advancement colleagues to develop donor-centered fundraising and stewardship communications, audience-specific messages, and solicitation strategies, coordinating communications for a cohesive year-round donor experience.
Use donor data, analytics, segmentation, testing, and fundraising results to inform strategy and improve performance; monitor revenue, donor count, acquisition, retention, reactivation, upgrades, average gift, leadership giving, donor movement, and return on investment.
Serve on the Advancement leadership team and collaborate with Individual Giving, Institutional Giving, Advancement Strategy and Campaign Operations, and museum leadership to align annual giving and donor engagement with broader priorities.
Lead, coach, and develop staff responsible for annual giving, donor membership, donor relations, stewardship, and Advancement events; set goals and expectations, ensure access to tools and resources, and foster an integrated, inclusive, high-performing team.
Manage budgets, vendors, consultants, and external partners supporting annual giving and donor engagement, and represent related priorities in institutional planning and decision-making.