Director, Donor Engagement

DePelchin Children’s Center•Houston, TX

3d•Onsite

About The Position

The Director, Donor Engagement is responsible for strategically growing the donor base and annual revenue through direct response fundraising, online appeals, phone solicitation, and special events. The role keeps donors and volunteers informed about agency activities and client impact while advancing fundraising through direct response, events, and stewardship initiatives. It promotes teamwork across the department and agency and supports DePelchin’s philosophy, policies, and procedures. The Director provides strategic oversight for fundraising campaigns, special events, donor stewardship, revenue-growth strategies, volunteer engagement, and database operations. The position supervises the Stewardship Coordinator, Donor Communication, Volunteer Manager, and Database Manager, and provides monthly performance reports, participates in department and board meetings, represents DePelchin in community events, speaks publicly as assigned, and leads tours for prospects and interested groups.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree.
Five years of experience in a nonprofit fundraising environment.
Management or supervisory experience.
Valid Texas driver license and current auto insurance; uses own vehicle for agency business and does not transport clients.

Nice To Haves

CFRE certification.

Responsibilities

Provide strategic oversight for direct response fundraising, including development, design, production, and distribution of multichannel campaigns in coordination with external vendors.
Collaborate with Marketing and Communications to align fundraising campaigns with brand standards and organizational messaging; manage timelines, approvals, and performance outcomes.
Design, plan, and execute major fundraising events, donor cultivation gatherings, and stewardship events, including setting objectives, developing timelines, managing budgets, and coordinating staff, vendors, and volunteers.
Design and lead a donor stewardship program that communicates impact and appreciation across giving levels and supports donor retention and increased giving; oversee the Stewardship Coordinator.
Develop strategies to grow revenue through recurring giving, corporate matching gifts, peer-to-peer fundraising, and in honor/in memoriam giving; oversee the execution of these strategies.
Provide strategic leadership for the volunteer program, including recruitment, management, coordination, and retention; directly supervise the Volunteer Manager and align volunteer engagement with organizational goals and compliance standards.
Provide strategic oversight of database operations, technology use, data management, analysis, and prospect research; supervise the Database Manager to support data integrity, reporting, decision-making, and data-driven automation and workflows.
Provide required monthly reports accurately reflecting activity and performance.
Participate in regular department and board meetings and provide progress updates.
Represent DePelchin at community events related to promoting and supporting its programs and projects, as assigned.
Perform public speaking to promote awareness and support of DePelchin programs, as assigned.
Lead tours for individual prospects and interested groups.