Manager Donor Engagement

CANINE COMPANIONS FOR INDEPENDENCE, INC. • Santa Rosa, CA

6d • $71,000 - $81,000 • Remote

About The Position

The Manager Donor Engagement plays an instrumental role in raising philanthropic revenue, enhancing the donor experience, improving donor retention, and driving donor upgrades. As the primary point of contact for donors giving $1,000–$9,999, this position uses personalized outreach, thoughtful communication, and intentional stewardship to build meaningful relationships. The Manager Donor Engagement supports the donor pipeline and works closely with philanthropy colleagues to identify, upgrade, and transition donors with major gift potential.

Requirements

• Demonstrated success developing and implementing donor giving programs using data-driven segmentation strategies to retain and upgrade donors.
• Proven experience managing a nonprofit donor caseload or portfolio, including cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship, particularly through virtual engagement.
• Strong relationship-building skills with individual donors.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to create persuasive solicitations and compelling stewardship and impact materials.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and able to manage multiple projects simultaneously while adapting to changing priorities.
• Results-driven, self-motivated, flexible, and able to work independently as well as collaboratively.
• Exercise a high level of integrity and handle sensitive information with confidentiality and tact.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with staff, volunteers, board members, donors, and regional teams.
• Experience with Salesforce or other CRM platforms.
• Minimum of five years of experience in nonprofit philanthropy with direct responsibility for donor cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s degree preferred, preferably in a field related to philanthropy, marketing, communications, or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Responsibilities

• Manage a tiered caseload of approximately 500–700 donors and own a personal revenue goal focused on renewing, upgrading, retaining, and attracting donors.
• Engage donors through email, phone calls, letters, handwritten notes, and virtual meetings.
• Create engaging and meaningful touchpoints to cultivate new donors, strengthen existing relationships, and support long-term engagement.
• Identify key donor segments within the caseload to receive more personalized attention, with an emphasis on retention, upgrades, and hand-offs to major gift staff.
• Collaborate with marketing staff to create specialized outreach and stewardship materials, ensuring consistency in messaging and design.
• Support the development and execution of a meaningful donor journey through planned engagement tactics that cultivate, solicit, and steward donors using segmentation and tailored messaging.
• Work with staff across departments to collect information needed for solicitations and donor impact reporting.
• Implement robust stewardship practices, including the creation and delivery of donor impact reports, to support donor retention and upgrades.
• Ensure donors receive timely, relevant, and compelling communications that demonstrate the impact of their contributions.
• Develop and track meaningful short-term and long-term metrics and dashboards to evaluate program performance, with an initial focus on revenue and retention.
• Monitor giving trends, analyze portfolio performance, and identify opportunities for growth.
• Maintain organized and detailed donor records within Salesforce to support tracking, reporting, and timely engagement.
• Demonstrate flexibility and teamwork while understanding how this role interacts with other positions across the organization.
• Be accountable not only for assigned responsibilities but also for serving staff and constituents in alignment with organizational core values.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Employer-Paid Health Coverage: Medical, dental, and vision benefits for staff
• Paid Time Off: 14 paid holidays annually, including an Inclusion Holiday, plus 17 paid days off (PTO) during your first year
• Retirement Savings: Employer-matched 403(b) retirement plan
• Community Engagement: Additional paid hours to volunteer within your community
• Employee Assistance & Wellness Programs: Support for both professional and personal well-being
• Inclusion and Diversity Committee dedicated to ongoing efforts to foster a diverse and inclusive workplace by setting actionable goals and evaluating progress

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager