Senior Manager, Donor Direct Marketing

UNITED STATES SOCCER FEDERATION 1•Atlanta, GA

About The Position

The Senior Manager, Donor Direct Marketing leads the strategy, development, and execution of U.S. Soccer’s mass donor marketing and communications function, reporting to the Director, Annual Fund. The role owns the mass audience segment of the donor file, from first gift through the mid-level entry point, and is accountable for its revenue and donor targets. It grows the audience through an agency of record supplying direct mail, email, and paid digital, while U.S. Soccer retains ownership of strategy and decision-making. The role integrates channels, builds the donor entry ladder, develops second-gift and recurring-giving programs, and establishes the campaign calendar, operating model, attribution standards, and measurement practices. It manages the agency relationship and media investment, builds and evaluates testing and acquisition programs, and oversees donor messaging, stewardship, acknowledgment, and impact reporting for the mass audience. The Senior Manager also serves as Advancement’s liaison to centralized Marketing & Communications and partners across Advancement and other Federation functions on donor lifecycle, campaign, and channel initiatives.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required.
At least 5 years of progressive experience in nonprofit direct response fundraising, integrated marketing, donor engagement, digital marketing, communications, advancement, or related fields.
Demonstrated success developing and executing multi-channel direct-response programs across direct mail, email, and paid digital that drive donor acquisition, retention, and revenue growth.
Experience managing an agency or vendor relationship, including briefing creative, holding a partner to a campaign calendar, and evaluating performance against committed projections.
Experience building or significantly expanding donor marketing, fundraising communications, or audience engagement programs.
Experience designing and evaluating a testing program, including hypotheses, samples, and results, and incorporating a proven test into the standing program.
Experience evaluating and launching acquisition channels, platforms, or audience partnerships against a target cost per donor.
Working knowledge of fundraising analytics, including cost per donor acquired, donor value by acquisition source, response rate, and matchback methodology.
Strong understanding of donor lifecycle marketing, audience segmentation, source coding and attribution, and CRM-driven communications.
Ability to think strategically while leading complex campaigns from concept through execution.
Experience collaborating across fundraising, marketing, technology, digital, and communications teams within a complex organization.
Exceptional communication, storytelling, project management, and relationship-building skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders across organizational levels.
Proficient experience with Microsoft Suite, including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook.
Ability to work in fast-paced and demanding environments.
Ability to connect micro-level details to the broader vision and mission.
Ability to work evenings and weekends and travel as needed.

Nice To Haves

General knowledge of soccer.
Experience supervising staff, agency teams, or cross-functional project teams.
Experience using Salesforce, marketing automation platforms, email marketing systems, or comparable CRM and digital marketing technologies.

Responsibilities

Own the mass audience segment of the donor file and its revenue and donor targets, covering acquisition, second gift, retention, reactivation, upgrade, and transition into mid-level giving.
Design and execute the second-gift program, incorporate monthly recurring giving throughout donor communications, and lead retention and reactivation efforts.
Build and run a rolling test plan across creative, offer, ask string, segment, and timing; document hypotheses and read dates and incorporate proven results into the standing program.
Expand digital reach and revenue through paid social, search, display, connected TV, donor-file-based lookalike and retargeting audiences, and owned channels including the U.S. Soccer app, match day, and email.
Evaluate and launch new channels, platforms, and partners, including list and audience partnerships, digital fundraising platforms, and SMS, using defined budgets, target costs per donor, and decision points.
Lead the first-year digital build, including a low-dollar acquisition pilot against the post-World Cup file and a triggered welcome and second-gift series.
Manage the agency of record day to day, including briefs, creative review, calendar commitments, and accountability to revenue projections.
Maintain the division of responsibilities between U.S. Soccer and the agency, with strategy, audience, offer architecture, segmentation, source coding, and copy approval kept in house, and agency modeling, production, deployment, media buying, and matchback handled by the agency.
Manage media investment within the approved budget, including target cost per acquired donor, channel reallocation, and decisions to discontinue underperforming lines.
Lead the transition to the go-forward agency partner and recommend the ongoing mix of internal staff, agency scope, and shared Federation services.
Own the fiscal-year campaign calendar and coordinate timing across the Federation to avoid conflicts among appeals, Fan Experience communications, and membership renewals.
Own mass-audience attribution, enforce source coding on every internal and agency touch, reproduce agency matchback internally, and report cost per acquired donor, twelve-month value by acquisition source, response rate, average gift, and second-gift rate.
Own message architecture across the donor journey and advance appeal messaging from benefits framing to impact framing tied to U.S. Soccer’s philanthropic pillars.
Build an impact-story intake process using Soccer Forward and the stewardship pipeline, with rights and release status attached to each item.
Own stewardship, acknowledgment, and impact reporting for the mass audience.
Serve as Advancement’s liaison to centralized Marketing & Communications on channel access, calendar position, brand approval, audience data, and message alignment.
Partner with Stewardship & Engagement, Advancement Services, Memberships, Major Gifts, and Principal Gifts on segmentation, gift attribution, and lifecycle transitions.
Partner with Corporate Partnerships on the match or challenge behind each pillar campaign.
Collaborate with Product, Digital, and Fan Experience on recurring-giving capability, donation-form performance, and tracking to attribute gifts to specific appeals.
Support overall Advancement department goals and perform other duties as assigned.