Founded in 1936, the National Wildlife Federation has grown into America's largest and most trusted grassroots conservation organization with 53 state/territorial affiliates and more than seven million members and supporters, including hunters, anglers, gardeners, birders, hikers, campers, paddlers, and more. The mission of the National Wildlife Federation is to unite all Americans to ensure wildlife thrive in our rapidly changing world. The organization's programs focus on conserving wildlife, restoring habitat and waterways, expanding outdoor opportunities, connecting children with nature, and addressing the causes and consequences of climate change.

To advance our mission, we are seeking a full-time Donor Relations Officer to join the Federation’s Philanthropy team. This hybrid position can potentially be based in any of the National Wildlife Federation’s offices throughout the U.S., and has options for being fully remote. This position will involve occasional travel between the Federation’s D.C. and Virginia offices, and may also involve occasional domestic travel (up to 10 percent). The Donor Relations Officer plays a crucial role in the Mid-Level Program’s success, working collaboratively to harmonize supporter engagement and create meaningful donor experiences across our Membership, Mid-Level, Major Gifts, Gift Planning, and Social Innovation programs.  

The position reports to the Director of Donor Relations & Special Giving. Primary responsibilities for this role include personally engaging with mid-level and prospective mid-level donors to qualify, cultivate and steward. Tasks include, but are not limited to, corresponding directly with mid-level donors; fostering engaging experiences both virtually and in-person; identifying, building and ensuring healthy donor mobility across programs; generating stewardship content; ensuring equity and justice practices are infused throughout our engagement efforts; collaborating across teams to build synergy; building processes for a choregraphed donor visit system; and developing and maintaining standardized reports and analysis.

This role will:

• Engage donors and recognize their contributions through handwritten correspondence, calls, and emails while managing the qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of mid-level donors in a concentrated effort to deepen their engagement with the Federation and grow their philanthropic investments in its important work.
• Foster and collaborate to create engaging and meaningful experiences for donors and supporters through virtual or face-to-face visits or events and other engagement efforts.
• Ensure healthy donor mobility across our teams and lines of business, including but not limited to creating and generating segmentations within mid-level, enhancing moves management or prospecting, finding opportunities for stewardship engagement, utilizing prospective dashboards, and more.
• Identify prospective mid-level donors, alongside membership, through additive stewardship efforts while leveraging research, personal interactions, and other engagement and insights to qualify donors for additional stewardship and cultivation opportunities.
• Collaborate and execute on a choregraphed donor visit system including identifying engaged mid-level donors for both the Major Gift and Gift Planning teams.
• Help implement an enhanced donor experience alongside donor relations and program staff that offers engaging events, forums for conversation, and thoughtful donor stewardship plans, which include delivery of various stewardship touchpoints, that both recognize and meet individuals where they are.
• Collaborate with the Major Gifts and Gift Planning teams to develop consistent messaging to influence and serve as a framework for stewardship practices.
• Collaborate with key staff to ensure equity and justice practices, values, and approaches are integrated into our narratives and represented as a piece of all that we do.
• Maintain constituent profiles and accurately enter demographic information, contact reports, and various moves management processes relating to donor qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship while performing CRM-related functions with consistency.
• Develop and maintain standardized reports and analysis on activities, prospective pipelines, and progress to inform leadership’s efforts to monitor and evaluate portfolio management, strategy implementation, revenue generation, engagement targets, and resource deployment.
• As needed, provide direct support to Federation senior staff and volunteer leadership in the development and implementation of strategies to cultivate, engage, solicit, and steward prospective funders and existing donors.
• Collaborate with various business units, program leads, and agency partners regularly, helping to ensure our teams are communicating and collaborating effectively.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Skills & Qualifications:

• College degree and/or 3-5 years of previous professional experience required, ideally in a non-profit development setting.
• Exhibits a high level of self-awareness, empathy, and approachability, coupled with well-honed interpersonal skills.
• Fosters an awareness of multiple group identities and their attendant dynamics, while seeking to deepen an understanding of the impacts of racism, anti-LGBTQ equality, sexism, and structural oppressions and their intersectionality.
• Exceptional interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills.
• Demonstrates a strong commitment to continuous learning, professional growth and skills enhancement, and endeavors to bring a “growth mindset” that welcomes new ideas.
• Proven ability to work well and confidently under pressure by prioritizing and managing multiple tasks and competing deadlines effectively.
• Creativity, exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Strong communication and editing skills; proven capability to draft correspondence, reports, and other written and oral communications in a clear and professional manner.
• Passion for the preservation and protection of wildlife and wild places a plus.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite required. Familiarity with CRM and other fundraising and research software preferred.

NWF Values: Your actions are expected to reflect the staff values of the National Wildlife Federation: collaboration, mindfulness, empowerment, inclusivity, and mission focus. 

Your competencies should include:

• Being motivated by values of equity and responsibility to those most marginalized;
• Consistently bringing a high level of empathy and social skills to work and interpersonal interactions;
• Being committed to deepening an environmental justice approach in policy priorities, program development and partner engagement;
• Actively seeks feedback, direction, and guidance from all team members and keeps staff informed of decisions that impact them;
• Being dedicated to advancing NWF’s internal equity transformation and compelling partners and allies to incorporate equity into their work; and
• Passion for and commitment to NWF's mission

Compensation and Benefits: The salary range for this position is currently $65,000-$75,000 annually, dependent upon qualifications and experience.

We are proud of our designation by Mogul as a Top 100 Workplace with the Best Benefits in 2021! 

We value work-life balance and a family-friendly atmosphere with flexible scheduling.  We want you to be able to integrate work and personal life with attention to your self-care, so that your work schedule is not depleting.  We offer benefits so you feel restored and fueled through the day and week. We offer these supports to help manage your mental, emotional, and physical health:

• Paid time off: Vacation that starts off at three weeks accrual, unlimited wellbeing (this time can be used for physical, spiritual, emotional, cultural, religious or financial wellbeing for yourself, a partner, or family member – including pets), 10 holidays, and 3 floating holidays
• We close down for a paid winter break between December 25 to January 1 to recognize end of-year stress, and time for reflection, rejuvenation, and spending time with family.
• Up to 16 weeks of fully paid Family and Medical Leave
• Low-cost health, dental, and vision insurance options – all outpatient mental health is covered at in-network rates
• Therapist available at no cost
• Pet insurance and discount perk program
• Annual wellbeing allowance

In addition to your salary, we offer the following supports to your personal finances:

• Retirement plan with immediate match and vesting
• Annual year end retirement contribution
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Adoption and Surrogacy assistance
• Pet adoption stipend
• Student Loan management

Applicants are invited to learn more about National Wildlife Federation’s benefits package at https://www.nwf.org/About-Us/Careers.

COVID Consideration: The National Wildlife Federation closely follows the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease and has implemented processes that promote the safety of our employees, candidates, and communities. Because the health of our employees and candidates is a top priority, we conduct our hiring process virtually via phone or video until further notice. We are currently starting our positions as remote, and are continuing to explore what our future of work will be moving forward. Proof of vaccination will be required to join the National Wildlife Federation.

Application: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. 

Candidates should submit a cover letter and resume.

We strive to increase diversity, equity, inclusion and justice (DEIJ) in all elements of our work and with our partners to support the interdependent needs of wildlife and people in a rapidly changing world. We recruit, employ, train compensate, and promote regardless of race, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity (including gender nonconformity and status as a transgender individual), age, physical or mental disability, citizenship, genetic information, past, current, or prospective service in the uniformed services, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state, or local law. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. Applicants are invited to learn more about National Wildlife Federation’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion at nwf.org/equity.

We recognize that people come with a wealth of experience and talent beyond just the technical requirements of a job, therefore our job descriptions are guidelines, not hard and fast rules.  Your experience, which may include paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work, helps build the competencies and knowledge that translates to our openings.  Diversity of experience and skills combined with passion is a key to innovation and a culture of excellence.  Therefore, we encourage people from all backgrounds to apply to our positions. Please let us know if you require accommodations during the application or interview process by reaching us at hrhelp@nwf.org  or 703-438-6244. If selected for this position, a background check will be conducted.