The Donor Engagement Senior Manager manages The Marine Mammal Center’s donor engagement and stewardship program, strengthening relationships with donors at every level by ensuring a meaningful, consistent, timely experience connected to the Center’s mission. This position contributes donor engagement insights and recommendations to Advancement planning and helps ensure donor engagement strategy is incorporated effectively.  The Senior Manager, with the Senior Director of Development, will establish the standards, systems, and measures that guide donor engagement across Advancement and support donor retention, renewal, and long-term commitment. 

As a key member of the Advancement team, the Senior Manager will manage the Center’s giving circles, including Stellar Legacy Circle, and partner closely with major and planned gifts, events, annual giving, program staff, and volunteers to help ensure donor engagement is cohesive and purposeful. 

Essential Functions: 

Donor Engagement Program Management: 20% 

• Partner with Advancement leaders to contribute donor engagement recommendations to department planning and priorities. 
• Manage and ensure the evaluation of the Center’s donor engagement practices, ensuring they are effective, cohesive, and aligned with Advancement priorities. 
• Assess donor needs, giving patterns, feedback, program results, and emerging practices to identify opportunities and recommend improvements that strengthen the donor experience, retention, renewal, and long-term commitment. 
• With the Senior Director of Development, develop and manage the annual donor engagement budget and the effective use of approved staff, volunteer, and financial resources to advance program goals. 

Donor Communications, Stewardship, and Recognition: 20% 

• Manage and ensure the continuous improvement of the Center’s donor communications, stewardship, acknowledgment, and recognition practices, ensuring that donors at every giving level receive timely, accurate, meaningful, and appropriately tailored engagement. 
• Establish and maintain service standards, workflows, routing and escalation practices, and standard operating procedures for donor inquiries, gift acknowledgment, stewardship, and recognition. 
• With the Senior Director, Development, develop and maintain a tiered stewardship and acknowledgment framework by giving level and donor type, with defined touchpoints, responsibilities, timeliness expectations, and quality standards. 
• Ensure the development of stewardship communications, impact reporting, and recognition opportunities that connect donors with the outcomes of their support and strengthen retention, renewal, and long-term engagement. 
• With the Senior Director, Development support the resolution of complex or sensitive donor matters and ensure that donor preferences, interactions, acknowledgments, stewardship activities, and recognition commitments are accurately and consistently maintained in the CRM. 

Giving Circles and Donor Engagement: 15% 

• Guided by Advancement leadership, manage:  
• Planning, implementation, growth, and ongoing evaluation of the Center’s giving circles and recognition societies, including the Steller Legacy Circle, in alignment with established Advancement strategy and priorities. 
• program standards and expectations for membership, renewals, benefits, communications, engagement, and recognition, ensuring that commitments to members are fulfilled consistently. 
• Cultivation and engagement opportunities for giving circle members in partnership with annual giving, major gifts, planned giving, prospect research, and events. 
• The development and stewardship of the donor pipeline into and within giving circles, identifying opportunities to deepen engagement and encourage movement between giving levels. 
• The evaluation of membership, renewal, participation, pipeline movement, and engagement results and recommend program improvements based on performance and donor feedback. 

Leadership and Management: 20% 

• Supervise and coach staff; establish clear goals, priorities, responsibilities, decision-making authority, and performance expectations. 
• Conduct regular individual and team meetings, approve timecards and time-off requests, complete performance evaluations, and address performance or workplace concerns. 
• Support staff in developing their knowledge, capabilities, and professional skills while promoting accountability for individual and team results. 
• Foster an inclusive, collaborative, donor-centered, and accountable team culture that supports effective communication, problem-solving, professional development, and shared responsibility for results. 

Volunteer Engagement and Training: 10% 

• Develop and manage a volunteer-supported donor appreciation program, including thank-you calls, handwritten notes, and other stewardship activities. 
• Partner with the Center’s volunteer program to recruit, onboard, schedule, support, and recognize volunteers who participate in donor engagement activities. 
• Develop scripts, guidelines, training, and quality standards that prepare volunteers to communicate with donors warmly, accurately, and consistently. 
• Provide ongoing direction, support, and feedback to volunteers and address questions or concerns that arise through their donor interactions. 
• Monitor volunteer-supported donor engagement activities to ensure alignment with established service, confidentiality, and quality standards 

Collaboration, Performance Measurement, and Organizational Impact: 10% 

• Partner across Advancement and with program staff and volunteers to support a cohesive donor experience and strengthen alignment across donor engagement activities. 
• Develop and maintain dashboards and reporting on donor service, acknowledgment timeliness, retention, renewal, giving circle participation, and other donor engagement outcomes. 
• Analyze program results and donor feedback, identify trends and opportunities, and provide findings and recommendations to Advancement leadership. 

Other Duties as Assigned: 5% 

• Perform special projects and research as assigned. 
• Perform other duties as assigned. 

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: 

• Strong commitment to the mission and strategic priorities of The Marine Mammal Center. 
• Knowledge of donor engagement, donor relations, stewardship, gift acknowledgment, recognition, and donor service practices across giving levels and donor types. 
• Knowledge of fundraising principles and the donor lifecycle, including annual giving, major gifts, planned giving, giving circles, cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, renewal, and upgrading. 
• Commitment to the highest ethical standards in fundraising, consistent with the Association of Fundraising Professionals Code of Ethical Standards and the Donor Bill of Rights. 
• Ability to contribute donor engagement insights and recommendations into effective program plans, standards, and practices. 
• Demonstrated ability to manage, evaluate, and continuously improve donor engagement projects that strengthen donor relationships, retention, renewal, and long-term commitment. 
• Strong project management and systems-building skills, with the ability to design, document, implement, and maintain service standards, stewardship frameworks, workflows, standard operating procedures, performance measures, and quality expectations. 
• Ability to develop and interpret donor engagement metrics, analyze program results and donor feedback, identify trends and opportunities, and present practical recommendations to leadership. 
• Ability to manage budgets, monitor expenditures, assess resource needs, and manage approved resources responsibly. 
• Ability to supervise and coach staff, establish clear priorities and performance expectations, address problems, and foster accountability for individual and team results. 
• Ability to recruit, train, lead, and support volunteers and develop meaningful volunteer roles that contribute to successful donor engagement. 
• Ability to build effective partnerships, influence decisions, coordinate work across functions, and support change involving Advancement, program teams, organizational leadership, staff, and volunteers. 
• Excellent written, verbal, presentation, facilitation, and interpersonal communication skills, with a warm, donor-centered service orientation and the ability to communicate professionally and with discretion. 
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines, anticipate challenges, exercise sound judgment, and guide work through completion. 
• Proficiency with Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) systems, preferably Salesforce with the Nonprofit Success Pack, and with productivity and project management tools such as Asana and Slack. 
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications (Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Word), productivity management tools (Asana, Slack), and virtual collaboration tools (Teams, Zoom). 
• Commitment to fostering an inclusive, respectful, collaborative, and accountable workplace and the ability to work effectively with individuals of diverse backgrounds, identities, experiences, and perspectives. 
• Willingness to support and participate in The Marine Mammal Center’s diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. 

Certifications and/or Licenses: 

• Certified Fund-Raising Executive (CFRE) credential is a plus. 
• Valid driver's license with an acceptable motor vehicle record to maintain insurability standards. (Must be 21+ years old, as this position frequently requires driving company vehicles.) 

Preferred Education and Experience: 

This position requires a combination of education and experience equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in administration, development, business, or related field; and a minimum of 5 years of relevant experience or equivalent work in donor relations, stewardship, or advancement, and 3 years of supervisory experience is required. 

Experience managing stewardship systems, donor communications, or recognition programs is preferred. 

Work Environment & Physical Requirements: 

• This position operates in a professional office, laboratory, and hospital environment both indoors and outdoors with access to other parts of the facilities via outdoor pathways. 
• Routinely uses standard office equipment requiring repetitive motion in tasks. 
• Ability to work at a desk for extended periods using a computer. 
• Ability to work in an open cubicle office space environment with many distractions. 
• Ability to drive/operate a vehicle for extensive periods of time. 
• Ability to move up to 25 pounds occasionally. 
• Ability to spend extended periods on your feet, walking, standing, crouching, and climbing stairs (potentially in inclement weather conditions). 
• Limited exposure to allergens and zoonotic diseases. 
• May involves smells associated with animals and the care of animals. 

Position Type, Expected Hours of Work, and Travel: 

• This is a full-time, onsite position. 
• Days and hours of work may vary according to the needs of The Marine Mammal Center. 
• Evening, weekend, and holiday work may be required as job duties demand. 
• Travel within California, the Hawaiian Islands, and other national travel may be expected for this position.