Managing Director, Direct Response Fundraising

Regular Full-Timeexecutive

ExecutiveChief Executive Officer

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Bachelor's degree in marketing, communications, nonprofit management, or a related field preferred, or equivalent professional experience.

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ExecutiveChief Executive Officer

The Managing Director, Direct Response serves as UNICEF USA's senior leader responsible for driving donor acquisition, retention, upgrade, and reactivation through offline direct response channels and the monthly giving program. Reporting directly to the Vice President, Donor Marketing & Journeys, this role leads UNICEF USA's direct response fundraising efforts and ensures that all offline campaigns, channel investments, vendor partnerships, and giving programs are strategically deployed, rigorously measured, and continuously optimized to support broader donor growth and revenue goals.

The Managing Director provides leadership across the full offline channel mix, including direct mail and telemarketing as the team's current active channels, with an eye toward evaluating and potentially expanding into additional offline channels such as face-to-face fundraising and other emerging offline opportunities as the program grows. This role provides senior oversight of the monthly giving program, managing a dedicated Manager of Monthly Giving who will handle day-to-day program management across both traditional direct response and digital channels, ensuring a coordinated and cohesive sustainer strategy regardless of channel. Additionally, the Managing Director oversees UNICEF USA's presence on third-party giving platforms, spanning both workplace giving and employer match programs as well as consumer-facing charitable giving aggregators where donors give to nonprofits through an intermediary platform.

This role works closely with cross-functional partners across Philanthropy, Finance, Technology, and Philanthropy Insight to ensure direct response programs align with broader donor engagement strategies and organizational priorities.

The Managing Director also plays an important role in shaping UNICEF USA's direct response capabilities, helping identify new channels, vendors, and performance approaches that strengthen the organization's long-term offline growth, and in managing and mentoring a team of direct response professionals.

Set the strategic direction for UNICEF USA's offline direct response program across all active and emerging channels, including direct mail and telemarketing, with the potential to expand into face-to-face fundraising and other offline channels over time
Provide senior oversight of integrated multi-channel direct response campaigns that drive acquisition, retention, upgrade, and reactivation across mass market and leadership giving segments, with day-to-day execution managed by direct reports and vendor partners
Guide campaign planning, segmentation strategy, and testing roadmaps, ensuring the team and agency partners are aligned on priorities and working toward clear, measurable goals
Ensure channel mix decisions are informed by data, long-term donor value analysis, and a rigorous test-and-learn approach
Review and approve campaign strategies, creative briefs, and performance recommendations brought forward by the team and agency partners, providing strategic guidance and direction rather than driving execution directly

Serve as the primary relationship lead for all direct response agency partners and vendors, including direct mail agencies, telemarketing vendors, and fulfillment partners
Establish performance benchmarks and accountability frameworks for all vendor relationships, ensuring partners are delivering against agreed targets and continuously improving
Lead regular performance reviews and planning sessions with vendor partners and internal stakeholders
Manage vendor contracts, SOWs, and budget allocations in partnership with Finance and Legal

Provide senior oversight of UNICEF USA's monthly giving program, managing a dedicated Manager of Monthly Giving responsible for day-to-day program management across direct response and digital channels
Set strategic direction for sustainer acquisition, upgrade, retention, save, and reactivation efforts, ensuring the program is coordinated and cohesive across all touchpoints
Set and track KPIs for monthly giving program health, including retention rate, average gift, and net sustainer growth

Manage and mentor a team of direct response professionals, providing day-to-day direction, support, and accountability
Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, continuous learning, and data-driven decision making across the direct response team
Invest in the professional development and growth of team members, helping them build skills and advance their careers over time

Translate business goals into actionable campaign and channel strategies with measurable outcomes tied to revenue, donor file growth, retention, and long-term donor value
Lead test-and-learn strategy across all direct response channels, applying rigorous testing methodologies to continuously optimize channel mix, messaging, offer strategy, and segmentation
Develop and own channel-level dashboards and performance reports in collaboration with Philanthropy Insight and Technology
Utilize advanced segmentation and data modeling to identify the highest-potential audiences for each channel and optimize investment allocation accordingly

Establish scalable processes for campaign planning, briefing, production trafficking, quality assurance, and reporting across all direct response channels
Improve planning cadence and cross-team collaboration across Philanthropy, Finance, Technology, and agency partners
Strengthen operational clarity around campaign development, performance monitoring, and optimization cycles
Work closely with the Managing Director, Digital Fundraising and the VP, Donor Marketing & Journeys to ensure offline and online channels are coordinated, sequenced appropriately, and working together toward shared revenue goals

Other duties as assigned.