Donor Relations Coordinator

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Donor relations is the comprehensive effort of any nonprofit that seeks philanthropic support to ensure that donors experience high-quality interactions with the organization that fosters long-term engagement and investment.

The Donor Relations Coordinator will work to communicate the mission and work of NOVA Pets Alive in an engaging, passionate and professional manner. This volunteer position will focus on cultivating, advancing and promoting long-term relationships with donors. S/he will bring a passion for the work of NOVA Pets Alive to speaking engagements at outreach events and other public settings. The Donor Relations Coordinator is responsible for initiating, maintaining and growing individual support as well as achieving fundraising goals. Job responsibilities include:

• Actively manage a personal portfolio of prospects and donors, including identifying and cultivating new potential supporters and enhancing relationships with the existing donors.
• Conduct confidential donor and/or prospect research for new funding sources, using approved methods and public sources of information.
• Prepare funding proposals and solicitation materials.
• Assist with the solicitation and securing of planned gifts.
• Create and execute a system for ongoing donor stewardship.
• Create, manage and promote a strong sponsorship program.
• In coordination with Director of Events, plan, coordinate, and manage cultivation and recognition events to foster interest in NPA and provide the necessary follow up with supporters.
• Help support information sharing and collaboration across all teams and help to manage operational processes around local cultivation events and other intersection points between the fundraising and programmatic teams.
• Represent NPA as a member of community events and initiatives, as applicable.
• Maintain and update records in Little Green Light and maintain telephone contacts with a variety of stakeholders.
• Perform other tasks, as necessary.
• Oversee the memorial/honor program and provide analysis for the ongoing program.
• Oversee the expansion and ongoing operation of NPA.

In addition to the above responsibilities and expectations, the Director of Donor Relations will be responsible for gift acceptance and management, acknowledgment, and donor recognition. Acknowledgment covers the protocols for and execution of accurate, timely, and meaningful expressions of gratitude.

Acknowledgment is a private action directed by the organization to the donor. It includes both gift receipting, which addresses the requirements of the Internal Revenue Service, and personalized written correspondence. It might also include emails, phone calls, and visits. In most cases, the most heartfelt and impactful acknowledgments come from those who directly benefit from a donor’s generosity. Donor recognition includes donor recognition events. This element incorporates opportunities and mechanisms for meaningful donor recognition, taking into consideration such factors as donors’ preferences (for example, anonymity and the format in which their names are presented) and institutional culture and values. Recognition is the public form of donor acknowledgment, and ranges from activities that are automatic organizational responses to giving, such as giving societies, to those that are undertaken with the involvement of the donors, as is the case with named space signage. Donor profiles in publications such as newsletters, magazines, and annual reports, as well as their online counterparts, and external publicity such as press releases, are also very public forms of recognition. Donors or their representatives should be actively involved in the preparation and review of these materials to mitigate potentially embarrassing errors or omissions.

Donor recognition events, awards, mementos and volunteer engagement opportunities are also important forms of donor recognition. They can be features of giving societies, annual funds, and campaigns, or can stand-alone as opportunities to engage and cultivate donors as they move toward their next gifts.

Events have a prominent place in the donor relations toolkit because they are an effective way to reach and foster long-term relationships with a broad spectrum of donors. As such, they are often the focal point of the work of donor relations professionals and can range from large-scale events where the objective is to create and reinforce connection, to intimate gatherings that deepen personal relationships between the organization’s leadership and its most important donors.

The final element is reporting to donors on the impact of their gifts on the mission of the organization. This involves standards, systems and methods of delivery for demonstrating fiscal accountability-prudent investment and spending in accordance with donors’ expectations-to donors, to convey ongoing appreciation, and to report on the impact of philanthropic support. Reporting falls into two broad categories: 1) qualitative, which is the storytelling that confirms to the donor that the investment was a sound one because the support is making a difference in the mission of the organization, and 2) quantitative, which verifies the carrying-out of fiduciary responsibility. Further, reporting can be included in print and online vehicles that are broadly distributed, or can be highly personalized. The latter can range from simple financial reports regarding the status of an endowed fund to comprehensive philanthropy impact reports that chronicle several decades of investment in the organization. Information technology tools are providing opportunities to "mass-customize" reports, so that each follows the same templated format but includes donor-specific data.

Apply at https://www.novapetsalive.org/volunteer