About the Center for Disaster Philanthropy

CDP began in 2010 with the goal of pioneering the practice of strategic disaster philanthropy. Since then, it has grown in its ambition, envisioning a world where the impact of disasters is minimized through thoughtful, equitable and responsible recovery for all. CDP has a $40 million budget and a team of more than 30 staff members working remotely across the U.S.

CDP is a trusted partner, expert and authoritative resource helping hundreds of individuals, foundations and corporations boost the impact of philanthropic giving in response to disasters and humanitarian crises by supporting equitable recovery and addressing root causes of vulnerabilities worldwide.

In 2024, CDP awarded approximately $16 million through 78 grants to grantee partners worldwide, demonstrated thought leadership through webinars, blog posts, featured speaking engagements, and other events, and served 20+ philanthropic partners through consulting efforts. In 2020, CDP was a featured nonprofit for the 14th Annual CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute. CDP has earned Charity Navigator’s Four-Star Charity rating, Candid’s Platinum Transparency seal and is a Better Business Bureau Accredited Charity.

We have a culture of philanthropy. Your colleagues embrace and support CDP’s development work, even if they do not sit within the development team. The CEO is an excellent and experienced fundraiser eager to engage with donors.

As an organization grounded in racial and intersectional equity, our team members are deeply committed to strengthening communities most vulnerable to disasters because of systemic inequities. We are guided by our values of integrity, boldness and innovation, humility, and empathy in all that we do in pursuit of our mission.

Bottom line: We aspire to walk the talk of anti-racism and treat each other and our partners in ways that inspire trust, creativity, learning and care.

Be a part of our fast-growing team that offers countless ways to help communities thrive. Join us!

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Responsibilities & Duties

Over the last few years of CDP’s 15-year history, growth has been exponential. CDP has consistently raised revenue to support CDP’s mission, its strategy, education and innovation programs, and its disaster funds. In 2024, CDP raised more than $43 million to help mobilize philanthropy to support equitable disaster recovery. CDP has built its strategic reserves in each of the past five years, building its organizational savings to more than $20 million. CDP’s positioning and increased visibility bring a need for increased revenue to support CDP’s mission, strategic plan and growth.

Reporting to the senior director of development, the director of donor engagement will play a critical role in supporting CDP’s mission and donors. This is a key leadership role at CDP, responsible for cultivating and stewarding relationships with current and prospective donors, ensuring a best-in-class donor experience.

This position focuses on building strong, long-term relationships through personalized engagement, proactive communication and demonstrating the impact of donor contributions. The director will develop and lead the implementation of comprehensive donor engagement strategies that prioritize attentiveness, recognition and meaningful connections, ultimately increasing philanthropic support for CDP’s mission. We envision this to be different from traditional donor relations or stewardship positions because it has a greater donor-facing component and will help provide concierge-level engagement for major donors.

This position will be essential in realizing the development team’s core goals of:

• Increasing revenue to fund CDP’s mission
• Building and maintaining strong donor relationships with attentiveness to donor relations
• Expanding the donor base
• Ensuring operational efficiency and accuracy

As a fully remote workforce, CDP prioritizes employee engagement and relationship-building in service of a collaborative culture rooted in equity. To this end, in-person team retreats are scheduled throughout the year in different regions of the U.S. This role will be expected to attend 2-3 retreats per year, which average 3-5 days of travel each. This role will also require travel to donor engagement events, conferences and other convenings.

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The successful candidate will display the following traits:

You are a donor advocate who is an energetic, persuasive, collaborative thinker and executor of new and existing plans and projects. You understand the donor lifecycle of identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship, and you continue to seek growth in trends and best practices in donor engagement and donor relations.

You excel at connecting with people from diverse backgrounds and building genuine relationships. You exhibit empathy and active listening skills to help identify and understand donor motivations and needs.

You think strategically to make sense of complex problems, and you can adapt ideas and communicate with a wide variety of potential donor audiences.

You are comfortable analyzing data to track donor engagement metrics, identifying trends and measuring the effectiveness of CDP’s fundraising efforts. Having the ability to understand donor behavior through data is vital. You are an excellent project manager with high-level strategic skills to improve CDP donor relationships with clarity and ambition.

You are a servant leader who fosters an open and highly equitable environment for colleagues and direct reports. As a member of the development team, you communicate effectively with members of the team and other internal and external stakeholders, conveying your ideas and proposals in a way that is easy to understand and inspires action. You are a consummate and curious professional, assertive without being domineering, and can execute with excellence on discrete and ongoing deliverables.

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Primary responsibilities include:

Improve the CDP donor experience to foster increased support

• Develop and implement donor engagement strategies: Create and execute a comprehensive, multi-faceted donor engagement action plan that prioritizes personalized engagement, impact reporting and consistent communication. This includes developing tailored cultivation, stewardship and recognition strategies for donor segments and personas. This will complement CDP’s strategic and development plans.
• Cultivate and steward donor relationships: Support strong relationships with existing and prospective donors through custom communication, including phone calls, written correspondence, virtual meetings and in-person events (when appropriate). Actively listen to donors’ interests and motivations and connect them with relevant CDP programs, initiatives and impact stories.
• Enhance the donor experience: Continuously evaluate and improve the donor experience across all touchpoints, from initial contact to ongoing engagement. Develop and implement strategies to ensure donors feel valued, informed and connected to CDP’s mission and impact. This includes creating personalized impact reports, recognition materials and exclusive engagement opportunities.
• Oversee donor communications collaboration: Work across CDP teams to develop compelling content showcasing donor contributions’ impact and effectively communicating CDP’s mission and programs. Ensure consistent and timely communication with donors through various channels, including email, newsletters, website updates, social media and direct mail.
• Manage donor recognition programs: Develop and implement meaningful donor recognition programs that acknowledge and celebrate donor contributions.
• Collaborate with the development team: Work closely with the development team to identify prospective donors, develop fundraising proposals, and coordinate donor cultivation and stewardship activities.
• Work with the senior director of development to identify trends and track donor engagement metrics within the development strategy and against CDP’s strategic plan.

Leadership and collaboration

• Partner with the director of development operations and other staff to provide executive team members with refined information before donor and prospect engagements to support a professional, personalized approach to these constituents.
• Collaborate with the executive team to develop and implement a comprehensive donor engagement strategy aligned with the organization’s mission and goals.
• Partner with the director of development operations, director of innovation & special projects, and other CDP staff to integrate best practices for donor engagement into CDP’s work while fostering collaboration and coordination with other CDP teams.
• Engage with finance and development operations to ensure gift-processing, acknowledgments and reporting are accurate and timely, enhancing the donor’s experience.
• Lead and mentor the donor engagement team, fostering a culture of high performance, collaboration, and innovation.
• Set clear goals, monitor progress and provide regular feedback to team members.

Other duties as assigned

• Serve on committees, panels and task forces at CDP as appropriate and as available.
• Remain knowledgeable about the priorities of the organization and the development team, the strategic plan and the field of disaster philanthropy.
• Collaborate effectively with colleagues across the organization.
• Perform other duties and job-related tasks that may be assigned.

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Required qualifications and skills

• ≥ 10 years of relevant, progressive professional experience in creating and executing donor engagement strategies for varied audiences.
• Bachelor’s in a related field or equivalent work experience.
• Proven, measurable impact record of increasing donor engagement across segments with increased funding diversification, particularly for unrestricted support.
• Demonstrated ability to grasp audience behavior and analyze data to incorporate that feedback to adjust and align fundraising messaging, and drive deeper audience engagement.
• Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills across a variety of communication channels.
• Experience managing multiple concurrent campaigns across a variety of current and potential sources of support.
• Proven ability to work remotely with minimal direct supervision, including managing multiple tasks and projects simultaneously and within a dispersed team.
• Demonstrated proficiency with project management skills.

Preferred knowledge, abilities and skills

• Experience with corporate and family philanthropy, ultra-high-net-worth individuals, and wealth advisors in a donor environment.
• Understanding of the disaster recovery and philanthropic landscape and current environmental, social and governance (ESG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards and trends.
• Excellent analytical and critical thinking with precise attention to detail and a strong sense of personal responsibility for work.
• Strong experience and skills with Blackbaud NXT, including reporting, data management and donor tracking.

Personal characteristics

• Commitment to the values intrinsic to CDP’s mission and strategy.
• Energetic and eager to tackle new projects and ideas.
• Empathetic, active listener.
• Mission-driven team player with an entrepreneurial spirit and a sense of humor.

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Salary range:

$108,000 – $121,500

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Location

Flexible (remote); Must be located and eligible to work in the U.S.

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We welcome and encourage applicants with non-traditional career paths. If you don’t meet the qualifications outlined here, please apply and tell us how your experiences would equip you for the job.

CDP provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

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To apply

Qualified candidates should submit their resume and a cover letter Applications must highlight competencies against requirements.

All applicants must be able to provide documentation that they are legally eligible to work in the United States for an extended period.

Due to the expected volume of applications, only finalists will be notified. No phone calls, please.