Director, Donor Services

Job Summary

Nashville Rescue Mission is seeking a Director of Donor Services to lead a donor-centered, relational, calm, empathetic, highly responsive, and process-oriented Donor Services department. The position reports directly to the Vice President of Development & Marketing.

About the Role

This role will oversee daily operations and management of donor services, data hygiene, gift processing and receipting, reporting and analytics, stewardship, and consistent adherence to established procedures. The Director will set the "Culture of Honor" tone for donor interactions by modeling a steady, gracious, responsive, and highly professional demeanor in all dealings with donors, the public, and internal team members.

Responsibilities

• Hires, trains, supervises, and evaluates Donor Services staff;
• Facilitates CRM standard operating procedure training for end-users;
• Follows, reinforces, and holds the Donor Services team accountable to established procedures, internal controls, documentation standards, and deadlines for daily gift processing, receipting, weekly reconciliation, reporting and month-end close;
• Serves as liaison between Development, Marketing, and Finance department staff on gift batching, posting, reconciliation, and related operations to ensure accurate and comprehensive data flow;
• Provides information needed for the preparation of tax filings, audits, accreditations, and related financial requirements;
• Manages relationships with outsourced vendors responsible for constituent records, gift processing, solicitations, and related donor communications;
• Participates in the departmental portfolio compositions and actions among gift officers;
• Proactively manages alerts and other tools to keep gift officers apprised of activities of assigned donors and responds quickly to donor- or team-related information needs that support timely stewardship and follow-up;
• Supports the team with data analysis and preparation of mailing lists for stewardship and event related activities (Ex: Christmas cards, donor appreciation events);
• Organizes any lists/tasks related to stewardship of donors by Board, CEO, team, and volunteers;
• Participates with Development and Marketing team members in staffing special events as needed with occasional availability on evenings or weekends;
• Establishes donor-centric culture for department, demonstrating radical gratitude for the Mission’s supporters by carefully designating gifts as directed by the donors;
• Designs and executes protocols for stewarding donors and their gifts, including gift processing, receipting, acknowledging, thanking, and inspiring, to engender engagement and retention;
• Devises and implements a comprehensive system for segmentation of receipt messages (i.e., acknowledgments), regularly updated to enhance the donor experience;
• Prioritizes and facilitates donor inquiries and requests with timely, thoughtful follow-up;
• Assigns next steps to the appropriate Donor Services team member, Development team member, or other staff as needed and monitors completion to ensure donors and internal partners receive prompt, accurate responses;
• Facilitates donor recognition programs, including tracking for giving societies, peer-to-peer programs, Partners of Hope recurring programs, and/or planned giving programs;
• Stewards a portfolio of donors with capacity to give mid-major or planned gifts to the Mission;
• Establishes, documents, maintains, and enforces donor-centered processes and protocols for using the CRM, including data integrity and entry, configurations, global adds/changes, quality control, and team compliance, in collaboration with the Database & IT Administrator as needed;
• Oversees processing of donations and recording/tracking of pledges and a system for pledge reminders;
• Collaborates with the Finance and Operations team to facilitate the processing and recording of non-cash (in-kind) assets, as well as other income;
• Ensures consistent adherence to IRS and State regulations, standards of internal policies and ECFA, approved gift accounting procedures, receipting protocols, reporting requirements, and industry best practices;
• Provides efficiency and effectiveness in providing accurate and timely gift receipts (generated within 48 hours upon receipt of gift);
• Develops and maintains protocols to ensure donor confidentiality and security of database records and related documents;
• Regularly reviews daily, weekly, and month-end processes to confirm procedures are being followed, exceptions are documented and resolved, and improvements are implemented without compromising accuracy, controls, or donor experience;
• Leverages functions of Virtuous CRM and spreadsheet tools to produce, analyze, reconcile, and maintain a suite of reports, dashboards, and other measurements that provide insights into performance, trends, funds raised, and constituency participation;
• Builds queries and generates lists, segmentations, and reports as requested for internal planning/operations, grants writing/reporting, and executive updates;
• Works collaboratively with Database & IT Administrator to provide data analysis for fundraising and communications strategies;
• Uses strong analytical, numerical, and spreadsheet proficiency skills to review data, identify trends or discrepancies, support reconciliations, and translate information into clear reports and actionable insights;
• Assists as needed with prospect and donor research activities to identify likely contributors (current or planned giving) as leads for further qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college/university in communications, marketing, public relations, or related discipline required;
• Five to seven years of nonprofit experience, including similar duties with Donor Services or University Advancement Services experience;
• Experience successfully supervising others and building collaborative teams;
• Calm, empathetic, professional, and affable demeanor; strong problem-solving, resourcefulness, flexibility to manage multiple tasks and pivot as needed, sound judgment, discretion, process discipline, and systems-thinking to translate strategies and goals into practical, repeatable processes and procedures;
• Demonstrates a strong knowledge of CRMs and wealth-screening software;
• Good letter writing, ability to research on the internet, professional phone and communication skills are essential to this job;
• Polished and professional over the phone, able to listen and respond with kindness;
• Ability to qualify as a designated Mission vehicle driver under NRM insurance policy: Valid driver’s license, have no more than two moving violations in a 3-year period or more than one accident in a 1-year period, proof of insurance on personal vehicle (current).