Growth Manager, Paid Media

About the role

Individual Giving has set an objective to double new donor acquisition in 2027 and expand awareness through brand ads for key segments. Paid media is the biggest lever to achieve this, and as Growth Manager, Paid Media, you'll own delivery of this priority. GiveDirectly is planning to expand its spend on paid media and seeks someone who is a strong cultural fit—curious, keen not to follow industry standards but to look for disproportionately high-leverage opportunities, keen to constantly learn and adjust, and comfortable launching a paid program without agency support. This role suits someone comfortable in a fast-paced environment, able to pivot and change tactics based on data and changing circumstances.

Reporting to the Director of Individual Giving, you'll manage all paid acquisition for Individual Giving across Meta, Google, YouTube, and TikTok, and work closely with the VP of Marketing to manage all upper-funnel media buys (e.g., newsletters, podcasts, etc.) for both the Individual Giving and Marketing teams. This role is responsible for executing the paid media program end to end, including negotiating and managing contracts, creating ads, capturing screenshots for documentation, publishing campaigns, and monitoring performance. You will also build tracking and attribution systems and use that data to grow both one-time and monthly giving. The role requires a strong individual contributor comfortable executing within platforms without a big team or agency.

The Individual Giving team generates revenue across donors with an annual gift below $50k, executing compelling public fundraising campaigns, driving creative donor-facing content, and testing new marketing initiatives aimed at expanding the donor base and raising awareness of direct cash transfers. You'll join a small but high-performing team that runs several campaigns at once and works with a lot of independence, partnering with Brand and Marketing colleagues each campaign cycle to ensure integrated marketing across all public-facing materials.

Level: Manager (willing to hire at Senior Manager for more experienced candidates)
Reports to: Director of Individual Giving
Travel requirement: Must be able to travel ~1–2 times per year to one of our countries of operation for team retreats or field visits

Responsibilities

Own paid media strategy and performance to execute growth and brand goals

• Develop and execute the paid digital fundraising strategy that acquires new donors, grows revenue, and strengthens long-term supporter value across Meta, Google, YouTube, TikTok, programmatic, and emerging platforms (approx. 50% of time).
• Run top-of-funnel brand ads, from placement and contracting to creative direction and development, including podcasts, OOH, and connected TV (approx. 30% of time).
• Manage and optimize paid investment daily, monitoring spend, pacing, cost per acquisition, and conversion, and reallocating budget as performance dictates.
• Run a continuous test-and-learn program across audiences, creative messaging, channels, landing pages, and donation experiences, and turn results into decisions rather than reports.
• Make key and strategic recommendations to the Director of Individual Giving and VP of Marketing on where budget spend should be allocated based on performance data.

Grow one-time and monthly giving through paid

• Run acquisition and conversion campaigns for both one-time and monthly giving, testing paid tactics to grow the recurring program—the fastest-growing part of our portfolio.
• Optimize the digital supporter journey so paid campaigns connect cleanly to landing pages, donation forms, email, and CRM, maximizing conversion and retention.
• Analyze acquisition, conversion, revenue, and retention trends by segment to inform where the next dollar goes.

Measurement & Reporting

• Stand up standardized paid-channel attribution and UTM tracking so acquisition spend is evaluable outside the ad platforms.
• Build and maintain performance dashboards that connect campaign, website, and CRM data into a single view of what each channel returns.
• Develop a forecasting model that projects cost per acquisition and revenue by channel, so budget increases are decisions rather than bets.
• Report to senior management on budget and paid campaign performance on a bi-weekly basis.

Requirements

• 3–5+ years in growth or performance marketing with a proven track record running paid media to a conversion or revenue target, in-house or agency, across Meta, Google, YouTube, and emerging platforms.
• Experience managing a paid media budget of at least US$5M a year with a track record of strong performance measurement, with the discipline to trust your own data over platform recommendations and the judgment to know when to scale a channel, cut it, or admit it isn't working—pause and reset.
• A genuine test-and-learn habit: you design multivariable testing across creative, audience, messaging, and landing pages, using these insights to scale the program.
• Strong written communication, the ability to own creative direction of ads (from conception and drafting through launch), and experience with or a strong eye for graphic design (Figma, Canva). You'll work with content creation teams for bigger projects, but initial ideation and direction should come from you.
• Strong, succinct communication, and the ability to work productively with a Brand and Marketing team focused on brand awareness.
• Alignment with GiveDirectly's values and active demonstration of core competencies: emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity.
• Experience with tracking and attribution to ensure detailed reports are shared with senior management.

Bonus skills

• Experience with our tech stack (WordPress, Salesforce, PostHog, Google Analytics, Tableau, Zendesk, Ahrefs) or similar tools.
• Experience with paid ads with a non-profit of a similar size or an agency supporting non-profits.

This role might not be for you if:

• You are used to relying on an agency for recommendations or ad builds in the platforms themselves.
• You do not have experience/familiarity with both upper-funnel and direct conversion paid advertising.
• You are not comfortable managing projects from A–Z, including ideation, planning, launching, testing, iterating, and evaluating.

Success metrics

In 12–18 months:

• A clear, measurable contribution to the 2027 goal of doubling new donor acquisition, with a 50–70% share of new monthly donors acquired through paid.
• The Google Ad Grant is fully deployed against upper-funnel objectives, in compliance, and contributing measurable qualified traffic.
• A documented acquisition model forecasts cost per acquisition and revenue by channel accurately enough to justify a materially larger paid budget.

Compensation

GiveDirectly uses an accredited third-party salary aggregator to calculate competitive pay based on role, location, and cost of living, with a no-negotiation policy to ensure equitable pay across roles. The benefits stipend may be used to cover benefits or taken as additional taxable income. For candidates not based in Kenya, the US, or the UK, an estimated salary benchmark for the country of residence will be shared during the hiring process.

• United States: Base Salary $99,940; Bonus at Target Performance 10%; Annual Benefits Stipend $21,393
• United Kingdom: Base Salary £66,150; Bonus at Target Performance 10%; Annual Benefits Stipend £2,760
• Kenya: Base Salary $65,000; Bonus at Target Performance 10%; Annual Benefits Stipend $8,454

Location & schedule

This role is fully remote but must overlap with an East Africa timezone by at least 3 hours. GiveDirectly is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas in the U.S. or U.K. at this time. Travel of ~1–2 times per year to a country of operation is required for team retreats or field visits.