Associate Director

The Audacious Project seeks an Associate Director for the Donor Community team - a new and dynamic role that will bring best-in-class stakeholder management and communication skills to nurture a growing and vibrant donor community.

The candidate will craft bespoke year-round communications geared to our active donors, maintaining a clear line of sight into their areas of energy and interest - as well as maintain an informational hub to house up to the minute changes on donors’ funding portfolios and engagement preferences. The candidate will also skillfully curate and support in-person and virtual events, like our annual 2.5 day flagship retreat, that acts as the primary catalyst for funding the Audacious grantee portfolio.

While this position has an option to be fully remote, TED’s headquarters are in New York City, and there is a strong preference for this position to be based in NYC.

Community Building

• Support a growing community of ~50 active donors by managing key communications (e.g. targeted engagement campaigns.) For some donors, Audacious will be their key or major philanthropic vehicle, and for others, the platform will supplement existing giving strategies.
• Help foster a sense of community among the active donors through strategic in-person and virtual engagement and events - including Audacious’ annual flagship retreat.

Relationship Management

• Create and deploy a cadence of confidential, bespoke, and precise updates year-round that center donor motivations and preferences.
• Ensure donors (and their teams) are regularly updated on the annual Audacious cycle; using extensive stakeholder management expertise, intuition and skills to engage the donors in the fast-pace and dynamism of the cycle.
• Handle sensitive and confidential information with utmost discretion and honor privacy and engagement preferences with incredible care and precision.

Information Management

• Leverage tools like the Audacious CRM (powered by Salesforce) to track relationship management details (contacts, key meetings, phone calls, e-mails) to ensure quick and easy accessibility for cross-vertical stakeholders; as well as support an internal donor-facing portal to share impact stories, build community and foster connections.

Key Stakeholders

• While the focus of this role is external, cultivating our active donor community, there are several internal stakeholders with whom this role will work with closely including:
  • Managing Director and Associate in the Donor Community vertical
  • Portfolio Impact vertical, supporting our active donors and/or their teams in understanding the current status and impact of projects in their funding portfolio
  • Discovery & Insight vertical, ensuring our active donors have ample insight and opportunity to input into the project sourcing and diligence process
  • TED’s events team, supporting the planning and logistics of our in-person donor events, including the annual flagship donor retreat

Values

• Fostering and cultivating community
• Handling sensitive information with discretion
• Being acutely aware of power dynamics in philanthropy and eager to serve as a bridge and buffer in support of optimal relationships between our Audacious grantees and donors.

Requirements

• 7-10+ years of experience in donor relations and community building
• Proven track record in UHNWI event management; dinners, conferences, high-touch experiences.
• Self-starter. Can move full bodies of work forward with minimal oversight and instruction, someone who thrives in a dynamic and fast-paced environment — whilst also aware and understanding of when to bring in leadership for input or elevated decision making
• Strong writer with eye for detail, and a concise and compelling communication style
• Proactive, responsive and thoughtful communicator, with high EQ
• Salesforce or relevant CRM experience a plus
• Nuanced and highly sophisticated understanding of donor privacy and confidentiality