Senior Director, Philanthropy Communications (M2)

Save the Children 

For over 100 years, Save the Children has been fighting for the rights of children. The right to a healthy start in life. To have access to education. To be in a safe environment, protected from harm. We work in some of the world’s hardest-to-reach places – over 100 countries, including the U.S. No matter what your role is, when you join Save the Children, you’re creating positive, irreversible change for children, and the future we all share. 

The Role 

As the Senior Director, Philanthropy Communications you’ll be integral to our work in helping vulnerable children achieve a brighter future. You will be responsible for maximizing private sector support through the development of high-quality content that effectively positions Save the Children with high value donors across individual, corporate, and foundation donors across multiple channels. As a senior member of the Philanthropy Operations team within the Partnerships & Philanthropy division, the SDPC will oversee the team’s communications pillar, which works across fundraising, brand, marketing, communications and program teams to create accurate, timely and compelling materials for private donors and prospects. This includes assigning tasks to communications staff as needed and assessing the team’s quality of work.

The SDPC will join the team at a particularly important time as it looks to evolve its approach to philanthropy communications, emphasizing greater use of technology to tell important stories about Save the Children’s work and visually demonstrate the impact of our programs and advocacy. The SDPC must have a solid understanding of various resources in the sector (i.e. InDesign, Shorthand, Flourish) and be able to foster the team’s commitment to using these tools and strengthening the content they produce.

Location 

On site - Washington DC, Fairfield, CT or Lexington, KY office locations 

What You’ll Be Doing (Essential Duties)*

*not inclusive of all role responsibilities. May be subject to change 

Optimize private fundraising through the ongoing development of creative content for donors and prospects (40%)

• Manage editorial production calendar, setting editorial tone and style for Partnerships & Philanthropy communications, which include solicitations/proposals, program reports, email appeals, and acknowledgements as well as speech writing, editorial pieces, and other formats that bring Save the Children in front of the team’s prioritized audiences.
• Modernize donor communications, with an emphasis on identifying, testing and rolling out more effective tools that incorporate best practices for leveraging digital capabilities, videos, interactive graphs, as well as a mix of short and long content pieces.
• Assess the impact of our communications and course correct when needed.
• Maintain a detailed understanding of what our peers are doing and how Save the Children can differentiate ourselves in the current donor market.
• Provide creative oversight on content for high-level donors, ranging from prioritized program overviews, reports, journalistic pieces or others as needed.
• Collaborate with the marketing and communications team and global colleagues as needed, identifying opportunities to amplify our existing assets.

Lead content development for international/domestic emergency responses and fragile settings in partnership with the Philanthropy Operations Humanitarian Partnerships team and humanitarian colleagues (40%)

• As the communications focal point for private humanitarian fundraising, assess media coverage and private fundraising viability at emergency onset and develop a compelling communications plan for private donors.
• Ensure fundraisers have the essential tools and resources to initiate fundraising activities with their respective constituencies (foundations, corporate and high-net worth individuals). This includes preparing/customizing talking points, crisis briefings, and social media messaging drawn from information on sitreps and working group meetings.
• Identify humanitarian content asset gaps and keep knowledge management systems updated.
• Work with new business and existing account managers to develop custom and compelling humanitarian proposals for high level funding opportunities.

Manage the Philanthropy Operations team’s Communications Pillar (20%)

• Oversee a team of communication staff and ensure appropriate staff are assigned to priority communications project to support private fundraising efforts.