Consultant Donor Care Specialist (12 months, home-based, remotely), Individual Giving, Division of Private Fundraising and Partnerships (PFP)

The PFP Individual Giving (IG) team based in Geneva secures donations and donors from countries that don’t have an existing fundraising infrastructure. IG is also a lead participant in the Supporter Engagement Strategy (SES), which aims to increase the global acquisition and engagement of UNICEF’s diverse supporter base, including donors, advocates, and volunteers. A key part of the strategy is to replace the incumbent CRM systems currently in place in 21 country offices with Salesforce based technology. This means that in IG we have donors who need direct support, and we have countries who we want to enable to have strong donor care. The change of CRMs gives us a unique opportunity to deliver this enablement.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, hope

The PFP Individual Giving (IG) team based in Geneva secures donations and donors from countries that don’t have an existing fundraising infrastructure. IG is also a lead participant in the Supporter Engagement Strategy (SES), which aims to increase the global acquisition and engagement of UNICEF’s diverse supporter base, including donors, advocates, and volunteers. A key part of the strategy is to replace the incumbent CRM systems currently in place in 21 country offices with Salesforce based technology. This means that in IG we have donors who need direct support, and we have countries who we want to enable to have strong donor care. The change of CRMs gives us a unique opportunity to deliver this enablement.

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

1.  Firstly, the role will support and influence the development of an improved donor experience for donors who are recruited and retained by the IG team. This set of donors are drawn from 15+ Virtual Hub countries and require a thoughtful, hyper-personalized and audience-centric approach to donor care. Using the HQ instance of Salesforce, the role holder should be able to deploy the new functionality to improve the donor experience and use this delivery for the second aspect of the role.

2.   Secondly, the role will provide support to IG and SES on how to develop excellent donor care and support global markets with best practices, evidence and learnings to scale their donor-lifecycle program.

There is existing expertise in the team across many channels, but this role will excel on addressing how to implement the donor care within Salesforce and use the HQ instance as an opportunity to test, capture and replicate best practice.

How can you make a difference? 

SCOPE OF WORK:

• Effectively respond to all enquiries, interactions and complaints received about UNICEF’s donations, upgrades, cancellations, receipts and fundraising activities, via the following contact channels – email, web, social media, and potentially live chat.
• Take full ownership and deliver 100% donor satisfaction, swift query resolution as per agreed upon SLAs, and maintain supporter database records, ensuring all data entered is administered accurately and donor payment follow ups are updated in Stripe, Salesforce and other linked technologies.
• Bring supporters closer to our work for children by answering donations and fundraising queries.
• Work with the teams engaged on SES and digital fundraising to ensure donor care is well supported by the Salesforce instance in HQ.
• Work with SES team to update the implementation on Salesforce in HQ to develop an audience-centric approach to donor care, modernizing the approach to support scaling of donor lifecycle marketing.
• Support HQ campaigns, planned and emergency, reporting to the team on donor feedback, surveys and interactions and use learnings to further improve end to end donor communication from acquisition to retention.
• Apply the UNICEF tone and voice of neutrality and inclusion, ensuring every response is dignified.

Knowledge, Insight and Recommendation:

• Usage of internal knowledge, to ensure accurate representation and response to inquiries.
• Record supporter feedback (both positive and negative) and offer this to internal colleagues to improve future and ongoing fundraising products and services.
• Work with internal colleagues to source information for the use of responding to supporter inquiries, tailoring these messages to suit the needs of individual supporters.
• Represent the team at cross-collaborative meetings to ensure the donor and supporter’s voice is heard, sharing feedback gathered through direct support interactions.
• Share and contribute to wider communication messages, email campaigns, salesforce donor journeys, Paid media campaigns, to ensure that UNICEF supporters are at the forefront of our work for children and that messages are supporter-friendly.
• Analyze and recommend steps to improve donor-centric communication at email, campaign, content, traffic source and audience level.
• Stay up to date with charity-related legislations and ensure all donor care activities comply with international and regional law, regulations and codes of practice.

Support global markets with best practices, insights and learnings to help improve donor lifetime value:

• Act as one of the subject matter experts within IG, working within project teams to deliver expertise on donor care and donor centric communication within retention.
• Improve lifetime value, retention rate, donor satisfaction and long-term relationship with donors across Virtual Hub markets, using Salesforce HQ instance.
• Support and influence the SES project team on how excellence in donor care can be delivered through adoption and good use of the new CRM systems.
• Work with the SES team to give design feedback, through the Digital Delivery team in IG, on how the donor care interface can be optimized to ensure efficient, personalized donor experiences.
• Advocate for needs of the donor in IG strategies, and then advocate for those strategies with countries during implementation.

WORK ASSIGNMENTS OVERVIEW:

• Provide monthly reporting on the interactions with donors, highlighting areas for development to move towards more effective approaches to donor care.
• Improved donor retention through saving donors from cancellation and improve value maximization (upgrade/downgrade).
• Provide a daily point of contact for donor requests, dealing with them in line with donor expectations.
• Deliver reporting on the potential for higher-value donors and agree to an action plan in coordination with the email specialist.
• Provide design feedback to upgrade Salesforce implementation, ensuring it is delivered in a timely matter and improves business outcomes.
• Work with HQ donor project team to identify and plan improvements in all aspects of HQ donor care.
• In coordination with SES project team, produce guidance and documentation (informed by existing market experience) on the implementation.

DELIVERABLES:

Deliverable 1 by 18 October 2024 (Donor care specialist in market 1):

Expected outputs:

1. Respond to inbound donor queries: must include donor records, SLAs, resolution, reports, and tangible KPI achievement based on data and insights.
2. Donor engagement plan: must include email campaign structure, audience, creative split, optimization tactics and performance reports.
3. Recommendations: must include the proposed tests and changes to be conducted on either stage of the donor life cycle.

Deliverable 2 by 18 November 2024 (Donor care specialist in market 2): 

Expected outputs: 

1. Respond to inbound donor queries: must include donor records, SLAs, resolution, reports, and tangible KPI achievement based on data and insights.
2. Donor engagement plan: must include email campaign structure, audience, creative split, optimization tactics and performance reports.
3. Recommendations: must include the proposed tests and changes to be conducted on either stage of the donor life cycle.

Deliverable 3 by 18 December 2024 (Donor care specialist in market 3):

Expected outputs: 

1. Respond to inbound donor queries: must include donor records, SLAs, resolution, reports, and tangible KPI achievement based on data and insights.
2. Donor engagement plan: must include email campaign structure, audience, creative split, optimization tactics and performance reports.
3. Recommendations: must include the proposed tests and changes to be conducted on either stage of the donor life cycle.

Deliverable 4 by 18 January 2025 (Donor care specialist in market 4): 

Expected outputs

1. Respond to inbound donor queries: must include donor records, SLAs, resolution, reports, and tangible KPI achievement based on data and insights.
2. Donor engagement plan: must include email campaign structure, audience, creative split, optimization tactics and performance reports.
3. Recommendations: must include the proposed tests and changes to be conducted on either stage of the donor life cycle.

Deliverable 5 by 18 February 2025 (Donor care specialist in market 5):

Expected outputs

1. Respond to inbound donor queries: must include donor records, SLAs, resolution, reports, and tangible KPI achievement based on data and insights.
2. Donor engagement plan: must include email campaign structure, audience, creative split, optimization tactics and performance reports.
3. Recommendations: must include the proposed tests and changes to be conducted on either stage of the donor life cycle.

Deliverable 6 by 18 March 2025 (Donor care specialist in market 6):

Expected outputs

1. Respond to inbound donor queries: must include donor records, SLAs, resolution, reports, and tangible KPI achievement based on data and insights.
2. Donor engagement plan: must include email campaign structure, audience, creative split, optimization tactics and performance reports.
3. Recommendations: must include the proposed tests and changes to be conducted on either stage of the donor life cycle.

Deliverable 7 by 18 April 2025 (Donor care specialist in market 7):

Expected outputs

1. Respond to inbound donor queries: must include donor records, SLAs, resolution, reports, and tangible KPI achievement based on data and insights.
2. Donor engagement plan: must include email campaign structure, audience, creative split, optimization tactics and performance reports.
3. Recommendations: must include the proposed tests and changes to be conducted on either stage of the donor life cycle.

Deliverable 8 by 18 May 2025 (Donor care specialist in market 8):

Expected outputs

1. Respond to inbound donor queries: must include donor records, SLAs, resolution, reports, and tangible KPI achievement based on data and insights.
2. Donor engagement plan: must include email campaign structure, audience, creative split, optimization tactics and performance reports.
3. Recommendations: must include the proposed tests and changes to be conducted on either stage of the donor life cycle.

Deliverable 9 by 18 June 2025 (Donor care specialist in market 9):

Expected outputs

1. Respond to inbound donor queries: must include donor records, SLAs, resolution, reports, and tangible KPI achievement based on data and insights.
2. Donor engagement plan: must include email campaign structure, audience, creative split, optimization tactics and performance reports.
3. Recommendations: must include the proposed tests and changes to be conducted on either stage of the donor life cycle.

Deliverable 10 by 18 July 2025 (Donor care specialist in market 10):

Expected outputs

1. Respond to inbound donor queries: must include donor records, SLAs, resolution, reports, and tangible KPI achievement based on data and insights.
2. Donor engagement plan: must include email campaign structure, audience, creative split, optimization tactics and performance reports.
3. Recommendations: must include the proposed tests and changes to be conducted on either stage of the donor life cycle.

Deliverable 11 by 18 August 2025 (Donor care specialist in market 11):

Expected results

1. Respond to inbound donor queries: must include donor records, SLAs, resolution, reports, and tangible KPI achievement based on data and insights.
2. Donor engagement plan: must include email campaign structure, audience, creative split, optimization tactics and performance reports.
3. Recommendations: must include the proposed tests and changes to be conducted on either stage of the donor life cycle.

Deliverable 12 by 17 September 2025 (Donor care specialist in market 12)

Expected results

1. Respond to inbound donor queries: must include donor records, SLAs, resolution, reports, and tangible KPI achievement based on data and insights.
2. Donor engagement plan: must include email campaign structure, audience, creative split, optimization tactics and performance reports.
3. Recommendations: must include the proposed tests and changes to be conducted on either stage of the donor life cycle.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Education:

• A first-level university degree (bachelor’s degree or higher) in digital marketing, communications, journalism, social science or a related field is required.

Experience:

• A minimum of 3 years of relevant professional experience in marketing, customer service, and fundraising specialist is required.
• Technical knowledge of how to carry out private sector fundraising or business-to-consumer, donor/customer retention and development is required.
• Strong copywriting, editing and copy evaluation skills to help draft donor retention communications, is required.
• Experience in the day-to-day coordination of multiple projects is an asset.
• Ability to conduct research and identify relevant content for the development of engaging donor/customer communications is desirable.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills are desirable.

Language:

• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language is considered as an asset.

Work samples: 

• The application should include a short cover letter and a portfolio of sample work (portfolio of work). Sample works can include donor care, donor insights, and email journeys. At least 2 samples must be provided. Applications submitted without at least 2 samples of work will not be considered. (to be uploaded online).

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

The application should include a short cover letter and a portfolio of sample work (portfolio of work). Sample works can include donor care, donor insights, and email journeys. At least 2 samples must be provided. Applications submitted without at least 2 samples of work will not be considered (to be uploaded online).

Please indicate your all-inclusive (lump-sum) fees in USD against the deliverable listed above.  If there is a need for business travel, the travel costs will be covered by UNICEF separately.  The office selects the individual based on best value for money.

Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant. 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.

For every Child, you demonstrate… 

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS). 

To view our competency framework, please visit  here. 

 UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment. 

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.