Mid-Level Donor Engagement Specialist (1 year term)

About The Wilderness Society

The Wilderness Society is a national conservation organization dedicated to protecting America’s wild places since 1935. Our mission is to unite people to protect America’s wild places. Through science, advocacy and partnerships with communities and policymakers, we champion the protection of wilderness, national parks, forests, and other public lands that provide clean air and water, wildlife habitat and the freedom to connect with nature. For more information, visit www.wilderness.org. 

Position Overview

The Midlevel Donor Engagement Specialist is a one-year term position within The Wilderness Society’s Giving & Impact department, created to increase the capacity of the Advocates for Wilderness giving program at a pivotal moment in its growth. The Advocates program includes donors giving $1,000–$24,999 annually—a segment that represents both meaningful current revenue and the primary pipeline for future major gift prospects.

Reporting to the Senior Manager, Advocate Giving & Impact, this role uses marketing and communications skills in a philanthropy context. The Specialist will help design and execute mass personalization strategies that make every Advocate feel individually recognized and connected to the organization’s mission—through scalable engagement strategies. The Specialist supports the Senior Manager, Advocate Giving & Impact in building and deploying tailored communication tracks that deepen donor relationships at scale.

In addition to supporting the cultivation and stewardship of the full Advocate file, a central focus of this position is the cultivation of Advocates in priority geographies where donor data signals significant opportunity: the broader Mountain West, with particular attention to Utah and New Mexico, and the Upper Great Lakes.

This position plays a critical role in fostering an organizational culture where people feel respected, included, and accountable to shared goals and outcomes. Across our team, we aspire to be campaign-oriented, collaborative, innovative, transparent, and supportive of staff – our greatest asset.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Mass Personalization & Segmented Geographic Cultivation

• Support the Senior Manager, Advocate Giving & Impact in the execution of a segmented, multichannel communication strategy for the full Advocates portfolio (~1,700 donors), expanding the programs ability to tailor outreach frequency, content, and format for each segment.
• Create quarterly impact updates and stewardship touchpoints for the full Advocate segment, ensuring every donor receives consistent, compelling evidence of how their giving is driving conservation outcomes.
• Support targeted cultivation efforts for Advocates in the Mountain West and the Upper Great Lakes, developing a geographic engagement calendar and region-specific content that connects donors’ giving to conservation and policy outcomes in the landscapes they care about.

Pipeline Development & Major Gift Handoffs

• Assist the Senior Manager, Advocate Giving & Impact and Sr. Research Analyst in their efforts to pilot a donor engagement scoring system for Advocates—spanning giving trajectory, wealth capacity, legacy society signals, and engagement behaviors—to identify donors who are ready for major gift portfolio assignment.
• Maintain a current, well-documented prospect queue for the Senior Manager and Major Gift Officers, ensuring that every recommended handoff includes a warm briefing, relevant relationship history, and a recommended next step.
• Support moves management coordination between the midlevel and major gift teams, participating in quarterly prospecting calls and maintaining clear protocols for qualifying and transitioning donors up the pipeline.

Data, Systems & Reporting

• Work with Sr Manager and Sr. Operations Specialist to track key metrics including number of donors assessed, number moved to major gift portfolios, and upgrade commitments or gift increases attributable to cultivation activities.
• Maintain accurate and current records in the organization’s CRM, documenting donor interactions, engagement scores, communication preferences, and other important details.

Collaboration & Cross-Team Coordination

• Work closely with the Senior Manager, Advocate Giving & Impact to align mass personalization strategy with the Senior Manager’s high-touch portfolio work and ensure a seamless, consistent donor experience across all engagement levels.
• Coordinate with Planned Giving staff to integrate legacy marketing into Advocate communications and to facilitate appropriate introductions for donors who express interest in bequest giving.
• Partner with the Sr. Manager, Giving & Impact Events on virtual phone briefings and donor engagement events, contributing content development and logistical support.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Other

• Adhere to all policies and procedures set forth by TWS (including, but not limited to, finance, human resources and legal) to maintain a compliant and efficient work environment.

QUALIFICATIONS

The ideal candidate will possess most or all of the following qualifications:

• 3–5 years of experience in direct response marketing, donor communications, digital marketing, or a related field, with demonstrated ability to build and execute segmented, multichannel communications strategies.
• Experience in nonprofit fundraising or philanthropy strongly preferred; a genuine commitment to conservation, environmental advocacy, or public lands is highly valued.
• Demonstrated skill in crafting compelling donor-facing content that translates complex programmatic or policy work into emotionally resonant, action-oriented narratives.
• Proficiency with CRM platforms and marketing automation tools; experience with ROI Solutions, Salesforce, Raiser’s Edge, or equivalent donor database systems preferred.
• Strong data fluency: able to read and interpret engagement metrics, build simple dashboards, and use data to drive content and segmentation decisions.
• Track record of working successfully in teams representing a rich mix of talent, backgrounds, and perspectives—across race and gender.
• Adept at planning, prioritizing, organizing, and following through in a fast-paced environment with competing deadlines.
• Able to work independently, exercise good judgment, and operate with a high degree of initiative and accountability in a remote or hybrid work setting.
• A creative, solutions-oriented communicator with strong attention to detail and genuine enthusiasm for connecting people to mission.
• A collaborative team member with emotional intelligence, flexibility, and a track record of working across departments to achieve shared goals.

This job description is intended to convey information essential to understanding the scope of this position and it is not intended to be an exhaustive list of experience, skills, efforts, duties, responsibilities or working conditions associated with the position.

This is a 1-year termed position.  The ​preferred location for this position is Washington, DC. Other TWS office locations may be considered. The ​salary range for this position is $70,000-$77,000. 

The Wilderness Society offers a competitive salary and benefits package, including health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, and pet insurance; sick and vacation leave; a sabbatical program; and a retirement plan with employer contribution subject to certain limits and requirements.  TWS is an equal opportunity employer and actively works to ensure fair treatment of our employees and constituents across culture, socioeconomic status, race, marital or family situation, gender, age, ethnicity, religious beliefs, physical ability, veteran status or sexual orientation. 

As an organization, we aspire to being inclusive in the work that we do, and in the kind of organization we are.  Internally, this means working as a team that listens to different points of view, recognizes the contributions of every employee and empowers each employee to bring their whole selves to work every day.  Externally, this means ensuring that public lands are inclusive and welcoming, so that our shared wildlands can help people and nature to thrive.  We are committed to equity throughout our work, which we define as our commitment to realizing the promise of our public lands and ensuring that all can share in their universal benefits.

To learn more about our commitment, please see http://wilderness.org/our-commitment-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-wilderness-society 

Pursuant to applicable fair chance laws, TWS will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

TWS complies with federal and state disability laws and is committed to providing reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities. If you require accommodation to complete the application process or to perform the essential functions of the position, please contact careers@tws.org.  TWS only accepts resumes submitted for positions that are currently open. Unsolicited resumes or resumes for posted positions that are not submitted via the online application process (where applicable), will not be reviewed or retained.