Surrogates and Influencers Director

Job Description

GiveDirectly (GD) aims to reshape international giving – and millions of lives – by providing cash grants directly to the world’s poorest. The Brookings Institution estimates that $70B of cash transfers would be required to eliminate the poverty gap; the aid sector currently spends $135B each year, much of it on evidence-free interventions. GiveDirectly wants to change that, establishing cash transfers as a benchmark for foreign aid – as the index fund is a benchmark for the financial industry – and in the process accelerating the end of extreme poverty.

GD has raised over $1B since launching in 2011 and delivered cash to more than 2 million people in 15 different countries. We’ve also supported large-scale, experimental research that indicates strong recipient impact of our programs. As a result, GD has been celebrated as one of the most innovative non-profit companies by Fast Company, while the growing cash transfer movement (and GD’s leading role within it) have been featured in the New York Times Magazine, This American Life, Foreign Affairs, and The Economist.

Our culture is candid, analytical, agile, and non-hierarchical. Our global team of ~150, and country operations teams of ~650, span 21 different countries and 69 languages. From software engineers to seasoned humanitarian workers, management consultants to public servants, researchers to field operations – it’s an incredible group of people.

Our values are central and deliberately opinionated. We genuinely center the people we serve in our decision-making, and strive to build an ambitious, dynamic and high-performing environment. We strongly encourage you to read through our values carefully, if they reflect how you like to work and energize you, this could be a great fit.

We work hard to create an environment in which all our team members can thrive, succeed, and grow.  We support high ownership, flexibility, take care of each other, have fun, and create professional growth opportunities.

About the role

GiveDirectly is seeking a strategic, well-connected Surrogates and Influencers Director to lead and scale our external earned and sponsored partnerships. This role owns the strategy, relationship management, and execution of these campaigns.

We define surrogates and influencers as anyone who has an audience (following on social, YouTube, podcast, Substack/newsletter, faculty, etc) that is not part of a traditional media organization (NPR, NYTimes).

Meaningful mentions from trusted public figures are one of GiveDirectly’s most important communications channels. By growing our work here, you will help further our mission to end extreme poverty and improve crisis response by transferring cash directly to people in need.

Our past efforts have been a mix of paid and unpaid, some with fundraising appeals and others just amplification/mention: Substackers, podcasters, Mr. Beast, Ahmed Shaikh , Elsa Majimbo, Rutger Bregman.

Your goal would be to leverage meaningful endorsements that maximize reach/awareness to high-value audiences (those able to make $1m+ gifts, especially in tech/finance industries), helping initiate funding conversations.

You will lead a small team and partner closely with Earned Media, Marketing, and Fundraising.

This role is ideal for someone who combines strong relationship management across the thought leader & creator media landscape with the creative instincts to turn those partnerships into compelling, high-impact campaigns.

• Reports to: VP, Marketing
• Level: Director
• Location: Remote with preference for San Francisco / New York / LA / London for in-person networking
• Time zone: the selected candidate will need to overlap at least 2 hours with East Africa Time working hours some working days.
• Travel: ~3–8 trips annually (team retreats, partner visits, events, and/or program visits)

What you’ll do

• Own our surrogate strategy: Improving our approach & measurement, ensuring we are pursuing best tactics across a portfolio of approaches and relationships.
• Build new and existing surrogate relationships: Proactively identify, vet, and cultivate relationships with creators and public figures across GiveDirectly’s cause areas at scale and with speed.
• Oversee surrogate campaigns (earned and sponsored): Ensure high quality execution of formal surrogate campaigns from briefing through post-campaign analysis.
• Content strategy / creative direction: Developing briefs, guiding creators on messaging, and aligning content to GiveDirectly’s voice/mission.
• Conduct reporting and measurement: Define and own the KPI framework for the surrogates program, tracking reach, engagement, and donation attribution.
• Manage and develop a team of two (Surrogates Manager and Surrogates Associate): setting clear priorities and actively coaching the team for continual improvement.
• Understand social trends and what drives the connection between the surrogate and GiveDirectly: Maintain a current understanding of the creator economy — emerging platforms, shifting audience behaviors, and what motivates public figures to champion causes

What success looks like in 12–18 months

•Deep surrogate relationships built by cause area (force ranked):

1. Extreme poverty – our core product focused on lifting people out of extreme poverty (today this work is all in Africa) – this is where web donations default to
2. Emergency cash – we’re responding to headline-grabbing crises, with a moonshot of delivering cash in 5 days to any crisis anywhere in the world
3. Maternal / child health – this product focuses on optimizing child and maternal health based off recent evidence showing child mortality can drop by almost half
4. US poverty – work in the United States focuses on poverty reduction and emergency cash. Most surrogate partnerships will focus on the latter

•Unique post donate experience for surrogate supporters: both surrogates and their supporters get unique content driven experience (interactive reports, tech driven experience, exclusive content)

•High performing team collaborating internally and externally: high performance team that has built trust internally and externally with surrogates

•Test 2-4 big bets: we have ambition to launch exciting and large campaigns with surrogates to propose our works. At 18 months you will have tested multiple bets (and hopefully identified) identified 1+ to scale

What you’ll bring

• 6+ years of influencer or surrogate related experience (head of influencer marketing, booker, talent manager, partnership manager, media relations, etc.), a deep understanding of the creators (podcasters, journalists, Substackers, YouTubers, etc) and public intellectuals (tech, finance, econ, etc.), and a proven track record of success.
• Autonomous with high operational rigor: A self-starter comfortable operating in ambiguity, with strong project management skills and the ability to move fast without sacrificing quality or follow-through.
• Exceptional communicator & relationship builder: Ability to brief and inspire creators while representing GiveDirectly’s mission authentically across a wide range of voices and audiences, maintaining a relationship as peers/friends rather than transactional arrangements.
• Exceptional alignment with GiveDirectly Values and active demonstration of our core competencies: emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity. We welcome and strongly encourage applications from candidates who have personal or professional experience in the low-income and/or historically marginalized communities that we serve.

Compensation

At GiveDirectly, we strive to pay our employees generously and equitably. We use an accredited third party salary aggregator to calculate what we believe to be competitive pay based on role, location, and cost of living. We also have a no negotiation policy to ensure we are paying staff equitably across roles. Read more about our compensation philosophy here.

Unless otherwise noted, the benefits stipend may be used to cover benefits or taken as additional taxable income.

United States

• Base Salary: $128,000
• Bonus at Target Performance: 15% (~$19,200, with potential for upside. For reference, with the organization’s current performance multiplier, this amount would be $22,464 in 2025)
• Estimated Total Compensation at Target: $147,200+
• Annual Benefits Stipend: $21,393

United Kingdom

• Base Salary: £87,500
• Bonus at Target Performance: 15% (~£13,125, with potential for upside. For reference, with the organization’s current performance multiplier, this amount would be  £15,356.25 in 2025)
• Estimated Total Compensation at Target: £100,625
• Annual Benefits Stipend: £2,760

NOTE: this role has been posted under different cities at various points to attract more candidates but is just for one open, fully remote position. If you applied for one, you do not need to apply any others under these names.

#LI-REMOTE

Working at GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to the person’s race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Flagging for US applicants: We invite you to “Know Your Rights” as an applicant.

Commitment to Safeguarding

As a global organization working with communities to eliminate extreme poverty, GiveDirectly takes the safeguarding of its recipients, staff, and partners seriously. To that end, GiveDirectly is a member of the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, and will systematically check with previous employers about any abuse or misconduct related matters involving potential new hires. We may also employ other robust pre-hire screens, including in-depth reference checks, criminal background checks, and sanctions screens.

These efforts help us continue to build and maintain trust with the communities we work with, and prevent abuse to our recipients and staff.

**GD is committed to observing all local, national and international laws that protect people and basic human rights of all. GD is committed to a policy of “zero tolerance when it comes to preventing,  reporting, or responding to any form of abuse or  exploitation.” and expects anyone who works for GD to uphold the protection and safeguarding of our recipients as a priority.**

Reasonable Accommodations

We are committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible work environment. If you require any accommodations during the application or interview process, or to perform the essential functions of the role, please email us at [email protected] with the email subject “Accommodation Needed”. We will work with you to ensure reasonable accommodations are made to support your needs.

Want to put your best foot forward on your GiveDirectly application? Take a look at our Candidate Application Prep Guide!