Director of External Engagement

Job description

Are you a person of compassion? An advocate for justice? Someone who stands up for the rights of the vulnerable and speaks out for the marginalized, the exploited and the forgotten?  Do you believe in our calling as Christians to welcome the least of these and love our neighbor?

If you answered ‘yes’, to any of the above, World Relief, and millions of people around the world need you.

At this pivotal moment in time, we are rapidly expanding and growing our team to meet the increasing needs of our world. We are looking for people who want to use their gifts and talents to make a real and tangible difference in our world and the lives of the suffering.

If you’re looking for a purpose-driven career in which you can grow your talents, while also standing up for the rights of the vulnerable, we want you to join us today.

ORGANIZATION SUMMARY

World Relief is a global Christian humanitarian organization whose mission is to boldly engage the world’s greatest crises in partnership with the church. The organization was founded in the aftermath of World War II to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs of war-torn Europe. Since then, for 80 years, across 100 countries, World Relief has partnered with local churches and communities to build a world where families thrive and communities flourish.

Today, organizational programming focuses on humanitarian and disaster response, community strengthening and resilience, and refugee & immigrant services and advocacy.

This position is reliant upon funding and may be subject to modification or termination based on resource availability.

POSITION SUMMARY:

This position requires a deep passion for the work of responding to the global displacement crises and a longing for the refugee and other vulnerable immigrant communities in the U.S. to flourish as God intended.  At its core, this position is centered on developing and leading a team that supports World Relief’s 16 U.S. Field Offices in improving brand awareness, forging new partnership with churches and other community actors, and increasing community-based fundraising.   We are seeking a high-capacity communications, marketing and/or development leader who can work effectively across departments, build trust among stakeholders and shape an external engagement strategy across our network of offices for sustained growth. This senior level leader will guide a national team dedicated to building competency in these areas, growing brand awareness and multiplying fundraising efforts that will support our local office network.  The ideal candidate will develop and refine systems and processes that each office can utilize to build community and church partnerships, acquire and retain donors and coordinate fundraising campaigns that continue to exceed revenue goals.  He or she will also launch new initiatives to share resources and knowledge that will help move the whole network forward in our mission and vision.  This position will work remotely under the supervision and support of the Chief Advancement Officer and in close collaboration with the development and marketing teams.  This position will also have a secondary reporting relationship to the SVP of US programs and have functional alignment with, and membership on, the  US programs leadership team, in order to assure excellent collaboration and coordination with our US programs teams.

ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES:

• SUCCESS MEASURES:
• Total revenue raised locally across World Relief’s network of US offices
• % of offices experiencing revenue growth annually, and % of offices achieving annual fundraising targets
• % growth of church partners engaging with our fundraising products
• As available, measures of brand awareness locally
• Lead indicators pertaining to execution of World Relief’s sales process
• Ability to create a healthy, high-engagement culture among the team he/she leads, and the ability to maintain effective collaborative realtionships cross-functionally

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Strategic Leadership and Vision

• This role will lead, mentor and grow a high-performance team that will drive revenue results towards financial targets and move our national office network forward in its external engagement with the church, individual donors and the local community.

• Messaging & Brand Management

• Advance our messaging, campaign, fundraising, and church engagement efforts across a diverse set of offices at different levels of competency in external engagement.

• Identify and prioritize needs in collaboration with stakeholders, and deploying resources and efforts of the team.

• Work closely with the marketing team to implement a communications plan that is compelling, values-driven, and attuned to diverse audiences (donors, churches, community leaders).

• Ensure a consistent, mission-centric brand across offices by maximizing World Relief marketing resources, content and messaging plans.

• Ensure alignment of messaging across all digital and offline platforms.

• Fundraising & Partnership Development

• In partnership with the marketing team and utilizing SED fundraising best practices, implement multi-channel fundraising strategies (major gifts, church-based campaigns, peer-to-peer fundraising, monthly giving, digital appeals, events).

• Lead a dual growth strategy focused on maximizing regional office fundraising effectiveness and elevating fundraising competency and progress in mid-sized and small offices.

• Lead efforts to identify, cultivate, and retain high-value donors and partners.

• Launch initiatives to grow recurring giving and donor lifetime value.

• Collaboration and coordination with US Programs, Advocacy, and Advancement Departments

• Collaborative with all key stakeholders to maximize contributions and competencies towards achieving our US office external engagement goals.

• Provide a unifying influence toward balancing departmental and organizational priorities

• Strengthen and expand our network of local church and community partners

• Reflect a deep passion for the church that drives forward momentum

• Understand and leverage church leadership systems in order to promote and pitch church products and implement programs, processes and pitches that will support our local offices in engaging the church and building fruitful partnerships.

• Community & Church Engagement Strategy

• Create/modify/utitlize scalable engagement models for local offices to mobilize communities and faith-based organizations.

• Maximize training, tools, and systems that support localized outreach and volunteer engagement.

• Capacity Building & Training

• In partnership with the marketing team,  oversee local offices external engagement training, coaching, and toolkit use for donor relations, communications, and partnerships.

• Inspire and build office collaboration through vision casting and galvanizing communication

• Promote knowledge-sharing through webinars, templates, playbooks, and peer learning cohorts

• Data, Systems, and Process Development

• Establish shared systems for tracking engagement, managing relationships, and reporting impact.

• Optimize workflows and resources to drive efficiency and scale.

• Collaborate with development and marketing to launch external engagement initiatives

• Launch new national campaigns, resource-sharing platforms, or collaborative initiatives to advance the mission.

• Pilot creative engagement or fundraising approaches with high replication potential

• Collaborate with the SED team for effective fundraising elements .

• This role is responsible for supervising others and includes responsibilities consistent with supervising employees, including but not limited to monitoring daily work activities, tracking and approving timesheets including approving time off, monitoring performance including entering goals, progress check-ins, and weekly or bi-weekly check-ins, documenting performance concerns, entering staff promotions, transitions, and separations in HRIS within required time frame. Managers at World Relief are also considered spiritual leaders and are expected to lead staff in a manner consistent with our Christian values, including but not limited to praying with staff, leading devotionals, and fostering a Christian environment in interactions with staff throughout World Relief.

JOB REQUIREMENTS:

• Mature and personal Christian faith
• Committed to the mission, vision, and values of World Relief
• Desire to serve and empower the Church to impact vulnerable communities
• Able to affirm and/or acknowledge World Reliefs Core Beliefs, Statement of Faith, Christian Identity and National Evangelicals For the Health of The Nation document
• Bachelors or Associates degree with 10+ years progressive experience in a  Communications, Marketing,or Development role
• Excellent phone, writing and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work with people from different backgrounds, cultures and views.
• Computer proficiency, including Microsoft Office 365 Suite.
• Extremely organized and detail oriented.
• Ability to manage multiple deadlines and priorities.
• A flexible working style. The nature of humanitarian work is always being prepared for the unexpected.
• Passion for welcoming refugees and guiding them on a path to belonging in local communities.
• Lived experience or prior work in refugee services or international development.
• Public speaking and thought leadership experience.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Leadership & Management

• Proven senior-level experience managing cross-functional or distributed teams.

• Ability to build consensus and lead through influence across a networked organization.

• Strategic & Analytical Thinking

• Strong strategic planning skills; data-informed decision-making.

• Demonstrated ability to turn vision into executable plans and measurable results.

• Marketing & Communications Expertise

• Exceptional storytelling and messaging skills.

• Brand building across diverse communities.

• Experience managing digital marketing and content strategy.

• Fundraising Acumen

• Track record of designing and leading successful fundraising campaigns. Experience with major gifts, church or community-based fundraising, and donor retention strategies.

• Community & Faith Engagement

• Deep understanding of community mobilization, particularly through faith-based partnerships.

• Cultural competency and experience working with or serving refugee or immigrant communities a plus.

• Process & Infrastructure Development

• Skilled in building systems, tools, and processes for scale.

• Experience with CRMs, donor databases, and project management tools.

• Innovation & Change Leadership

• Creative thinker with a bias for action.

• Experience piloting and scaling new initiatives in complex organizations.

$95,000 - $105,000 a year

World Relief offers a competitive benefits package and employee discount program for full-time and part-time employees.

World Relief is honored to be recognized with the Gold-level Cigna Healthy Workforce Designation for exceeding the core components of our well-being program including leadership and culture, program foundations and execution, and whole person health.

\*\*\*

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

We are proud to be an EEO/AA employer M/F/D/V. We maintain a drug-free workplace and perform pre-employment substance abuse testing.

For World Relief staff, strong commitment to the mission, vision, and values of World Relief is essential, and Christian faith is a prerequisite for employment, based upon United States federal guidelines provided in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.