Director, Membership

Location: DC Metro Area

Type: Full-Time

Industry: Non-Profit

Our client, Council on Foundations (“Council”), is a leader in helping philanthropic non-profit organizations do their best to advance their mission.  The Council is searching for a Director, Membership to join their team.  The Director leads the Council’s Membership Team. This team is responsible for generating $6+ million in membership revenue each year, more than 60% of the Council’s annual revenue. The Director leads the Council’s member recruitment and retention activities, with the goal of elevating member value, enhancing awareness of the Council’s brand, and advancing the Council’s mission.

This role has a mandate to grow the client’s membership community to more than 1000 organizational members by 2024, as well as increase annual membership revenue, in line with the Council’s new strategic direction. The Director will be comfortable pitching the client to potential members, designing and implementing strategic (and creative) member recruitment campaigns, and building personal relationships with organizations across the philanthropic sector. As a skilled people manager and team leader, they will also be comfortable developing systems and leveraging technology to ensure reliable, consistent, and efficient processes for membership renewal and recruitment.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed within are representative of the knowledge, skills, minimum education, training, licensure, experience, and/or ability required.

Primary Job Duties and Responsibilities

Strategy and Organizational Development

  • Design and implement annual membership development strategy to attract new members and grow and retain the Council’s membership community of 800+ philanthropic organizations, with the goal of increasing our community to 1000+ by 2024.
  • Collaborate internally around all aspects of member recruitment opportunities, including development of membership communications and marketing products, programming, and events for key audiences.
  • Collaborate with Accounting team to ensure successful membership accounting and reconciliation.
  • Identify, research, and execute fulfilling membership partnership agreements with sector organizations leading to additional member value and benefits and improving effective partnerships.
  • Develop and nurture deep philanthropic sector expertise and personal connections to philanthropic leaders, to ensure consistent membership renewals and lead the organization to achieve new member recruitment goals.
  • Provide internal guidance across departments about membership value for the Council’s core audiences, including community foundations, private foundations, corporate philanthropy, and other philanthropic organizations.

Membership Operations

  • Oversee day-to-day membership operations, including high quality data integrity within Salesforce to ensure accurate reporting of members, prospects, and financial performance related to membership renewal and recruitment.
  • Develop new and expanded metrics for membership evaluation that listen to members, including design and management of recurring membership surveys.
  • Collaborate with Salesforce vendors to build and maintain a robust and reliable technology platform that tracks all membership related activities.
  • Participate in sector conferences and Council events, meetings, roundtable discussions, and trainings to continue to elevate the voice of the Council, deepen peer relationships and promote membership value.

Team Leadership and Development

  • Model the organization’s commitment of diversity, equity and inclusion and lead efforts to embed this commitment in organizational systems and programs.
  • Provide managerial oversight, guidance and direction to the Manager, Membership and Associate, Membership.
  • Manage relationships and assignments of external consultants.

Role Requirements

  • Bachelor’s degree
  • 7-10 years’ experience in membership organizations, business development, or marketing and communications

General Skills and Competencies

  • Strong understanding of the philanthropic and the charitable sector is highly preferred for this role.
  • Demonstrated experience in strategy development and membership organizations.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
  • Strong attention to detail and accuracy.
  • Excellent interpersonal skills, ability to listen well and positively represent the organization and its mission.
  • Strong project management and analytical skills with ability to meet deadlines.
  • Ability to identify and solve problems efficiently and quickly.
  • Ability to manage many and/or differing tasks and maintain productivity.
  • Ability to work independently and as part of a diverse team.
  • Ability to work effectively and positively with a range of individuals and working styles, and with people at all organization levels including staff, board members, foundation officers, donors, and vendors.
  • Experience supervising and coaching junior and mid-level staff and managing external consultants.
  • Familiar with INTACCT or similar accounting software.
  • Experience with fundraising database software or CRM software, preferably Salesforce.
  • Intermediate to advance skill in Microsoft Office 365 applications, specifically Excel.

Work Environment and Physical Demands

The work environment and physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

  • This position operates in a professional office environment and routinely uses standard office equipment.
  • The ability to sit, stand or walk for long periods of time (8+ hours/day).
  • The ability to lift up to 20 lbs. (with or without assistance).
  • The ability to push, pull, bend, kneel, reach, stoop, and crouch.
  • Specific vision abilities required by this job includes near, far, peripheral and depth and ability to adjust focus (with or without the use of corrective lenses).

Travel Requirements

  • Ability to travel up to 20% domestically, including overnight trips.

Please note, this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this position. Activities, duties, or responsibilities may change at any time with or without notice. The requirements listed above are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required.

Salary and Benefits

  • The salary is competitive and is commensurate with experience.
  • The Council offers a generous benefits package, including health, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance and a 403(b) plan with a 7% employer contribution.
  • The Council also offers 13 paid holidays, 2 floating holidays per year, 20 vacation days per year, paid time off the week between December 25th and January 1st, and 10 sick days per year.

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