Position Summary:

Located at a center for Birds and Biodiversity in a 220-acre sanctuary, our client’s Lab of Ornithology is the world's leading resource for conservation, research, education, and citizen science focused on birds. The Lab is a vibrant unit within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, where several full-time faculty teach undergraduate courses, advise graduate students, and manage world-class, mission-driven programs.

• Manage all membership acquisition and renewal functions of the 38,000 national membership base.
• Report to the Senior Director of Philanthropy. Implement and evaluate all membership acquisition and renewal strategies.  Collaborate with external consultants to test new audiences for Lab membership. 
• Manage and collaborate with a three-person membership team.
• Engage team members to increase member retention and upgrade the levels of existing members.
• Maintain and enhance membership web pages using Blackbaud Net Community. 
• Participate in special events and conventions to promote Lab membership.
• Stay abreast of current membership marketing trends including Internet marketing. 
• Conduct market research and provide analysis.

Position Responsibilities:

• Manage, execute and implement membership functions at the Ornithology Lab.  Daily focus on increasing membership of the Lab. Develop recruitment programs for specific audiences.
• Collaborate with internal and external teams to develop original and innovative print and electronic marketing strategies and campaigns for attracting and recruiting new Lab members, especially those from untapped markets outside the traditional audience. Collaborate with Lab web team and Membership Data Specialist to enhance and maintain membership and develop web pages using a content management system. 
• Analyze and report on daily activity, weekly summaries and monthly analysis of results, trends, and performance to determine membership strategies.  Conduct thorough market research and provide continual analysis and feedback to the Senior Director of Development and Director of Marketing.
• Coordinate and participate with Development staff at special events to attract and retain new memberships either on-site at the Lab or at off-site locations.  

Recruitment

• Manage the direct mail marketing efforts.  Collaborate with external vendors to identify and test recruitment initiatives and measure results. Manage all aspects of Lab’s list management.  Produce new member recruitment mailings.  Collaborate with the development staff, create renewal mailings and print advertising strategies and campaigns. Create and design reports that show representations and membership information for tracking and membership drives. 
• Identify and recruit other organizations to develop joint memberships and partnerships that would be beneficial to the Lab.   

Supervision

• Collaborate with CALS HR Office to resolve staff HR issues. Manage hiring process:  interview candidates (regular, temporary, volunteer), hire staff.
• Provide salary recommendations to Associate Director for approval.
• Draft confidential and other personnel documents.
• Bring staff concerns to Sr. Director’s attention.
• Handle sensitive and confidential personnel issues.
• Collaborate with Membership Data Specialist (MDS) regarding staff training.
• Approve space and equipment allocations. In coordination with the MDS, evaluate performance and administer performance dialogues.
• Mentor and manage staff members to achieve unit goals as a team.

Finance and Budget

• Prepare and manage the CLO’s membership budget for Senior Director’s approval.
• Oversee gift deposits for memberships, misc. gifts, project fees. (Up to 100,000 transactions annually, totaling several million dollars.).
• Approve daily deposit journals.
• Serve as liaison with CLO and University Finance Department to ensure accuracy of gift/donation records and deposits in system.
• Assure compliance with all legal and fiscal management requirements related to solicitation of funds.
• Remain in compliance with all University policies and guidelines.
• Authorize expenditures.
• Evaluate mailing, packaging, and operation procedures, recommending efficiencies and cost savings.
• Provide Directors with income projections and current totals.
• Perform related projects and special duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications:

• Specify required minimum equivalency for education, experience, skills, information systems knowledge, etc.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, marketing, communications, or related field required with 3-5 years related experience in the non-profit sector, preferably in a membership or annual fund role. 
• Must have proven history of direct supervisory role and be comfortable with working with an experienced team.  Experienced in collaborating with and managing budgets and tasks of external vendor to achieve organizational goals. This is a data driven position and candidate must be very adept with Excel and generally comfortable with statistics.
• Ability to communicate clearly, concisely and effectively, both orally and in writing, with all internal and external stakeholders, including the public.
• Ability to meet deadlines and to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, with minimal supervision. 
• Highly capable of working with computer software: database, spreadsheet (such as Excel), graphing and charting, word processing (such as Word) and presentation (such as Power Point), Internet.
• Prior knowledge of Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge. Knowledge of Internet usability, e-commerce, and Internet-based promotional strategies essential. 
• Self-starter who takes lead on initiatives while proactively involving peers and managers to achieve common goal. 
• Ability to travel occasionally.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Detailed knowledge of Raiser’s Edge. Knowledge of birds/nature highly preferred. 
• Prior development or fundraising experience at an environmental or higher education organization is preferred.