Senior Brand Manager Seattle Foundation

Senior Brand Manager Position Overview: The Senior Brand Manager is the primary steward and architect of Seattle Foundation’s brand—responsible for shaping, evolving and activating a cohesive brand strategy, narratives and experiences that build long-term brand loyalty, deepen trust and advance the Foundation’s mission and impact. This role owns the day-to-day health of the brand, including leading a brand refresh, serving as both the visionary and project owner from strategy through rollout, ensuring the brand is not only compelling but deeply rooted across the organization, across channels, campaigns, experiences and touchpoints. Working in close partnership with the Director of Marketing & Communications, Digital Marketing Manager, Philanthropic Services team, Impact team and cross-functional leaders, the Senior Brand Manager will translate strategy into actionable frameworks to ensure that our storytelling is consistent, intentional, relevant and effective—while remaining responsive to the evolving needs of donors, partners, and communities. This is a high-impact, hands-on role for a strategic thinker who excels at bringing strategy to life, while building the systems and discipline needed to sustain our brand over time. Primary responsibilities: Brand Strategy, Governance & Stewardship Serve as a core steward of the organization’s brand architecture, ensuring consistency across all external-facing materials and optimizing brand placement opportunities to drive growth and impact. Serve as the visionary and project owner for the full brand refresh process, from strategic framing through launch and organizational adoption. Lead the development and execution of annual and long-range brand plans that align brand identity with growth targets. Support the Director of Marketing & Communications with developing tools, guidelines, training, templates, review processes, etc. to enable staff and partners to activate brand with confidence, consistency and effectiveness. Develop and maintain a brand identity that emphasizes fiduciary responsibility, legacy, and deep community impact to resonate with HNW individuals, families, and institutional donors. Support the CGO and CMO by acting as the voice of the consumer within SeaFdn, leveraging primary research to solve complex business challenges. Brand Narrative & Creative Campaign Leadership Function as the lead creative, producing integrated brand campaigns across channels that advance fundraising, engagement, and impact goals, in collaboration with the Digital Marketing Manager. Shape storytelling approaches that translate complex philanthropic and systems-change work into accessible, compelling messages. Collaborate with colleagues across the organization to surface stories from programs, partners, and community that strengthen customer-service-oriented experiences, donor trust, loyalty and engagement. Provide creative direction and feedback to ensure work aligns with brand strategy and narrative goals. Build and maintain a roster of creative partners to scale capacity and creative excellence. Partner with internal colleagues and external vendors to produce high-quality creative assets. Partner with the PR/Stat-comms, Philanthropic Services, and Impact teams to translate subject matter expertise into thought leadership platforms, such as authoring white papers on emerging trends like impact investing or next-generation engagement to position the firm as a premier advisor. High Impact Marketing & Engagement Performance Marketing Integration: Partner with business development and Digital teams to ensure brand campaigns are optimized for conversion and customer acquisition cost (CAC) efficiency. Partner with the PR/Strat-comms team to conceptualize 360 communication campaigns that highlight the SeaFdn’s unique theory of change and social impact narrative, compelling prospective donors to move from interest to commitment. Collaborate with the CGO and CMO to deliver an innovation roadmap that drives pipeline, ensuring go-to-market strategies are validated for both brand-fit and commercial viability. Identify and capitalize on white space opportunities, including new category entries or untapped consumer segments. Design and lead signature events and brand activations that spark engagement through Next-Gen or Peer-to-Peer donor networks, delivering engagements that position the Foundation as a facilitator of social capital. Develop frameworks to measure event success beyond attendance, tracking post-event lead conversion, donor retention rates, and increases in add-on contributions from existing clients. Measurement & Operational Excellence Work closely with the Digital Marketing Manager to ensure brand and narrative are effectively translated into digital channels and campaigns. Establish metrics that bridge brand health (awareness in the wealth sector) with commercial health (new funds opened, revenue from fees, and asset growth). Partner with IT and Operations to ensure CRM systems (like Dynamics) are optimized for personalized fundholder stewardship and data-driven marketing. Standardize reporting cycles and a system to track brand lift, perception, relevance, and reach over time. Qualifications: 7+ years of progressive experience in marketing and communications, with deep experience in brand strategy, narrative development, and campaign leadership. 5+ years of experience in both top-of-funnel brand planning (identity/positioning) and bottom-of-funnel marketing execution (lead gen/conversion). Proven ability to lead complex, cross-functional work through influence, expertise, and collaboration; experience managing vendors and external partners required. Demonstrated success in crafting long-term brand plans, including the definition of core values, mission statements, and unique value propositions. Demonstrated experience translating complex ideas into clear and compelling narratives for diverse audiences from philanthropists to community grantee partners, civic leaders, policymakers, corporate leaders, and more. Demonstrated success translating business intelligence into strategy and integrated campaigns, activations, and launches. Successfully scaled brand presence by leading 360 brand activations and curated event strategies that deepen stakeholder relationships and accelerate revenue growth. Creative thinker with a proven track record of driving successful end-to-end marketing and communications strategies with the use of analytics and KPIs to demonstrate impact and effectiveness. Exceptional brand creative and campaign design skills, with experience in elevating brands across multimedia formats (digital, print, video, donor and community-facing materials). Strong project and change-management skills, with the ability to manage complexity and competing priorities. Experience using marcom technologies, data, research, and qualitative insights to assess brand effectiveness and guide strategy, process improvement and relationships. Sound judgment and political acumen, with the ability to navigate diverse stakeholder interests. Exceptional attention to detail and organizational skills with an ability to keep multiple projects on track, anticipate obstacles, adapt to change and communicate expectations along the way. Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion—particularly racial and economic justice—and to representing communities with care and respect. Passion for philanthropy and alignment with the Foundation’s mission. Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative, and evolving environment, especially during periods of change. Department: Marketing & Communications Reports to: Director of Marketing & Communications Classification: Full-time/Annual | Salary/Exempt Salary: $115,000 – $130,000 Benefits: Medical, dental, vision, life, AD&D, LTD. Optional Flex plan and dependent coverage. 403(b) retirement matched at 5%, 100% immediate vesting. PTO accruals: 15 days vacation, 10 days sick, 4 wellness days, 15 holidays; annual remote, commuter and wellness stipends. Work location: Flexible; can be fully in-person, or hybrid (remote and in-person). This position is expected to be in-person for some required team and organization-wide meetings (e.g., monthly All-Hands meetings). Office located downtown Seattle; must live in WA state. Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Seattle Foundation envisions a thriving region of shared prosperity, belonging, and justice, where all individuals and communities have equitable access and outcomes, regardless of race, place, or identity. We are committed to advancing racial equity using an intersectional lens, and integrate our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts into all that we do. We hold ourselves accountable to uphold our organizational values, and strive to do better every day. Physical Demands and Working Conditions: The work is performed in an office setting, or hybrid (remote and in-person). This position will require some in-office presence. All positions require the capability of working at a PC for extended periods. Team efforts with event support may require periods of physical activity involving standing, walking, and moderate lifting. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the primary functions of the role. #J-18808-Ljbffr