Donor Relations Associate

Donor Relations Associate
Job Description

DEPARTMENT: Development

REPORTS TO: Director of Philanthropy & Community Engagement

LOCATION: Ceres Headquarters, Santa Rosa CA

FLSA STATUS: Regular, Full-Time,
Non-Exempt

JOB CLASSIFICATION: L4

Position Summary

As a key member of the fundraising team, the Donor Relations Associate cultivates and builds relationships with individual donors to sustain and grow our community of supporters and our mission impact. Primary duties include planning and implementing our annual giving campaign for donors contributing under $1,000; stewarding a portfolio of lower-level Leadership donors; creating effective, timely and accurate donor communications; processing individual gifts; maintaining database integrity; and monitoring performance through effective use of reports and dashboards.

The successful candidate will be experienced in donor relations and interested in growing in a fundraising career, possess excellent written and verbal communication skills, and be energized by creating and sustaining systems and experiences that enable strong donor relationships.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities

Annual Campaign Management

• Create and implement successful annual development plan for community-level giving
• Develop and manage annual fund campaign calendar including stewardship activities and events
• Identify donors who have the capacity to become monthly or major donors and develop strategies, campaigns and activities to increase their engagement and giving
• Utilize reports and dashboards to track progress towards financial goals and inform decision making

Donor stewardship and communications

• Draft campaign appeals to specific audience segments in collaboration with Director and Digital Marketing Specialist
• Build, manage and grow a portfolio of donors and prospects by developing effective and meaningful cultivation, solicitation and stewardship to help donors understand their impact, and to ensure they feel personally connected to Ceres; set and meet donation giving goals.
• Regularly update gift acknowledgement templates
• Create mailing lists for direct mail
• Monitor Development email and phone line and respond to donor inquiries in a warm, prompt and professional manner
• Draft or contribute to other donor-centric communications as needed, such as planned giving materials, annual reports, or impact reports
• Maintain confidentiality of donor data; follow donors' wishes regarding acknowledgement, anonymity and communications preferences

Gift processing and acknowledgement

• Process donations and create gift logs according to department SOP's
• Send tribute emails or cards
• Send accurate and timely acknowledgement letters and year-end statements
• Maintain accurate pledge records, track outstanding pledges, and draft reminders
• Maintain accurate donor and gift records in Sharepoint and Salesforce CRM, including household configuration, background notes, communications requests, and outreach records

Event Support

• Manage ticketing and donor relations for annual Harvest of the Heart event
• Support other donor events, including drafting invitations, creating guest lists, welcoming guests and helping with set-up and break-down as needed
• Attend other community events and speaking engagements as needed

Other duties as assigned

Qualifications

• A commitment to Ceres Community Project's mission and operating principles
• BA or equivalent experience strongly preferred
• A minimum of 1-2 years' experience in fundraising or a closely related field; understanding of fundraising principles and donor stewardship
• Excellent interpersonal skills including effective written and verbal communication and follow through. A strong customer service orientation, able to interact professionally and warmly with a diverse range of people
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively within a team
• Excellent attention to detail and data integrity
• Strong project management skills, motivation and ability to proactively plan, prioritize tasks, and meet deadlines
• Proficiency with Salesforce or another nonprofit donor database, including data entry and reporting
• Ability to utilize and adapt to a range of technology including MS Office
• Able to work occasionally in evenings and on weekends, and to travel to local events
• Comfortable working in an environment where giving and receiving feedback is part of the culture.

Physical Demands / Work Environment

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a staff member to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand or sit at a workstation for an extended period of time; use hands and fingers to operate a computer keyboard and mouse; talk and hear to communicate with coworkers and clients over the phone.
• Light to moderate lifting of up to 30 pounds, bending, stooping and climbing a ladder is occasionally required.
• The work environment while in the office consists of moderate noise (i.e. nonprofit setting with office equipment, conversation from adjacent coworkers).

About Ceres Community Project

Founded in 2007, Ceres Community Project works to foster health for people, communities and the planet through love, healing food and empowering the next generation.

Ceres Community Project's Community Health model provides free and low-cost 100% organic medically tailored meals, nutrition education and caring support to people living with serious, chronic and complex health conditions. The model embeds a Youth Development Program where 14-19 year-old youth learn to grow, cook and eat healthy foods, develop job and leadership skills, and experience their value as contributing members of the community. A robust adult volunteer program supports all aspects of Ceres' work and strengthens social connections and healthy eating across the community. Ceres' Community Health model improves healthy eating behaviors among clients, teens and adult volunteers and educates the whole community about the link between healthy eating and the health of both people and planet. It also strengthens the social fabric of the community, another factor that is at the root of health. In times of disaster, Ceres is an emergency nutrition provider for our community.

Ceres delivers meals throughout Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties. Our operations include a Santa Rosa, California headquarters location and two youth-run 1.5-acre food productions gardens. Ceres has trained more than 15 communities around the United States and internationally to replicate our model. We are also active at the state and national level advocating for policies that support equitable access to healthy food and health care, including reimbursement for medically tailored meals by insurers. For more information, please visit

Ceres Community Project is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All employment decisions at Ceres are made without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin/ancestry, age, disability, marital & veteran status or any other status protected by laws or regulations.

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