OVERALL POSITION DESCRIPTION:
The Director, Fundraising Operations & Performance is a newly created leadership role within the Development Department’s Fundraising Operations team. This is a fundraising business leadership role focused on building the operational infrastructure and performance discipline needed to support WFP USA’s continued fundraising growth. The Director is the lead on the Development team as it relates to the systems, data, processes, and performance infrastructure that will enable WFP USA’s fundraising teams to operate effectively, strengthen donor engagement, and maximize fundraising results. The role ensures that fundraising leadership and teams have the information, tools, processes, and actionable insights needed to support campaign effectiveness, portfolio and pipeline performance, revenue growth, annual planning, budgeting, forecasting, and strategic decision-making.
The Director serves as a strategic and operational partner to fundraising leadership, translating fundraising priorities into effective systems, processes, performance measures, and data-informed recommendations. The role leads Development’s business requirements for fundraising technology, data, reporting, and analytics while partnering closely with centralized IT, CRM, Analytics, Finance, Marketing, and external vendors to ensure that fundraising needs are effectively supported across the organization. The Director owns the fundraising systems roadmap for Development and serves as Development’s primary liaison to IT, CRM, and Finance on fundraising systems and data.
The Director oversees Gift Administration and Donor Care, ensuring accurate, timely, and efficient gift processing and responsive, high-quality service to donors. The role establishes clear service standards, strengthens donor data integrity, and develops scalable processes that support a positive donor experience and continued fundraising growth.
The success of this role will be measured by accurate and reliable fundraising data, stronger forecasting and portfolio management, high-quality donor service, scalable and efficient operations, effective use of systems and analytics, and greater fundraising productivity.
AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITIES:
Fundraising Systems Leadership
- In collaboration with CRM and IT, lead the development and implementation of a multi-year fundraising systems and technology roadmap for fundraising teams aligned with organizational priorities.
- Evaluate, recommend, and deploy, in collaboration with CRM and IT, technology solutions that improve fundraising efficiency, donor engagement, and outcomes.
- Manage relationships with external vendors, consultants, and implementation partners, evaluation of new platforms and accountability for vendor performance.
- Represent Development’s business requirements and priorities in partnership with CRM and IT on system enhancements, integrations, upgrades, and process improvements.
- Set the priority of Development’s system enhancement requests and approve changes before they are released.
- Lead Development’s work on the Nonprofit Cloud optimization and any future platform evaluation.
- Champion user adoption, training, and continuous improvement in utilization of fundraising systems among fundraising teams.
Gift Administration & Donor Care
- Provide strategic oversight of Gift Administration and Donor Care, establishing clear accountability for service quality, data integrity, operational controls, scalable delivery, and donor-centered services.
- Establish and monitor service standards for gift processing, acknowledgments, donor inquiries, record updates, and issue resolution.
- Ensure effective coordination between Gift Administration, Donor Care, fundraising teams, Finance, and other internal partners.
- Identify opportunities to streamline and automate donor-service processes while maintaining a high-quality donor experience.
- Monitor service quality and operational performance and use data and donor feedback to identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
- Ensure Donor Care staff have the information, tools, and escalation protocols needed to resolve donor inquiries effectively.
- Develop processes and capacity that can scale with significant growth in fundraising volume and donor engagement.
Data Governance & Integrity
- Lead Development’s participation in WFP USA’s data unification initiative, partnering across departments to align constituent data, business rules, and systems and establish a consistent, reliable source of fundraising information
- Establish and maintain policies, procedures, and standards for constituent data management.
- Ensure the accuracy, completeness, and integrity of donor and prospect information.
- Oversee data hygiene initiatives, record management, gift coding standards, and quality assurance processes.
- Develop governance protocols that promote consistent and effective use of fundraising data across departments.
- Define and maintain compliance standards and business rules related to gift entry, gift attribution, and related processes.
- Ensure compliance with all applicable privacy, security, ethical, and fundraising regulations.
Analytics, Reporting & Fundraising Intelligence
- In collaboration with CRM and the centralized Analytics team, lead the development and maintenance of executive dashboards, KPI reporting frameworks, and fundraising performance metrics.
- Direct fundraising performance analysis focused on donor trends, campaign effectiveness, portfolio health, pipeline strength, and revenue opportunities.
- Develop pipeline tracking, annual and in-year forecasting and revenue projection processes in partnership with fundraising and finance leadership.
- Translate complex data into actionable recommendations for leadership and frontline fundraisers.
- Inform annual planning, budgeting, resource allocation, and strategic decision-making through data analysis and performance insights.
Innovation
- Lead the evaluation, adoption, and responsible use of emerging AI technologies to enhance fundraising operations, donor engagement, prospect research, reporting, forecasting, and decision-making.
- Identify opportunities to leverage AI-powered tools to improve staff productivity, automate routine processes, and uncover new fundraising opportunities.
- Collaborate with fundraising teams to integrate AI into prospect identification, donor segmentation, personalization, portfolio management, and stewardship strategies.
- Assess and pilot new technologies that can strengthen fundraising performance and organizational effectiveness.
- Establish best practices and governance frameworks for the ethical, secure, and responsible use of AI and advanced analytics.
- Monitor emerging industry trends and recommend innovations that position the organization as a leader in modern fundraising practices.
Team Leadership
- Lead, develop, and manage the Fundraising Operations and Gift Administration & Donor Care teams, establishing clear goals, service standards, performance measures, and a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Provide training and support to fundraising staff on systems, reporting, analytics, and emerging technologies.
- Serve as a trusted advisor to fundraising leadership on systems strategy, organizational performance, and technology investment decisions
- Develop and manage the Fundraising Operations budget, including technology, vendor, and consultant contracts
Qualifications
QUALIFICATIONS
Background and Experience
- Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent years of professional experience; advanced degree or relevant professional certification.
- 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in fundraising operations and advancement services, fundraising intelligence and analytics, including experience leading a significant function or portfolio.
- Advanced, hands-on experience with Salesforce as a fundraising CRM, preferably Nonprofit Cloud, including reporting, data models, and integrations with giving platforms.
- 4+ years of experience supervising and leading teams.
- Significant experience developing fundraising dashboards, KPI frameworks, reporting systems, and performance analytics.
- Strong project management, process improvement, and change management skills.
- Demonstrated understanding of emerging AI technologies and the ability to evaluate and apply them to fundraising operations, analytics, and organizational decision-making.
- Experience leading cross-functional initiatives and managing external vendors.
- Demonstrated ability to set functional strategy, establish priorities, influence senior stakeholders, and lead organizational change across complex, cross-functional environments.
- Intellectual curiosity and resourcefulness
- Flexibility and adaptability to changing priorities in a fast-paced growing team environment
Preferred
- Advanced degree or relevant professional certification preferred.
- Experience implementing fundraising technology integrations and marketing automation platforms.
- Experience leading a CRM migration or major fundraising system implementation, preferably a move to Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud.
- Proficiency with Tableau or other business intelligence and data visualization platforms.
- Experience within an international development, humanitarian, or complex nonprofit organization.
- Knowledge of data governance, AI governance, privacy, and ethical technology practices.
SUCCESS MEASURES
- Improved data quality, CRM adoption, and user satisfaction.
- Consistently accurate and timely gift administration, responsive donor care, and measurable adherence to service standards.
- Accurate and timely fundraising forecasts and executive dashboards.
- Increased operational efficiency through automation and process improvement.
- Successful implementation of AI-enabled tools that improve productivity and fundraising outcomes.
- Reduced reporting burden on frontline fundraisers.
- Strong governance and adoption of fundraising technologies across the organization.
Location and work arrangement
- Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
- This position is based in the Washington, DC office and requires a minimum of two days per week in the office.
- Candidates must reside in the Washington, DC, Maryland or Virginia metropolitan area by their start date.
