Community Engagement Lead, Teacher & Donor Marketing

DonorsChoose engages the public in public schools by giving people a simple, accountable, and personal way to address educational inequity. In this clip, board member Stephen Colbert tells our story.

To date, teachers at 87% of all the public schools in America have posted classroom project requests on our site. Projects range from paper and markers for a poetry writing unit to violins for a school recital. More than 4 million “citizen philanthropists” have supported such projects, channeling books, field trips, technology, and other resources to more than 40 million students nationwide. In all, we’ve generated $1 billion for learning experiences designed by our country’s most dedicated public school teachers.

GOOD Magazine highlighted us as one of 30 Places We Want to Work, while Fast Company named DonorsChoose.org one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World—the first time a charity has made this list. Through its dedicated team and culture, DonorsChoose earned recognition as the #1 "Best Nonprofit to Work For" by the Nonprofit Times.

Part of the Marketing Team, the Teacher & Donor Marketing Team exists to connect, empower, and build programs and events that inspire our community of 250,000 teachers and over 600,000 donors. We do this in part by 1) listening to and advocating for our user needs, 2) building and running community channels and programs, such as our teacher Facebook community, and 3) crafting and project managing big campaigns throughout the year that uplift teacher needs and particularly rally support for classrooms that have been systematically underfunded because of racial and socioeconomic inequities. 

In this position, you’ll own community initiatives, engagement programs, and campaigns that deepen our connection with our teacher and donor audiences. 

For teachers, that means working alongside colleagues on fresh community-based initiatives that drive teacher engagement, as well as managing existing strong channels like our 30K-member teacher community, where you’ll be overseeing everything from moderator management to setting the strategy for this channel. For donors, that means ideating and experimenting with new volunteering, giving circle, and word-of-mouth programs that increase loyalty and engagement with the DonorsChoose brand.

Your responsibilities will include: 

Building and overseeing programs that meaningfully connect teachers in community with one another, and explore similar opportunities for donors

• Manage our vibrant teacher Facebook community with 30K members who are excited to share classroom resource recommendations, exchange tips in getting project funding, and connect with each other and DonorsChoose staff.
• Conceptualize, test, and codify new ideas for programs that similarly deepen donor engagement with DonorsChoose, through connection-building with one another, teachers, and/or our staff.
• Pilot new initiatives that bring together teachers in schools that have been underfunded because of racial and socioeconomic inequity, as well as creating communities among groups underrepresented in the teaching profession (e.g., male teachers of color, as well as teachers of color generally).
• Oversee these existing and experimental programs, report on results, and advocate for where our team should invest to build brand loyalty and teacher and donor usage of DonorsChoose in classrooms where we can have the greatest impact.

Managing campaigns that engage and mobilize teachers and donors around a specific focus for giving

• Work alongside our Director of Teacher & Donor Marketing to create a ‘big events’ calendar for the year, capitalizing on tentpole moments like back-to-school and Giving Tuesday, as well as additional opportunities where we could be poised to rally urgent funding for schools.
• In identifying and pursuing opportunities, carry a north star metric of total dollars we send to schools in keeping with our organization’s Equity Focus, where the majority of students qualify for free or reduced price lunch and the majority of students are Black, Latino, and Native American. (Read more about our equity focus: https://www.donorschoose.org/equity-focus.)
• Project manage 2-4 of these large events a year, bringing together collaborators across the full organization to raise between $1M-$4M for teachers in just one day.
• Strategize with teammates on how to use big moments to engage our community, owning related mini-projects that experiment with short-term community-based initiatives around a big giving day.

Acting as an audience expert in shaping our communications strategy

• As an on-the-ground communicator with our teachers and donors, funneling insights back to our head of Editorial and larger marketing team.
• Bubble up trends from our teacher community and help to drive internal prioritization and action based on those insights.
• Especially uplift trends from teachers of color and teachers in Equity Focus schools, ensuring that decisions we make about marketing priorities are firmly based on those audiences’ goals and needs.
• Be a voice for our donor users based on the programs and initiatives you’re building, bringing a strong perspective when evaluating communications on what will excite and motivate our donor audience.

This position might be for you if:

• You care deeply about public school teachers and students—the idea of helping them access funding and resources sounds like a dream.
• You’re passionate about racial justice, and you’re excited about the opportunity to amplify the voices of teachers and students of color, as well as working with individual donors motivated by fighting the role that systemic racism plays in educational inequity.
• You are a natural organizer who thrives on building and cultivating communities (on and offline).
• You’re the kind of person who can start a conversation with anyone, and no matter how much or how little you seem to have in common at first, you end that conversation with a new friend.
• You have strong communication skills and are confident in writing, presenting to an audience, or picking up the phone to chat with someone directly. 
• You are a strong project manager who is comfortable pitching or owning an idea, building a plan, corralling colleagues, and measuring results.
• You’re goal-oriented (especially when it’s a goal you’re really passionate about), and when you face challenges, your instinct is to think inventively and problem-solve. 
• You’re a pro at juggling multiple priorities and are eager to try different strategies to see what works.
• You thrive on being part of a team, and you love riffing on ideas with trusted teammates to solve thorny problems.
• You exceed expectations. You go above and beyond to make a positive impact on everything you do.
• You have past experience with fundraising (either in your personal or professional life), and you’re comfortable talking with individual supporters about how they want to make an impact through donations.
• 1-3 years of experience in marketing, project management, or community engagement jobs are a plus.

Compensation for this role is competitive with equivalent roles at other nonprofits of our size. In addition, we offer full-time staff 25 paid vacation days per year and 11 paid holidays, a rich employer-paid individual and family health plan, a matching 401(k) plan (up to 5% of base salary), annual professional development stipend, and casual and flexible work environment. To learn more about what it is like to work for DonorsChoose, visit our careers page.

In this role, you’ll have the option to work a flexible hybrid schedule in our NYC office, or to work fully remotely from CA, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, MD, MI, NJ, NY, OR, PA, TX, or WI.

DonorsChoose is a fully vaccinated workplace and all new employees, regardless of their work location, will be asked to share proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 within two weeks of their hire date or request an exemption from this policy due to a disability or sincerely held religious belief or practice.

Please submit your resume online and answer the application questions. A cover letter is optional and may be addressed to Katie Vallas, Marketing Director, Teacher & Donor Marketing.

The DonorsChoose team works toward a nation where students in every community have the resources needed for an excellent education. To do this we hire and support a diverse team of the best and the brightest talent available.

We are an organization increasingly representative of the varied races and ethnicities, genders and sexual orientations, religious and political beliefs, and abilities that comprise our nation. DonorsChoose focuses on attracting, retaining, and advancing diverse talent because it makes us more effective, high-performing, creative, and resilient.  
If you are passionate about our mission, highly skilled in your field, and looking for a place where you can bring all of yourself to work, we want you.