Manager, Donor Services & Insights - Alight (MN)

Katherine Jacobson

Manager, Donor Services & Insights

Full Time | Minneapolis, 2-3 days in office
Reports to Chief Marketing & Engagement Officer | May 2024

Please visit Alight's Career page for full listing & to apply!

Hello Hello! So you’re interested in joining us? Welcome, we’re happy you’re here.

When you join Alight, you’ll find…

A team with deep experience in co-designing solutions that create new value around the world. We know we need to always be better, and we believe in the power and abundance of everyday people, everywhere, to change the world with us.

A culture of radical accountability to our customers – as we help build a meaningful life for and with the displaced, we ask them what they want and then deliver on it.

An organization that refuses to settle for anything less than delivering human-worthy services.

If you are looking to be part of a living, breathing, ever-changing organization full of disrupters and doers, then read on!

The Team

The Marketing and Engagement Team (MET) is comprised of the following departments: Annual Fund, Global Connections (Major Gifts), Partnerships & Government Affairs, Marketing & Communications, Donor Services, and Operations. This role will work closely across all MET teams and affiliate subsidiaries, while leading the Donor Services department.

The team is ambitiously advancing the work of Alight by actively engaging donors, supporters, and partners in a way that is meaningful to them and promotes Alight’s work worldwide. We raise Alight’s brand awareness and differentiate Alight in the eyes of our customers, partners, and funders so that we can further our impact with displaced people around the globe.

We strive to represent the diverse communities we serve. Applicants who contribute to this diversity and those who bring lived experience with displacement are strongly encouraged to apply.

The Role

The Manager, Donor Services & Insights leads private fundraising operations for Alight and three affiliate subsidiaries (Questscope, Eastern Congo Initiative, and Organization for Refuge, Asylum, & Migration). The successful candidate will be a strong people manager or demonstrate the promise of becoming one, as they lead a team of two full-time and three part-time colleagues. This role is responsible for managing fundraising processes and systems, leading the Donor Services team to receive and acknowledge private gifts, administering donor information systems, leading reporting to finance, and overseeing data analysis, reporting, and insights. The role provides training to all Raiser's Edge users, including fundraisers, and is responsible for all department financial reporting – including maintaining department dashboards.

Building a shared organization takes time and intention. We will always be becoming Alight, which means your work will evolve as well. As with all of our teammates, we anticipate an agile mindset and workstyle to take on other projects as assigned.

For now, here’s how you could anticipate spending your time:

Donor Services & Gift Processing

• Oversee and manage workflow of donor services team, always through the lens of Donors as Customer and anticipating needs to prepare for high-volume times
• Lead weekly meetings and schedule cross-over meetings with other teams to stay updated on activities and aligned on deliverables
• Run quarterly and annual reviews for team members, analyzing work output and performance against personal and team goals
• Assign gift processing schedule for Alight and subsidiaries, ensuring daily, weekly and monthly consistencies. Regularly process gifts yourself
• Ensure acknowledgement letters include the most up to date content and are mailed in a timely manner, whether handled in-house or outsourced

Database & Donor Information Systems Management

• Serve as unit lead on administration of the Raiser’s Edge database, including building and maintaining data structure, coding, and reporting functions
• Manage integration of fundraising software (Raiser’s Edge, Classy, Omatic, Match360, etc.) and provide solutions for future streamlining and efficiency
• Manage global data movement across systems where software integrations are not established, including global adds/changes to donor records and syncing donor data across CRMs
• Analyze and update donors in fundraising portfolios annually, and implement consistent reviews of new donors for appropriate inclusion
• Lead analysis and reporting on private fundraising, donor reports, and campaigns
• Onboard and instruct new users [fundraisers, executives, donor services, affiliate staff] on the proper way to utilize the Raiser’s Edge (database and NXT) and Classy CRMs, tailored for their user needs. Maintain up to date training documents and videos
• Manage relationship with key affiliate staff and ensure compliance to Alight standards as well as affiliate needs. Understand and implement mandated and optional tasks as defined in the service agreement between Alight and affiliates.
• Refine and update quality control reports to monitor the accuracy of data on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis as needed
• Guide colleagues to improve tracking of constituent relationships and actions, always ensuring donor comments are recorded to improve future correspondence

Financial Management & Compliance

• Review and submit documentation for bank entries. Ensure coding reflects donor intent and notes are tracked properly. Make edits to gifts as needed and work with staff to correct ongoing errors
• Ensure financial structures mirror both Finance and Enterprise systems to support organization-wide financial reporting against goals
• Work with Finance monthly to reconcile all affiliates against bank statements
• Manage data transfers between the Raiser’s Edge and the Finance Serenic database to ensure consistency against platforms. Review and submit adjustments
• Annually, provide data as requested for the Audit and 990 Schedules
• Work with Administration and provide data to ensure Alight and subsidiaries are properly registered in any relevant states
• Manage requests for charity campaigns, track reports, and ensure donor info is recorded when provided
• Ensure organization language is up to date on watchdog, employee giving, and charity giving sites

Qualifications

These are “must-haves” when you join Alight:

Open heart and open mind. You start by listening. You believe another person’s truth and it changes you. It unlocks your way of thinking in that moment, it opens your world.

Curiosity. You are always learning. You ask why and why again. You know that change (big and small) is constant, which means your curiosity to learn is matched with adaptability to evolve.

Trust. You believe that people do their best, are disciplined, and care about this as much as you do. You take responsibility for your part and know how to step back and give others the space to shine.

We’re also looking for the following technical competencies:

• Proven track record managing dispersed teams
• Excellent organizational skills: the ability to work productively in a fast-paced environment + the ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously
• Experience leading remote and in-person teams and managing work outputs
• At least 5 years experience in Raiser’s Edge database & NXT
• Experience with Omatic, Classy, and software integration
• Detail oriented: consistently strives for accuracy
• Experience creating, modifying, and enforcing data management procedures
• Working knowledge of Finance systems and ability to create and execute reports
• Proficient on PC systems, including Microsoft Word, Excel, and Windows Outlook
• Bachelor’s Degree in relevant field

Benefits & Compensation

Compensation starts at $78,000 annually

Borderless Team of 2,500 staff worldwide that sees possibility, celebrates moments of abundance, shares new ideas, and strives to do a better thing every day.

Family Friendly – We know that you are a whole person with a life and a family. We honor this. In return, we expect that you will take ownership of your work and follow-through on your commitments; sometimes that means flexing your schedule and we’re good with that.

Learning & Development – Access thousands of free online learning courses to take at your own pace and tailor to your professional goals.

Health, dental, and MedEvac Insurance – We strive to offer the best-in-class healthcare plans to our staff each year. We cover 100% of the cost for your health premium and 75% of the cost for coverage for your spouse/dependents.

Retirement – We contribute 6% of your salary regardless of your contribution amount, after one year of service.

Generous Leave Time – Between vacation days, personal leave days, and holidays, you have ample opportunity to take time off when you need it.

Application Process

A cover letter is required as part of the application so we can learn more about you beyond your resume. Within the online job application, you will also be asked to respond briefly to the following questions:

• We believe in an abundant world full of amazing people who want to help. Please share a moment of abundance that you’ve experienced in your life or work.
• Please provide 3 questions you would like to ask us.
• Is there anything else you'd like us to know about you?

Interviews to be conducted on a rolling basis.

Alight

We are on a journey to build Alight, a new platform of amazing people and organizations providing lifesaving services and creating breakthrough solutions for and with the displaced. WeAreAlight.org

Alight is an Equal Opportunity Employer offering employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, citizenship, physical or mental disability, or protected veteran status. Alight complies with all applicable laws governing nondiscrimination in employment.