About the role
You will contribute to the development and delivery of a rich donor retention programme, helping reduce attrition and keep our existing donor base engaged, energised and inspired by VSO’s work. You will play a vital role in the retention team within VSO’s Supporter Engagement Team. The role is based in Kingston Upon Thames, UK. Remote working options would be considered for this role for those based in the UK. Please ensure you have the right to live and work in the UK.
Job description
Are you passionate about creating a fair world for everyone? At the heart of our Public Fundraising Strategy is the delivery of the best supporter experience to engage our loyal supporters and reach out to new audiences and to motivate the public to engage with our vision and purpose: A fair world for everyone: Creating lasting change through volunteering.
We are looking for an experienced supporter engagement officer (retention) with excellent communication skills. You will develop and deliver fundraising campaigns that inspire VSO’s warm supporters to keep donating, including VSO’s regular giving product and telemarketing, among other activities. You will work as part of the retention team and develop strong relationships with teams across VSO raising the profile of the Fundraising team and campaigns.
The candidate will have the following varied lead areas of responsibilities. They will not, however, be limited to the below list. Full production and campaign management of VSO’s regular giving product, Volunteer View. You will deliver engaging blogs via post and email from the field, keeping our regular givers inspired and informed to keep giving. You will contribute to keeping attrition rates below monthly targets.
• Identify suitable volunteers in the field for Volunteer View, build good working relationships with them and gather quality content.
• Write bi-monthly blogs from the field that respect the volunteer’s voice and the primary actors they speak about, while also engaging donors in the UK.
• Build digital blogs on Drupal and launch emails via Mailchimp to deadlines.
• Manage the Volunteer View inbox and answer/process donor’s comments/queries efficiently and promptly. Full campaign management of VSO’s telemarketing campaigns throughout the year.
Deliver results to target, keeping to deadlines and budget:
• Write briefs that shine with VSO’s comms approach of portraying the power, resilience and courage of those we work with and their communities, while also inspiring supporters to uplift/reactivate or convert to a regular gift.
• Work productively with our agency to create impactful scripts that will inspire donors to listen and take the opportunity to reactivate/uplift/convert. Adjust as needed depending on results and feedback.
• Deliver excellent training sessions with our agency callers to ensure they feel part of VSO and have a thorough understanding of what the organisation does and why.
• Understand how testing matrixes can help produce more effective campaigns over time and bring this knowledge to improve our results.
Contribute to VSO’s monthly e-newsletter programme, providing warm supporters with engaging and compelling content that make supporters proud to keep giving and reduce attrition rates:
• Contribute leads and ideas to VSO’s e-newsletter content plan, providing the fundraising perspective and reflecting the themes and/or projects that are being featured in our retention campaigns. • Write one annual blog that supports a retention campaign, ensuring copy is free of jargon and is smooth and compelling to read.
Collaboration responsibilities: Work with the Supporter Engagement Team and the Supporter Engagement Manager (Retention) to:
• build a strategy and develop Volunteer View into a strong fundraising product that will keep attrition to a minimum and also be an excellent acquisition tool.
• contribute fundraising knowledge, experience and ideas to help develop retention strategies, keeping attrition rates down and raising more unrestricted income from our existing supporter base. • support the team with their learning and development as fundraisers.
Work with VSO’s Data & Insight team to:
• write briefs and check data files to an agreed schedule. • help produce data selections that support our creative and adhere to donor consent. • ensure we have a 360 process of analysing results and optimising the next campaign. Work with VSO’s graphic designer to: • create beautiful Volunteer View postal blogs that will inspire donors to read and keep giving regularly.
Work with external printers to:
• print and produce Volunteer View postal blogs to budget, quality and deadline. Work with our telemarketing agency to:
• build a strong working relationship that is the foundation of successful TM campaigns for VSO.
• launch effective TM campaigns to budget, quality and deadlines together, through excellent communication and project management skills.
• monitor campaign calls and results, flagging issues and working together to address/mitigate missed targets.
Work with VSO’s Programmes Team to:
• develop working relationships and ensure our communications accurately reflect the need and impact of VSO’s work.
• identify suitable content leads and use these to create retention communications.
Work with VSO’s Digital Team to:
• create landing pages for campaigns.
• contribute to VSO’s e-newsletter programme.
Competence required
• Good experience in direct marketing fundraising to drive income and manage attrition and engagement of supporters.
• Project management across multiple stakeholders (internal and external).
• Copywriting and/or editing skills.
• Great attention to detail in all areas of work, including in project management and feeding back and shaping effective and engaging fundraising copy.
• Understanding and experience of data segmentation and personalisation.
• Excellent communication skills used to working with stakeholders at all levels both internally and externally. Plus show you are a great team player.
• Competent in Microsoft tools for presentation, campaign management and budget management to a strong level.
• Ability to show initiative and develop processes to manage and improve campaigns.
• Excellent organisational skills and the ability to work towards multiple deadlines at the same time.
How to apply:
Equal Opportunities
VSO promotes equal opportunities and values a diverse workforce.
VSO reserves the right to close this job early if we receive a sufficient number of applications.
If you’re interested in applying for this role, please download the job description for more information.
Once you’re ready to apply, click on ‘make an application’ below to complete the online form here: