Vice President, Donor Marketing & Journeys - UNICEF USA

Vice President, Donor Marketing & Journeys

Location: Hybrid, Commutable to NYC

Reports to: Chief Philanthropy Officer

About the Role

UNICEF USA is on a bold path to grow and engage our supporter base to meet the moment for children around the world. We are seeking a strategic, data-driven, collaborative, and mission-aligned Vice President of Donor Marketing & Journeys to lead the development and execution of seamless, personalized experiences that support conversion, deepen engagement, increase retention, and drive long-term donor value.

This senior leader within the Philanthropy team is a thought partner to UNICEF USA senior leadership, driving cohesion between brand storytelling and performance goals and is responsible for implementing integrated marketing strategies across the full donor lifecycle - from conversion through stewardship and renewal. The VP will lead a high-performing team that combines lifecycle marketing, donor engagement, segmentation, channel execution, and creative content. This leader will harness technology tools, including generative and predictive AI, and partner closely with teams across the organization, primarily Marketing, Technology, and within Philanthropy, as well as our agencies, including our digital agency of record, and other supporting agencies to build a cohesive, modern donor experience grounded in performance, personalization, and human connection. The VP will also provide key input into strategy for brand marketing and creative to ensure full-funnel alignment of audiences, CTAs, leading the integration of brand-building in service of performance marketing.

This is a pivotal opportunity to shape how millions of supporters connect with UNICEF’s mission - and to help build a philanthropic engine that powers real, lasting change for children worldwide.

Key Responsibilities

Donor Journeys - Strategy & Execution

• Own the mass market end-to-end donor lifecycle across channels - from onboarding, engagement, and conversion through to retention, upgrade, and reactivation.
• Build and continuously refine integrated donor journeys across email, SMS, direct mail, paid social, search and web in collaboration with Marketing, Technology and external agency.
• Partner with the VPs of Brand Marketing & Communication, Integrated Marketing Strategy & Creative to unify brand and performance marketing strategies and optimize shared KPIs.
• Lead the development of strategic donor journey maps by donor segment, leveraging behavioral, demographic, and transactional insights to personalize experiences at scale.
• Lead rapid response fundraising strategy during global crises, ensuring agility and relevance.
• Leverage personas to define and manage audience-specific journey objectives, KPIs, and performance frameworks in partnership with cross-functional leads.

Performance, Analytics & Optimization

• Translate business goals into actionable campaign and journey strategies with measurable outcomes tied to conversion, retention, lifetime value and annual revenue of $115M.
• Lead test-and-learn strategy across lifecycle programs, applying A/B and multivariate testing to continuously optimize message cadence, content, and channel mix.
• Develop and own journey-level dashboards and performance reports in collaboration with Philanthropy Insight and Technology.
• Implement testing efforts and identify new opportunities to improve ad campaigns and integration with the Brand.
• Utilize advanced segmentation and behavioral modeling to tailor messaging and timing across lifecycle stages.
• Use cadence modeling to identify where increased contact reduces responsiveness or drives attrition—and translate into campaign adjustments.
• Develop suppression strategies and implement rest periods for disengaged donors; design re-engagement strategies for deeply lapsed, high-affinity donors.
• Cross-analyze direct mail, email, and digital touchpoints to consolidate messaging and eliminate redundant asks.

Cross-Functional Leadership & Collaboration

• Lead development and implementation of UNICEF USA’s individual donor growth and engagement strategy across multiple teams.
• Build strong partnerships for strategy alignment, budgeting, resource allocation and ROI-focused decision making.
• Partner with Marketing to align on brand objectives, audiences, storytelling, and funnel conversion strategies.
• Collaborate with Technology, Philanthropy Insight, Marketing Analytics, and external agency to advance analytics, CRM, AI integration, and marketing automation.
• Develop and manage budget, ROAS models, and campaign roadmaps with shared KPIs.
• Ensure seamless transitions and experience continuity across philanthropy teams.
• Manage relationship with digital agency of record in partnership with internal stakeholders.

Team & Capacity Building

• Lead and mentor a high-performing team responsible for donor journey design, segmentation, execution, and creative development.
• Establish scalable, documented processes for briefings, planning, QA, program management and reporting.
• Ensure team has skills and resources needed to deliver growth, including oversight of agency partners.
• Foster a culture of innovation, experimentation, and user-first thinking.

Qualifications

• 10 years of progressive experience in lifecycle marketing, digital engagement, direct response marketing, or customer/donor experience - preferably in a data-driven nonprofit or B2C environment.
• Deep understanding of brand strategy, performance marketing, digital attribution, and media mix modeling.
• Proven track record developing and executing journey strategies that drive measurable growth in acquisition, retention, and LTV.
• Experience defining shared KPIs and leading cross-functional goal alignment.
• Advanced analytics skills - cohort analysis, segmentation, churn modeling, LTV forecasting, A/B testing.
• Proficiency with CRM and marketing platforms (Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Adobe, Braze, Blackbaud CRM, etc.).
• Strong collaboration and stakeholder management skills - internal and agency-side.
• Executive communication skills with ability to translate data into strategy for senior leadership.
• Passion for UNICEF’s mission and a commitment to building human-centered donor experiences.

The estimated salary range for this role is $184,000 - $230,000. This represents UUSA's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting. Actual pay will vary based on various factors, including but not limited to organizational budgets, qualifications, experience, specialized skills, and training.

Interested in shaping the future of donor engagement at UNICEF USA? We'd love to hear from you - Apply here via LinkedIn.

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