The African Impact Foundation (AIF) is a small NGO registered in the UK, South Africa and Zambia. Our mission is to equip young people with education and skills to move out of poverty. We currently focus our impact effort in Livingstone, Zambia.

The role of the Donor Relations Coordinator is responsible for connecting with donors, so they feel part of our journey and assisting in increasing donations. Our donors are from all over the world, and this role will improve our engagement and communication with our supporters. This is a new role, so we have some steps and learning to get the role and responsibilities clarified, so a person who can adapt and has ideas for improvement is essential.

This role will report to the Executive Director and work closely with the Fundraising specialist, digital marketing coordinator and team in Livingstone, Zambia. The position is a 1-year contract, including 3 months probation, with a review after 9 months of employment with the aim to go permanent. The role will start part-time (25 hours per week), with the potential of additional hours as donations increase.

The Donor Relations Coordinator is responsible for:

Donor Database management – (our new database is Bloomerang)
• Manage the content of the donor database, ensuring donors’ details, information, and interests are up to date.
• Create basic reports on donors and donations to share with the team.
• Update donation information from weekly updates from Finance reports and donation platforms (our central donation platform integrates with Bloomerang, but other donations require manual uploading).
• Ensure program and campaign information is up to date on the backend and other fields.

Donor communication
• Based on the donor communication calendar, liaise with the Livingstone team to get the stories and updates required for donor updates, newsletters, video clips and photos.
• Welcome and thank new donors based on a donor communications framework agreed with the fundraising specialist.
• Provide specific updates to ‘Sponsor a Child’s education’ donors on progress and how the child they are sponsoring is doing at school (information received from the Livingstone team)
• Create touch points with donors based on their involvement and interest, based on a donor communication calendar, agreed with the Fundraising specialist.
• Create email newsletters and media to update and engage donors. Liaise with the digital marketing coordinator to learn and review look and feel.
• Respond to donor enquiries and questions in an agreed timeframe for quick response.
• Be creative in the media we use to engage donors, keeping with the tone and feel of our Foundation throughout.

Update donation platforms
• Review and update our donation platforms to keep relevant and work well for our donors. Platforms include FundraiseUp GlobalGiving, Give as you Live, Benevity, CAFAmerica, Facebook donate and others.
• Assist in the set up of new platforms or moving donors onto FundraiseUp.
• Ensure new donors from any platform are entered into the donor database.

Fundraising admin and reporting
• Assist in creating donor reporting or media for corporates or grant organisations (this is currently a small number of organisations).
• Coordinate small campaigns with the Livingstone volunteer team (African Impact) to encourage peer-to-peer fundraisers in the volunteer house.
• Explain to visiting interns how our donor database works and, at times, get them involved in projects to improve it.
• Produce ad hoc reports and stories as required by the AIF team.

Must have skills and experience:
- 3 years of experience working in a donor communications role
- Experience in CRM simple management, both front end and backend.
- Experience in creating emailer newsletters, outlines for media (to guide team on the ground) and choosing relevant and quality images.
- Ability to communicate, both written and verbally, in a clear, engaging and helpful way.
- Good computer skills and the ability to use Microsoft Outlook, Word and Excel
- Excellent organisational and time management skills as role based on communication calendar.
- Must have strong English skills and preferred experience communicating with people from other countries.
- Confidence to work independently from home and willingness to take initiative
- Ability to put oneself in other’s shoes and good listening and collaboration skills
- Passion for youth development