Associate Director, Loyalty Giving
Doctors Without Borders · New York, New York, United States
About MSF USA | Doctors Without Borders
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an independent international organization that provides medical care to the people who need it most. The organization cares for people affected by conflict, disease outbreaks, disasters, and social exclusion in more than 70 countries. MSF offers medical humanitarian assistance solely based on need, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or politics. Our international project teams include medical, logistical, and administrative staff, most of them hired locally and working with their own communities. Our actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of independence, impartiality, and neutrality. We also bear witness and speak out about the experiences of our colleagues and patients.
MSF USA is one of 24 sections supporting the global movement, primarily through staff recruitment, fundraising, advocacy, and communications. We welcome candidates who bring a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences to join us in working toward MSF’s social mission. ROLE OVERVIEW
The Associate Director, Loyalty Giving leads MSF-USA’s strategy to retain, reactivate, upgrade, and convert one-time donors across low-dollar and midlevel audiences to increase revenue and long-term donor value. Reporting to the Senior Director, Individual Giving & Strategic Philanthropy (IGSP), this role serves as a strategic lead and subject matter expert in loyalty marketing, donor progression, and donor journey strategy, representing loyalty giving internally and across the MSF Movement.
The Associate Director develops vision, annual strategies, forecasts, budgets, performance targets, and investment recommendations for the loyalty portfolio, contributing to broader IGSP revenue goals. Using donor insights, market research, giving trends, analytics, and industry best practices, the role leads audience-centered strategies that strengthen donor experience, optimize performance, grow donor value, and accelerate movement through the donor pipeline. The role also advances innovation through testing, segmentation, tiering, and continuous data-driven improvement initiatives. A key focus of the role is turning first-time supporters into lifelong donors and driving consecutive giving.
This role oversees loyalty team operations, external partner relationships, and the leadership and development of staff. Working in strong collaboration with Integrated Channel Marketing to implement omnichannel campaigns and inform donor acquisition strategy, the Associate Director drives strategies to solicit, cultivate, steward and deepen engagement. They partner with stakeholders on conversion pathways to becoming sustainers, midlevel, legacy and high-value donors. They team closely across IGSP, Market Research, Data & Analytics, Legacy Giving and other cross-functional units to drive key outcomes. The role builds organizational alignment and ensures execution of loyalty growth priorities to deliver results.
DEPARTMENT ACCOUNTABILITIES
Prospecting
Pursue strategic opportunities in coherence with MSF-USA's strategy that create long-term value for the movement by identifying and developing new audience segments or donors for its mission.
Donor Cultivation, Engagement and Management
Build trust and loyalty with potential and existing donors. At the simplest level, update donors on activities. At a more complex level, build long-term relationships with key donors and key donor segments. Take overall responsibility for designing, developing, and delivering the donor engagement strategy. May be through channels or through personal relationships.
Fundraising
Secure reliable, sustainable and efficient resources in alignment with MSF-USA commitments.
Brand Positioning
Drive awareness and consideration through brand positioning based on the brand strategy and implement brand plans.
Best-in-Class Fundraising Systems and Capabilities
Deploy and champion the latest technological systems and capabilities that push the boundaries of what Development can produce for its donors.
ROLE SPECIFIC OUTCOMES
Leadership and Direction
Identify, communicate, and lead the function's strategy and action plan within a business area or department; while explaining how it ties in to MSF’s mission, vision, and values. Inspire and motivate others to drive commitment – and achieve extraordinary results.Donor Renewal
Craft and develop renewal strategy based on the donor type, focusing on specific elements within a service interaction.
Donor Experience Strategy
Apply strategic insight into industry and donor trends, working with the marketing function to integrate those insights into the development of the CX strategy, then translating this strategy into a business plan and annual targets.
Improvement and Innovation
Spot potential improvements in our existing business practices and bring forward innovative solutions. Develop and deliver these projects within the organization's change management program, working with guidance from senior colleagues.
Budget
Develop and/or deliver budget plans with guidance from senior colleagues.
Strategy Formation and Implementation
Develop tactical plans for optimizing resources and assets being managed within a given area or department
COMPLEXITY AND PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS
• Proficient in specialist field or discipline gained through deep and broad experience of concepts and principles.
• Excels at both big-picture critical thinking and day-to-day execution. Results-oriented with a data-driven decision-making approach.
• Unintimidated by ambiguity. Decision-making requires use of judgment and development of new or improved procedures and translating policy into operational plans.
• Able to balance short-term revenue, donor experience, and long-term donor value when making strategic decisions across the donor pipeline.
• Strong ability to identify audience segments, growth opportunities, and conversion pathways, and translate them into actionable strategies.
• High emotional intelligence and the ability to connect and communicate with a diverse range of personalities. Highly developed skills to motivate, inspire and persuade.
• Integrates and coordinates relationships within the organization; significant impact on results.
• Collaborative leadership, management, coaching and development of diverse staff
• Applies expertise to quickly and effectively establish trust internally and with external partners, acting as an authority to orient MSF USA around delivering to the key needs of stakeholders and donors.
• Team player with strong project management and organizational skills; openness to feedback and desire to grow.
• Financial acumen and disciplined approach to managing budget with integrity.
• Stays abreast of new trends and open to new ways of working.
BEHAVIORAL COMPETENCIES
People Focus and Network Building
Effectively builds strong stakeholder relationships, both inside and outside the organization, while delivering stakeholder-centric solutions. For example, solicits stakeholder feedback and data; conveys a clear understanding of the level of service the team is providing; takes action when standards are not met by team; aligns business process with stakeholder needs; makes connections to help people build their own network.
Manages Complexity
Asks questions to encourage others to think differently and enrich their analyses of complex situations. Accurately defines the key elements of complex, ambiguous situations.
Cultivates Innovation
Creates new and better ways for the organization to be successful. For example, motivates others to find new and better ways to address challenges; provides support and resources for promising ideas. Encourages people to incorporate varied perspectives to strengthen the innovation process.
Global Perspective
Takes a broad view when approaching issues, using a global lens. For example, encourages o