Direct Marketing Specialist

About the Department: 

Join our dynamic Marketing Department, where creativity meets purpose. Our team is dedicated to crafting compelling campaigns and content that inspire and engage our community. We strive to amplify our mission, drive donor engagement, and create meaningful impact through innovative strategies and storytelling. 

Job Purpose: 

The Direct Marketing Specialist is responsible for planning, executing, and optimizing personalized donor communications across email, WhatsApp, direct mail, and other direct-response channels. This role plays a critical part in donor acquisition, retention, stewardship, and revenue growth by creating data-driven, segmented donor journeys that deliver the right message to the right supporter at the right time. 

Working closely with the copy, digital marketing, creative, and data teams, the Direct Marketing Specialist leverages Salesforce Marketing Cloud and CRM insights to build meaningful donor experiences that strengthen engagement, increase lifetime value, and deepen supporter loyalty. 

Essential Duties & Responsibilities: 

• Donor Journey Strategy & Personalization 

• Design and manage segmented, personalized donor journeys across multiple products. 

• Develop lifecycle communications for donor acquisition, onboarding, cultivation, retention, reactivation, upgrade, and monthly giving conversion. 

• Create audience segmentation strategies based on donor behavior, giving history, interests, demographics, engagement levels, and campaign responses. 

• Identify opportunities to improve donor experience through automation, personalization, and journey optimization. 

• Email Marketing & Marketing Automation 

• Build, schedule, test, and deploy email campaigns using Salesforce Marketing Cloud. 

• Develop automated email journeys that support fundraising campaigns, stewardship initiatives, emergency appeals, and donor retention efforts. 

• Manage email audience segmentation, data extensions, subscriber lists, and automation workflows. 

• Conduct A/B testing on subject lines, content, calls-to-action, timing, and audience segments. 

• Monitor email deliverability, engagement metrics, and conversion performance. 

• WhatsApp & Direct Mail Communications 

• Develop and execute WhatsApp communication strategies that complement donor journeys. 

• Analyze performance and optimize messaging to increase engagement and donor response. 

• Coordinate donor mailings including appeals, acknowledgements, stewardship pieces, impact reports, and campaign communications. 

• Collaborate with internal stakeholders and external vendors to manage production timelines and mailing schedules. 

• Campaign Performance & Analytics 

• Monitor and report on key performance indicators including open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, donor retention, average gift value, and revenue generated. 

• Build dashboards and reports to measure campaign effectiveness and donor journey performance. 

• Use data insights to identify trends, opportunities, and optimization strategies. 

• Provide recommendations to improve donor engagement and fundraising outcomes. 

Qualifications & Competencies: 

Education & Experience 

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Fundraising, Business, or related field. 

• 3–5 years of experience in direct marketing, email marketing, fundraising marketing, or donor communications. 

• Experience using Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Salesforce CRM. 

• Experience managing automated marketing journeys and audience segmentation. 

• Experience within the nonprofit or fundraising sector is considered an asset. 

Knowledge, Skills and Attributes 

• Strong understanding of donor lifecycle marketing and relationship-building strategies. 

• Expertise in email marketing best practices, automation, and personalization. 

• Experience managing multi-channel direct marketing campaigns. 

• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret data and translate insights into action. 

• Excellent project management and organizational skills. 

• Strong written communication and copy editing abilities. 

• Knowledge of privacy legislation and communication compliance requirements. 

Success Measures 

• Increased donor retention and donor lifetime value. 

• Growth in email and WhatsApp engagement rates. 

• Improved conversion rates across donor journeys. 

• Increased revenue generated through direct marketing channels. 

• Successful implementation of automated stewardship and fundraising journeys. 

• Enhanced donor experience through personalized communications and segmentation. 

Hybrid Work Policy: 

IRC has a hybrid model where in-office requirements are based on distance from our Burlington headquarters or a regional office (Surrey, Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa). Depending on where you live, this can range from two days a week to one day a month.  

Commitment to Accessibility 

Islamic Relief Canada is committed to providing inclusive employment opportunities. Accommodation requests are invited at all stages of IRC recruitment, hiring, and employment processes. We make every effort to provide reasonable accommodations in a timely manner. If you have any accommodation requests or questions regarding the hiring process, contact us at [email protected] or 1-855-377-4673.