DonorsChoose engages the public in public schools by giving people a simple, accountable, and personal way to address educational inequity. In this clip, board member Stephen Colbert tells the organization's story.  

Since its launch in 2000, more than 3.9 million "citizen philanthropists" have donated to classroom projects on DonorsChoose, channeling books, field trips, technology, and other resources to more than 35 million students in public schools, overwhelmingly from low-income households. Along the way, the organization helped to pioneer the field of crowdfunding and is now making an impact beyond school supplies.  

Through its dedicated team and culture, DonorsChoosehttps://boards.greenhouse.io/donorschoose/jobs/4524655002 earned recognition as the #1 "Best Nonprofit to Work For" by the Nonprofit Times.

About The Team:

The Content & Volunteer Operations team has a front-row seat to the most compelling classroom-generated content on our site. We review all incoming project requests, and deliver the final touch to funded projects: handwritten student thank-yous for donors. 

Our goal is to guide, approve, and leverage this content to deliver a personal experience that inspires donor and partner loyalty. 

Our team of staff members works in tandem with a community of 400+ mission-driven volunteers to review project essays and facilitate gratitude through student thank-yous. This year, the team has collectively reviewed 400,000+ projects and 1,000,000+ individual student thank-yous. 

The Role:

Our team delivers the rewarding final touch to our project lifecycle: the donor thank-you. When donors give to a project on our site, they receive a thank you message from the teacher, and photos of the project in-action. Donors who give $50 or more can also opt-in to receive handwritten thank yous from students.

That’s where you come in! Every day, our office receives hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of packages filled with student thank-yous from classrooms across the country. When the mail arrives, you and your team (including 200+ in-person Gratitude volunteers) are ready to tackle the challenge. 

In this role, you will: 

• Oversee our NYC-based Gratitude volunteer program, and ensure that our program is appropriately staffed to review incoming student thank-yous within our turnaround time goals. 
• Manage a team of 4 part-time colleagues. Provide guidance, coaching, and support to ensure that the team is growing professionally, meeting their goals, and having fun while doing so. 
• Lead the charge on devising effective volunteer recruitment, engagement, and retention tactics to scale community output. 
• Cultivate a fun, friendly, and productive volunteer environment that keeps volunteers excited, inspired, and motivated to support our mission. 
• Monitor data and community trends in order to propose and advocate for process improvements, workforce recommendations, or other strategies to improve the volunteer and staff experience. 
• Ensure that program logistics (including budget oversight, supply ordering, and inventory) run seamlessly. 
• Develop and execute a calendar of engaging and informative volunteer-facing touchpoints, including: emails, website/social content, and events.
• Evaluate and continuously iterate on our community program to meet our organization’s evolving needs. 
• Represent our gratitude operations for external DonorsChoose initiatives, as needed (examples: 1-day corporate group volunteer events, conferences, etc). 

This job might be for you if:

• You believe in the power of volunteerism - and have the experience to prove it. You have hands-on experience with program development and coordination for volunteers. Bonus points if you have a proven track record of managing volunteers and/or a volunteer program. You’ve already started jotting down potential ideas to engage our community. 
• You are a seasoned people manager, and are motivated by bringing out the best in others. You have at least 1-3 years of management experience. You find joy in empowering your direct reports with the necessary knowledge, skills, and guidance to succeed. 
• You’re a natural relationship-builder and collaborator. You love forging authentic connections with others, and have a passion for mobilizing people around common goals. 
• You are a visionary thinker and stellar project manager. You get fired up by crafting and leading new strategies. When the rubber hits the road, you can translate big-picture ideas into action, and develop tactical plans to achieve ambitious outcomes. You execute work with a high degree of excellence (no dropped balls here!), can easily balance the needs of various stakeholders, and can proactively make tough prioritization decisions if time or resources are limited. 
• You are obsessed with efficiency, and fueled by a desire to continuously improve. You thrive in situations when you are charged to build systems to impose order, love to experiment with new approaches, and always strive to ensure that your second time doing something takes less time and effort than your first. 
• You adapt quickly to changing priorities. You know how to roll with the punches, and are excited by change. You are cool and collected under pressure, are adaptable to meet team needs, and perform best in a fast-paced startup environment. 
• You are mission-motivated, and passionate about educational equity. You care about helping teachers, and believe that all students should have equal access to educational opportunities.  

Skills and Qualifications:

• 2-4 years of full-time work experience
• 1-3 years of direct supervision experience 
• Ability to work beyond traditional working hours, on a limited basis. Occasional weekends and evenings may be required. 

To Apply:

Please submit your application online, addressing your cover letter to Jennifer Mao, Senior Manager, Content & Volunteer Operations.