Associate Director, Donor Communications

About this role

About the role
The Associate Director of Donor Communications manages the day-to-day operations of ClimateWorks’ donor communications function, overseeing the products, strategies, and touchpoints that help the organization build trust with current and prospective funders and raise capital for climate solutions. This role is the operational leader of a function whose mission is to make fundraising dreams come true — developing the white-glove funder strategies, broad-based communications, stewardship touchpoints, and tailored products that directly support Philanthropic Partnerships in moving funder relationships forward.
The Associate Director supervises the donor communications team (currently two direct reports) and manages across three core areas: product development and funder-facing messaging, broad-based funder communications strategy and execution, and white-glove stewardship and cultivation approaches for high-priority funders and prospects.
This role reports to the Director of Partner + Program Communications, who sets the overarching audience strategy and provides the cross-program, cross-audience perspective that informs donor communications priorities.

About the Marketing and Communications department
The Marketing and Communications team strengthens ClimateWorks’ ability to achieve its mission by shaping how the organization communicates, builds trust, and engages the partners needed to scale climate solutions. The team ensures that ClimateWorks’ role, strategy, and impact are clearly understood by the audiences positioned to fund, implement, and amplify this work.
The department is structured around three leadership areas: Institutional Communications & Public Affairs (media, editorial, events, CEO thought leadership, and organizational narrative), Partner & Program Communications (funder engagement, program and service messaging, and grantee/partner audiences), and Creative Studio, Channels & Operations (visual identity, channels, marketing systems, and production infrastructure).

How you will contribute
Product development and funder-facing messaging
● Oversee the development of donor-facing materials that help funders understand ClimateWorks’ strategy, value, and impact — including decks, memos, talking points, stewardship materials, narrative briefs, and tailored two-pagers.
● Translate organizational and program content into funder-ready products, ensuring materials are grounded in the language of impact that resonates with philanthropic audiences.
● Build and maintain messaging frameworks for donor communications, ensuring consistency, coherence, and strategic alignment across programs and partnerships.
● Manage the intake, scoping, and workflow for donor communications requests, setting appropriate levels of support and ensuring work is aligned with audience and relationship goals before production begins.
● Make recommendations on readiness, review pathways, and approval processes — including when Philanthropic Partnerships needs to be involved in developing or reviewing materials.
Broad-based funder communications
● Manage the strategic cadence of communications that keeps ClimateWorks’ funder community informed, connected, and confident — using segmentation, audience mapping, and right-sized channels.
● Oversee the development of segmented communications strategies for funders across roles (principals, program officers, advisors, communications staff), ensuring that different audiences receive content appropriate to their relationship with ClimateWorks.
● Partner with the program communications team and Partnerships to ensure narrative consistency across all funder touchpoints.
● Oversee list hygiene, audience mapping, and lead triage to support a clear view of how funders interact with ClimateWorks across channels.
White-glove stewardship and cultivation
● Oversee the development and execution of individualized stewardship plans and cultivation strategies for top-tier funders and high-priority prospects.
● Deliver key donor moments and high-impact engagement experiences in coordination with Events and other MarComm teams.
● Provide leadership and program staff with tailored narratives, talking points, and preparation for meetings with funder principals and CEOs.
● Ensure stewardship and cultivation touchpoints work together to build trust and unlock relationship movement, supporting moves management with materials and strategic insight.
Prospect engagement
● Own the development and execution of prospect engagement strategies that expand ClimateWorks’ philanthropic pipeline beyond current funders.
● Build activatable prospect campaigns — peer-to-peer outreach, program-adjacent prospect days added to existing convenings, outreach to philanthropic associations and climate-adjacent funders, and similar strategies that don’t depend solely on individual philanthropy manager capacity.
● Identify and develop engagement pathways for new-to-climate funders, working with Partnerships to understand the prospect landscape and prioritize outreach.
● Track and report on prospect engagement activity and pipeline development, ensuring visibility into what’s working and where to invest further.
Team management
● Supervise the donor relations team (currently two direct reports), providing coaching, guidance, and career development support.
● Assign work and manage capacity across the team, ensuring priorities are clear and workload is sustainable.
● Maintain a coordinated view of all active donor communications work — products in development, stewardship touchpoints in progress, broad-based communications in the pipeline — so the Director and Partnerships have visibility into what’s happening and what’s coming.
● Manage donor communications workflows, intake processes, and project timelines to ensure consistent, high-quality execution.
Collaboration and coordination
● Serve as a primary operational liaison to the Philanthropic Partnerships team, ensuring alignment between…