Vice President, Direct Marketing & Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

About this role

Job Title: Vice President, Direct Marketing & Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

Department: Development

Location: Hybrid within Washington D.C. Metro area

Reports to: Chief Development Officer

Direct Reports: No

Classification: Exempt

Position type: Full-Time Employee

Anticipated Pay Range at Commencement of Employment: $128,000 - $177,000 per year

Blue Star Families

Blue Star Families is the largest nonprofit dedicated to making military life better for families. Each year, we support over 1.5 million military- and veteran-connected family members through a national network of 300,000+ members and local chapters in communities across the country.

Our mission is simple and bold: We make military life awesome for families.

We listen, share, partner, and act to deliver evidence-based, data-driven solutions that work for real people. We’re a lifestyle organization, a friend and neighbor, and a trusted partner. Our approach is collaborative, human-centered, and designed with the whole family in mind.

A Blue Star Family is one with an immediate family member — a spouse, parent, or child — actively serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, including the Guard and Reserves. These families face unique challenges: frequent relocations, deployments, career disruption, and isolation. We respond with research-informed programs that create connection, build resilience, and foster a true sense of belonging.

We serve with urgency but build trust over time — because change happens at the speed of trust. Whether we’re driving spouse employment, supporting caregivers, or helping communities welcome military families, we strive for upstream solutions.

Who We’re Looking For:

• Bold thinkers. Fast movers. Smart collaborators. People who want to build, lead, and drive measurable change — and who care deeply about making an impact that matters.

What You’ll Do Here:

• Solve complex challenges with data, heart, and humility

• Build cross-sector partnerships that get things done

• Help military families feel at home wherever they live

If you're ready to work in a high-performance, mission-driven environment — and to make life better for those who serve — Blue Star Families is where you belong.

General Description

The Vice President, Direct Marketing & Peer-to-Peer Fundraising leads the strategy and performance of Blue Star Families' direct response and peer-to-peer fundraising programs. This role grows BSF's broad base of individual donors through multi-channel direct marketing. It also builds scalable peer-to-peer and grassroots giving programs that engage volunteers, ambassadors, chapter members and community members as fundraisers on behalf of military families.

Reporting to the Chief Development Officer and directly supervising [direct report title(s)], this leader partners closely with Marketing, Development Operations and Chapters/Programs staff to integrate direct marketing and peer-to-peer fundraising into the organization's broader revenue strategy.

This role requires the ability to travel overnight several times per year to attend team offsites, leadership sessions, fundraising events and company-wide events. Attendance and participation in these gatherings is a non-negotiable component of the position.

Key Job Functions

Direct Marketing & Mass-Market Fundraising

• Oversee multi-channel direct response strategy, including donor acquisition, retention, reactivation, and upgrade pathways across direct mail, email, digital advertising, SMS, and other mass-market channels.

• Set annual revenue goals, budgets and performance benchmarks for direct marketing programs.

• Ensure rigorous segmentation, A/B testing, and performance-based ROI analysis to inform channel investment, with a bias toward rapid experimentation and scaling winning plays.

• Manage relationships with external direct marketing vendors and agencies (e.g., MissionWired), ensuring quality, timeliness, and cost-effectiveness; hold partners to the same high-performance standard as internal team members.

• Monitor campaign performance, donor acquisition costs, retention, and lifetime value metrics, adjusting strategy as needed.

• Build a clear pathway that moves donors from first-time gifts to recurring, mid-level and major gift potential.

Peer-to-Peer & Grassroots Fundraising

• Design and grow peer-to-peer fundraising programs (e.g., team and individual fundraising campaigns, DIY fundraising, ambassador programs) to diversify and expand BSF's donor base.

• Partner with Marketing to build compelling peer-to-peer campaign assets, digital fundraising pages, and participant communications.

• Develop toolkits, training and playbooks that equip volunteers, ambassadors and chapter leaders to fundraise effectively.

• Set and track participant recruitment, fundraising, and retention goals across peer-to-peer campaigns.

• Create a visible scoreboard and recognition program that celebrates top fundraisers and teams and fuels healthy competition.

• Launch, test, and iterate on new peer-to-peer concepts quickly, scaling winning approaches and retiring those that underperform.

• Convert peer-to-peer donors and participants into ongoing supporters through targeted direct marketing follow-up.

Team Leadership & Performance Management

• Supervise staff and provide leadership and coaching to expand the chapter fundraising support function.

• Develop, coach, and appraise staff to ensure high performance and professional growth, providing regular, candid feedback and addressing performance gaps promptly.

• Build a high-talent-density team in which every member understands the strategy, owns their results, and makes decisions quickly.

• Foster a collaborative, solutions-oriented culture aligned with BSF values across the chapter network, grounded in freedom, responsibility, and accountability.

Program Integration & Cross-Functional Coordination

• Partner with Marketing & Communications on donor messaging, campaign creative, branding and…