Job Description
Main Areas of Focus: Subscription/recurring giving growth · Donor acquisition, retention & lifecycle · Paid media leadership
Location: Remote, Nashville, TN preferred · Monthly travel to Nashville required
Eligibility: charity: water hires from all 50 states. At this time, we are only considering candidates eligible to work in the U.S. without sponsorship.
HIGHLIGHT
As Director of Consumer, you will own charity: water’s most important revenue mandate: growing the Spring, our recurring giving community and the financial engine that sustains the mission. You’ll lead a team responsible for every stage of the consumer donor journey, from first gift to long-term commitment, building the systems, programs, and channels that bring new donors in and deepen their connection over time. Reporting directly to the VP of Global Marketing & Partnerships, you will own a full-funnel fundraising strategy spanning paid acquisition, lifecycle retention, and campaign management; directing agency and contractor partners on paid media while managing two direct reports. This is a role for someone who thinks in lifetime value, builds in systems, leads with data, and is energized by the idea that more Spring donors means more clean water for communities in need.
JOB SUMMARY
The Director of Consumer will own charity: water’s $25M+ consumer revenue target. Your north star is Spring: the number of recurring donors enrolled, how much they give, how long they stay, and how many move deeper into their giving over time.
You set the strategy, hold the brief, and own the outcomes: campaigns drive 1x giving, lifecycle keeps donors and moves them deeper and paid media finds the next audience. Your job is to architect that engine and hold all of it accountable to Spring growth.
Paid media is central to this role. You are fluent in performance marketing — strategy, channel mix, audience targeting, creative testing, budget management and experienced directing agency partners to execute against your vision. Long-term, you’re building toward an AI-optimized model that reduces cost and agency dependence. You understand where that trajectory leads and are actively steering toward it.
YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR…
Spring Revenue & Donor Growth
Owning charity: water’s Spring recurring revenue target — acquisition, retention, upgrade, and LTV — as the primary measure of team success
Building and managing the full-funnel consumer donor journey from first gift through multi-year commitment. Actively looking at how to accelerate a donor’s depth of giving and move consumer donors into Mid & Major portfolios
Designing and optimizing the 1x-to-Spring conversion pathway, evaluating one-time giving programs primarily through a recurring conversion lens
Partnering with the VP and Revenue Resources team to define ‘major donor ready’ signals and build the handoff infrastructure that captures them
Paid Media & Agency Leadership
Owning paid acquisition strategy across all channels (paid social, paid search, TV/CTV, display, direct mail); setting the brief, directing agency and contractor partners, and holding them accountable to performance
Managing a multi-channel paid media budget with rigor — forecasting, tracking, and reporting on CAC, CPA, ROAS, and revenue attribution
Building toward an AI-optimized media operating model that replaces long-term agency dependence, staying current on how AI is reshaping paid acquisition and accelerating its integration it into how the team operates
Team Leadership & Channel Management
Managing and developing two direct reports: Campaign Senior Manager and Lifecycle Senior Associate, with clear performance expectations and regular developmental feedback
Building the feedback loops between paid media, lifecycle, and campaign functions that compound learning across every activation
Owning channel performance metrics: CPA, ROAS, retention rate, upgrade rate, Spring conversion from 1x, and LTV
Leading the Consumer team’s experimentation and testing infrastructure; frameworks that generate learning across creative, audience, and channel, not one-off tests
Systems & Cross-Functional Collaboration
Partnering with Growth Product to improve Spring conversion rates, ARPU, and retention through landing page and onboarding experimentation
Partnering with Data & Analytics to establish Spring donor performance reporting as a single source of truth across acquisition, retention, upgrade, and LTV
Collaborating with Corporate Partnerships on shared audience strategy; partnership-driven awareness feeds paid retargeting poolsWorking with Revenue Resources on the upgrade pathways that move Spring donors toward major giving
Integrating AI tools into Consumer team workflows; creative optimization, audience targeting, performance monitoring
YOU MUST HAVE…
8-10 years in consumer marketing or fundraising with direct ownership of revenue targets, including significant time in a growth or performance marketing capacity
Hands-on paid media experience, you have personally directed paid acquisition strategy across digital channels (Meta, Google, paid social) and understand media planning, audience targeting, creative testing, and budget management at a meaningful scale. Agency direction experience required.
A commitment to integration & collaboration. You’re more eager to see the organization’s revenue grow then just Consumer. You work well with Product, Engineering, and Design teams to deliver exceptional experiences and strong experimental designs.
Extensive experience with subscription or monthly giving programs. You have owned a recurring revenue product (subscription, membership, or monthly donor program) and have demonstrated results in acquisition, retention, and upgrade.
Full-funnel fluency: you’ve managed or closely directed paid acquisition, lifecycle communications, and campaign programs as an integrated system, not separate functions
Experience managing direct reports and agency or contractor relationships. You’ve developed people and held external partners accountable to performance
Strong analytical instincts. You are comfortable with CAC, LTV, retention cohort analysis, and the metrics that distinguish a healthy recurring revenue program from one quietly eroding
Clear POV on how AI is changing paid media and marketing operations and a track record of leaning into new tools before they become standard
IT’S AN ADDED PLUS IF YOU HAVE…
Experience in nonprofit fundraising or with mission-driven consumer audiences
Familiarity with direct mail as a channel; audience segmentation, cadence strategy, creative testing
Experience building or scaling a recurring giving or membership program from the ground up
YOU’LL BE SUCCESSFUL IF…
You are Spring-obsessed. You think about donor lifetime value, recurring enrollment, and retention rate the way a SaaS operator thinks about MRR and churn. You know that a donor who stays is worth more than three who leave. The mission is the reason the number matters and you hold both.
You think in systems, not tactics. You don’t just run campaigns, you build the infrastructure that makes every campaign smarter than the last. Testing frameworks, performance feedback loops, cross-channel learning; these are how you create leverage from a lean team.
You lead people with clarity. Your team and agency partners know what they own, what success looks like, and how their work connects to the larger goal. You develop talent, resolve ambiguity early, and create an environment that attracts strong performers.
You are AI-forward, not AI-curious. You’ve already started building AI into how you work; creative testing, audience analysis, performance monitoring. You understand where media buying is going and are building toward it, not managing around it.
You take initiative.
You see something that needs improvement and you take action. You propose solutions to problems and research subjects that will help you do your job better. You’re proactive about making sure various departments have the information they need about your projects.
You have a team ethos.
You thrive in a creative, inventive, fast-paced start-up environment, with people who are passionate about their work and mission. You’re excited to work cross-functionally with other departments.
TEAM OVERVIEW
The Marketing & Partnerships team is a deeply passionate and highly skilled group of storytellers, marketers, and makers. We create innovative campaigns, craft powerful stories, and deliver world-class experiences to help the world, along with our amazing community of supporters, become more aware of the global water crisis and inspire them to join us in our mission to end it.
HIRING TIMELINE
This role was posted on June 1, 2026 and will remain open for approximately 90 days.
SALARY RANGE
This is an exempt role with a range of $149,000 - $158,000 a year.
BENEFITS & PERKS
Unlimited PTO
Summer Fridays
6-week paid sabbatical leave after 5 years of employment
Annual bonus potential through The Pool
401k plan + employer match
Medical covered at 85% + Dental/Vision contributions
FSA + dependent day care FSA
Employer-paid life insurance, STD, LTD
16-week paid maternity and paternity leave for new parents
Stipends for Home office, Professional Development, and a You-do-You Perk
TSA Pre-check reimbursement
Flexible working hours; team members are expected to be online 10am - 4pm ET regardless of location, plus three hours per day asynchronously, which factors in an hour for lunch
2-4 annual travel requirements that foster team alignment, connection and in-person collaboration
ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW
At charity: water, we believe that water changes everything. We work with local implementing partners to fund sustainable solutions that provide clean and safe drinking water to people around the world. Since 2006, with a diverse team of world-changers and an unstoppable community of supporters, we’ve brought clean water to more than 20 million people worldwide. With the makings of a mid-size tech startup, we’re reinventing charity through endless innovation, contagious passion, beautifully crafted stories, and a powerful brand that inspires a new kind of generosity.
At charity: water, we value every background, identity, and experience. We believe that a diverse team, informed by different cultures and perspectives, makes us stronger. We are committed to doing the work and challenging each other to be an organization in which everyone is respected and heard. We commit to providing genuine opportunities for all people to thrive. And we will continue to embed diversity, inclusion, belonging, and equality in everything we do.
Note, charity: water will never ask you for your credit card or financial information during the interview process. Should you receive a message requesting this information, please mark the email as spam and report here.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
