Sr Director – Email and Text Strategy and Activation (Memphis, TN)

Description

The Senior Director, Email & SMS Strategy and Activation serves as the enterprise leader for two of ALSAC’s fastest‑growing and highest‑impact fundraising channels. This role is responsible for defining the long‑term vision, strategy, and activation roadmap for Email and SMS programs—driving donor acquisition, cultivation, retention, and revenue outcomes.

This is a transformational leadership role, not just channel management. The Senior Director will modernize segmentation, personalization, testing sophistication, compliance governance, and journey‑based automation, while deepening integration with Digital Product, Analytics, Creative, and Technology teams. The leader must translate marketing strategy into technical activation, particularly within Salesforce Marketing Cloud, while shaping future‑state capabilities across the enterprise.

This position will significantly influence how ALSAC communicates with supporters and will cultivate a high‑performing team that elevates channel discipline and drives enterprise impact.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Channel Innovation

• Lead the strategic planning, modernization, and execution of Email and SMS programs to increase new donors, retention, revenue per donor, active donors, and total net fundraising.

• Evolve audience segmentation, journey‑based activation, personalization, and test‑and‑learn frameworks to achieve breakthrough results.

• Develop and measure KPIs including deliverability, engagement, subscriber growth, retention, and revenue to guide optimization.

Data‑Driven Decision Making

• Analyze channel performance, donor behavior, and segmentation insights to drive strategic decisions and recommendations.

• Serve as an enterprise thought leader on data‑driven marketing strategy, test design, performance interpretation, and optimization.

• Oversee annual revenue and expense budget development and manage a multi‑million‑dollar investment portfolio balancing growth and efficiency.

Technical Activation & Platform Excellence

• Translate channel strategy into actionable technical execution, collaborating with technical teams to implement complex journeys and activation patterns—especially in Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

• Maintain expertise in deliverability, list health, regulatory compliance, content strategy, and emerging email/SMS platform capabilities.

• Innovate and implement industry best practices, ensuring channel scalability, stability, and readiness for future capabilities.

Cross‑Functional Leadership & Influence

• Drive deep integration with Digital Product, Analytics, Creative, and enterprise partners to align channel roadmaps, shared KPIs, and prioritization.

• Collaborate closely with Product teams on platform requirements, timelines, joint presentations, and enterprise‑wide capability evolution.

• Manage relationships with vendors, agencies, and partners to enhance program performance and accelerate innovation.

Team Leadership & Organizational Development

• Lead, mentor, and inspire a high‑performing team of Email and SMS practitioners.

• Foster a culture of innovation, data‑driven thinking, creativity, and operational excellence.

• Provide strategic guidance to leadership and staff regarding channel strategy, analytics, operations, and technical activation.

Operational Excellence & Governance

• Establish and enforce policies, procedures, and governance frameworks that drive operational efficiency, compliance, stability, and scalability.

• Proactively identify risks, troubleshoot issues, and strengthen long‑term channel infrastructure.

• Ensure budget adherence, consistent execution, and alignment with enterprise standards.

Job Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree and 8+ years of Email/SMS channel management experience.

• Extensive expertise in:

  Email/SMS deliverability, list health, compliance, and regulatory standards

  Segmentation, lifecycle marketing, and journey‑based activation

  KPI development, performance analytics, and optimization

  Salesforce Marketing Cloud (or similar enterprise‑level ESP/CRM)

• Demonstrated success managing large budgets and driving revenue at scale.

• Proven ability to lead and develop high‑performing, data‑driven marketing teams.

• Strong communicator capable of translating complex technical and marketing concepts for executives and partners.

• Ability to influence enterprise priorities, align cross‑functional teams, and drive shared roadmaps.

Preferred

• Advanced degree.

• Nonprofit or direct response fundraising experience.

• Experience guiding technical teams on activation patterns and platform configuration.

Work Location

This position is based at ALSAC’s National Executive Office in Memphis, TN and is eligible for a hybrid work schedule.

Benefits & Perks

• Core Medical Coverage: (low cost low deductible Medical, Dental, and Vison Insurance plans)​
• 401K Retirement Plan with 7% Employer Contribution
• Exceptional Paid Time Off
• Maternity / Paternity Leave
• Infertility Treatment Program
• Adoption Assistance
• Education Assistance
• Enterprise Learning and Development

ALSAC is an equal employment opportunity employer.

ALSAC does not discriminate against any individual with regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, disability, veteran status, genetic information or other protected status.

No Search Firms:

ALSAC does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All resumes submitted by search firms to any ALSAC employee or ALSAC representative via email, the internet or in any form and/or method without being contacted and approved by our Employee Experience team and without a valid written search agreement in place will result in no fee being paid if a referred candidate is hired by ALSAC.