Vice President, Campaign Engagement & Stewardship

How You’ll Contribute

The Advancement team cultivates, solicits, and stewards individuals, as well as foundation, government and corporate partners who invest in the Society to drive impact through science, technology, education, exploration, and storytelling. The team collaborates with Society teams – and often works closely with NGP/Disney – to build transformative and impact-driven strategic partnerships. The team also produces global events that deepen connections and leverage the Society’s power to convene, and directs robust annual, major and planned giving programs empowering the Society with a broad base of public support.

Reporting to the Chief Advancement Officer, the Vice President, Campaign Engagement & Stewardship provides enterprise leadership for donor engagement, volunteer leadership strategy, and stewardship excellence across the Advancement division. As the Society prepares for and executes a major multi‑year comprehensive campaign, this role is responsible for integrating volunteer leadership engagement and donor recognition frameworks, ensuring the seamless delivery of high‑touch stewardship, cultivation, and recognition experiences that advance campaign and fundraising priorities.

The Vice President will serve as a senior integrator and culture‑setter, cultivating a service‑oriented, partnership‑first approach across Advancement that aligns programmatic storytelling, resource allocation, and engagement strategies with donor needs and institutional priorities. Responsibilities include close collaboration with executive leadership and peer Vice Presidents to ensure unified brand alignment, effective cross‑functional workflows, and measurable return on investment across high‑stakes donor initiatives.

Your Impact

Responsibilities Include:

Enterprise Campaign Engagement & Stewardship Strategy (40%)

• Spearhead the strategic integration of volunteer leadership engagement and donor recognition frameworks, ensuring a seamless, high‑touch experience across campaign phases, giving societies, and donor segments.

• Provide executive oversight for stewardship and engagement strategies supporting the Board of Trustees, Advancement Committee, and principal donors.

• Manage  the Campaign Engagement & Stewardship budget, ensuring investments in recognition, engagement, and stewardship deliver measurable value and align with campaign priorities.

• Ensure the development and delivery of sophisticated stewardship and cultivation materials that reinforce donor confidence, gratitude, and long‑term commitment. 

Collaboration and Brand Alignment (35%)

• Cultivate a service‑oriented culture across Advancement, reinforcing a partnership‑first approach to programmatic storytelling, donor engagement, and internal collaboration.

• Partner with peer Advancement Vice Presidents to prioritize high‑impact fundraising activities, align messaging, and bridge silos to maximize effectiveness.

• Collaborate closely with executive leadership, the Vice President of Partnership Marketing and the Vice President of Integrated Brand Marketing to ensure a seamless transition and unified brand alignment across all high‑stakes donor collateral, engagement experiences, and recognition materials.

• Serve as a senior advisor to the Chief Advancement Officer on donor engagement strategy, stewardship investments, and organizational alignment.

Operational Effectiveness & Project Management Oversight (25%)

• Drive departmental ROI by aligning engagement strategies, resources, and workflows with Advancement priorities and campaign outcomes.

• Provide leadership oversight of the Project Management (PM) function, ensuring predictable execution, clear prioritization, leadership visibility, and disciplined delivery across Advancement initiatives.

• Partner with PM leadership and senior directors to optimize workflows, manage capacity, reduce operational risk, and scale effective practices.

• Ensure Advancement leaders and teams are focused on donors and strategy (not logistics) through strong systems, accountability, and execution discipline.

What You’ll Bring 

Educational Background

Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred.

Minimum Years and Type of Experience 

15+ years’ work experience in nonprofit advancement. 7+ years of management experience.

Necessary Knowledge and Skills

• Demonstrated success in leading within a collaborative, service-oriented Advancement environment, aligning stewardship, engagement, storytelling and operations of a non-profit organization. 

• Understanding of donor lifecycle marketing and the ability to develop tailored strategies for diverse audience segments.

• Strong understanding of how stewardship, engagement, messaging and operational discipline intersect to support fundraising outcomes with proven experience leading the end-to-end development and execution of compelling, multi-channel campaign creative that aligns to overall brand voice and strategic goals.

• Excellent project management and organizational skills, and the ability to prioritize, delegate, and foster accountability work in a fast-paced, evolving environment. 

• The ideal candidate can translate a strategic vision into compelling content that acts as the vital link between a brand platform and concrete fundraising objectives.

• Commitment to the mission of NGS – must adhere to the highest ethical standards, demonstrate an empathetic disposition and perseverance, and convey sensitivity to the needs of donors, staff and volunteers. 

• Skilled at collaborating across multiple departments in a complex organization.

• Excellent attention to details and follow through as demonstrated through effective project management experience. 

• Strong executive-level communication skills, with the ability to influence, align and advise senior stakeholders. 

• Presents a high degree of sophistication, self-confidence and self-motivation – ability to keep calm under pressure. 

• Comfort multi-tasking multiple deadlines and projects and follow through. 

Desired Qualifications

• Exceptional ability to synthesize complex information and guide decision-making across multiple stakeholders exercising a high degree of initiative, judgment, discretion, and decision-making to achieve organizational objectives. 

• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a goal-oriented team environment. 

• Ability to exercise sound judgment independently when responding to inquiries and interacting with high-net-worth donors, volunteers and staff. 

• Strong personal and professional integrity.

• Experience managing and developing senior leaders and a varying range of other NGS staff. 

• Experience partnering with project management functions to drive predictable execution and leadership visibility

• Background in large‑scale campaigns or transformational fundraising initiatives strongly preferred.

Supervision 

3 direct reports, supervising a team of approximately 10 staff

Salary Information

The National Geographic Society offers a competitive and holistic total rewards package. Our compensation structure and transparent pay philosophy are based on industry-specific market data for similar-sized nonprofit organizations.

The salary range for this position accounts for a wide range of factors including but not limited to organizational need; specific skill sets; experience and training; certifications; and more. At the National Geographic Society, individuals are typically hired at or near the starting point of the salary range for their role, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case.

The salary range for this position is $209,000.00 - $220,000.00.

In addition, the National Geographic Society offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits package that includes, but is not limited to, medical, dental, and vision insurance; engaging and comprehensive wellness program; 401(k) retirement savings plan with matching contributions after 6 months of employment; flexible paid time off benefits with up to 22 days of paid annual leave per calendar year (15 days for new hires in their first year, prorated based on the number of pay periods remaining in the year) and 10 days of sick leave; 12 paid holidays and a paid winter break between December 25 and 31 (May not apply to all roles that are required to work during high volume seasons or essential workers. Please check with the hiring manager for confirmation.); paid parental leave, adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility benefits; learning and development opportunities; Lifestyle Spending Account; pet adoption assistance and insurance; pre-tax transportation benefits with a generous employer subsidy; employer-paid life insurance and disability benefit; and a variety of National Geographic discounts and perks.

Job Designation

Hybrid - At the Society, we believe in the advantages of coming together to build community, mentor and learn from colleagues, and connect more deeply with our mission. As a result, the majority of our staff are Hybrid. Our Hybrid category requires that staff work at Base Camp two days each week: every Tuesday and Wednesday. Hybrid staff are also always welcome to come in additional days each week if preferred.

Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States. This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

We encourage you to apply even if your experience is not a 100% match with the position. We are looking for someone with relevant skills and experience, not a checklist that exactly matches the job description. We want to help you grow and in return, you help us grow into a stronger, more inclusive organization.