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

Responsibilities

• 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.
• 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.

Requirements

• 8+ years of progressive nonprofit development experience, including experience with chapter-based, affiliate, or peer-to-peer fundraising models.
• 3+ years of experience managing staff or leading a team.
• Demonstrated experience building or scaling peer-to-peer, grassroots, or volunteer-driven fundraising programs.
• A proven track record of meeting or exceeding ambitious revenue and participation goals, with specific, measurable wins you can speak to.
• An athlete's mindset: high energy, competitive drive, resilience after setbacks, and a hunger to keep improving.
• A coach's ability to motivate, hold accountable, and bring out the best in staff and volunteers alike.
• Comfort operating with a high degree of autonomy and accountability, and the ability to give and receive candid feedback.
• Experience developing training, toolkits, or resources to support a distributed or volunteer fundraising network.
• Strong relationship-building skills with the ability to motivate and support volunteer leaders across a geographically dispersed organization.
• Demonstrated success working with CRM systems (preferably Salesforce) and peer-to-peer fundraising platforms.

Preferred

• Bachelor's degree in nonprofit management, business administration, or a related field.
• Experience in membership-driven, chapter-based, or affiliate nonprofit organizations.
• Familiarity with the military and Veteran-connected community.
• Experience with peer-to-peer fundraising software (e.g., Classy, GoFundMe Charity, OneCause).
• Experience in a high-growth, performance-driven culture (nonprofit or private sector).

Benefits

• Blue Star Families empowers military and Veteran families to thrive by connecting them with their civilian neighbors — both people and organizations — to create strong communities of mutual support. We believe we're all stronger when we take care of one another.
• Our groundbreaking research is raising the nation's awareness of the unique challenges of military family life. With the help of neighbors across the country, Blue Star Families is overcoming the isolation and alienation of frequent moves, deployments, and reduced support from the government. Our innovative programs are solving specific challenges for military families, including fighting economic insecurity with resources that foster spouse career development, creating family strength with rich family programming, and providing critical peer support for caregivers, whose numbers are only increasing.
• Blue Star Families is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.