Wildcat Sanctuary Marketing & PR Manager

The Marketing Manager is a full-time, onsite position and is responsible for envisioning and executing an innovative communications strategy that advances our mission, secures philanthropic support from current donors with an emphasis on increasing new donor acquisition.

This position is also responsible for supervising a team of full-time staff, volunteers and interns and ensuring that their tasks are completed in a timely and efficient manner, while meeting the fundraising objectives.

The Marketing Manager will oversee external messaging for the organization, including press releases, social media, digital marketing, print materials, and fundraising appeals. In addition, this position must lead the use of technology and AI to increase giving and new donors.

The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of managing revenue driven messaging across multiple platforms, including PR, social media, email and direct mail. This role involves implementing unique strategies tailored to communications and fundraising goals and objectives, utilizing platform-specific tools and automation, reporting on performance metrics, and staying updated on the latest trends and best practices for new donor acquisition.

The Wildcat Sanctuary’s mission is to provide a natural sanctuary to wild cats in need and inspire change to end the captive wildlife crisis. We are an accredited, non-profit sanctuary nestled between the beautiful lakes, fields and forests in rural Sandstone, Minnesota, conveniently located between Duluth and the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Key Responsibilities

• Leadership & Supervise (25%)
  • Develop comprehensive fundraising and marketing plans and objectives in conjunction with the Executive Director with targeted goals, quantifiable outcomes, and timelines.
  • Prepare budgets and effectively manage financials, staff, and department resources to achieve these goals and objectives.
  • Recruit, interview, hire, retain and reward full-time Communication Specialists.
  • Recruit, interview, on-board and manage our Media Internship program (typically 2 interns per session).
  • Support a successful learning journey for your team with quality direction and training in photography, video editing, writing, social media and measuring success.
  • If any position in the department is open, you must be able to fulfil those duties during absences to meet communication and fundraising objectives.
• Communication and writing (25%)
  • Ensuring persuasive communication across all outlets is consistent with brand standards and organizational messaging. Gain in‑depth knowledge of the organization, sanctuary industry, and be a responsible steward of the information.
  • Strong grasp of technology and analytics to reach new donors in the most effective ways, improve performance, and measure the return on our investment.
  • Act as the conduit to communicate with our supporters via videos, animal sponsor updates, video scripts, social media posts, etc. using creative and compelling writing to inspire change to end the captive wildlife crisis.
  • Confident and well-spoken on and off camera.
  • Drive media coverage by drafting and distributing press releases.
  • Website support and vendor management.
• Photography & Video (~25%)
  • Serve as one of the sanctuary’s lead photographers and videographers to create and produce compelling and meaningful content in a timely manner, according to our fundraising plan and individual assignments for digital and print media. This includes writing scripts for videos and may include travel to document rescues.
  • Create graphic treatments for marketing channels including photo cropping, watermark overlay, text treatments and simple program logos while adhering to TWS brand guidelines.
  • Maintain all of TWS’ equipment and digital assets including equipment and digital assets used/created by the Animal Care team.
• Social Media (~20%)
  • Manage and optimize campaigns across social media, ensuring alignment with organization objectives and budget constraints.
  • Develop and implement innovative strategies to maximize the effectiveness of social media ad campaigns, including audience targeting, creative recommendations, bid management, and landing page recommendations.
  • Monitor campaign performance regularly, analyze key metrics, and make data-driven decisions to optimize campaign performance and ROI.
  • Oversee and manage daily social media posts, comments, and messages across all platforms in a manner that supports the TWS voice and new donor acquisition.
  • Stay abreast of social media and technology changes by following non-profit and technology industry reports.
  • In partnership with the Volunteer Coordinator, develop and manage a volunteer social media team to help manage comments and messages.
• Other duties as assigned (~5%)
  • Donor event support (typically 2-3 events per year)
  • Manage Wi Fi and internet vendors
  • Maintain department training documentation