Donation Acquisition Manager

Goodwill Northern Michigan; Traverse City (MI); On-site; USD 48,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Goodwill Northern Michigan is seeking a Donation Acquisition Manager to lead efforts in increasing donated goods and enhancing donor engagement. In this role, you will coordinate donation drives and community outreach while ensuring an exceptional donor experience.

The ideal candidate will have managerial experience in a fast-paced environment, strong communication skills, and the ability to work autonomously. This position offers a collaborative atmosphere working alongside retail store leadership to improve donation operations.

Qualifications

• Ability to provide support, motivation, direction, and training to staff.
• Good organizational and communication skills required.
• Ability to coordinate multiple donation activities.

Responsibilities

• Plan and execute donation acquisition activities.
• Build and nurture donor relationships.
• Monitor and support unattended donation centers.
• Track and report on donation acquisition activities.

Skills

Emotional intelligence

Initiative

Organizational skills

Communication skills

Education

High school diploma or GED

2+ years of managerial experience

Associate or bachelor's degree in retail or business management

Tools

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Excel

Job description

Description

As the Donation Acquisition Manager, you will lead donation acquisition activity to grow donated goods through unattended donation centers, community engagement, donation drives, and donation partnerships, while strengthening donor engagement and ensuring an exceptional donor experience at attended and unattended donation centers. You will work in collaboration with retail store leadership to support and improve performance at existing store donation doors through training, coaching, and consistent donor relationship practices. This role supports the smooth flow of donated goods into production by aligning donation activity, donor communication, and site readiness across locations. The ideal candidate demonstrates strong emotional intelligence, takes initiative, maintains a continuous-learning mindset, and can work effectively with both guidance and a high degree of autonomy.

Responsibilities

1. Plan, coordinate, and execute donation acquisition activities including unattended donation centers, donation drives, special collection events, and community outreach opportunities.
2. Develop and maintain donation partnerships with businesses, organizations, and community groups to increase donation volume and donor engagement.
3. Build and nurture donor relationships by creating a consistent, welcoming, and appreciative donor experience and assisting with donor questions or concerns in a timely, professional manner.
4. Provide training and ongoing coaching to donation door teams to strengthen donor stewardship behaviors (greeting, thanking, and assisting donors), improve customer service, and reinforce consistent donation acceptance practices.
5. Support operations at attended donation centers by ensuring safe, clean, and donor-ready donation areas with up-to-date signage, supplies, and clear traffic flow.
6. Monitor and support unattended donation centers by coordinating site checks, communicating maintenance needs, and partnering with internal teams to address overflow, safety, and donor experience issues.
7. Partner with store leadership and Donated Goods/production teams to align donation acquisition activity with processing capacity and support an efficient flow of goods.
8. Track and report on donation acquisition activity (e.g., drive results, partnership outcomes, donor inquiries) and use data to identify opportunities to improve donor engagement and donation volume.
9. Support accurate donation counts and documentation through routine audits (including camera audits where applicable), process reinforcement, and coaching.
10. Coordinate donor-facing communication and materials (signage, event information, partner instructions) to make donating easy, clear, and welcoming for all donors.
11. Partner with store teams to coach and reinforce donation door standards, including greeting and thanking donors, offering assistance as appropriate, donation acceptance guidelines, and donation receipt processes (as applicable).
12. Support routine donation audits (weights/counts) and coach teams on process improvements that increase donations while maintaining safety and operational efficiency.
13. Other duties as assigned.

Reports to: Director of Donated Goods

Supervises: No direct reports; provides dotted-line support, training, and coaching to Donation Attendants and store donation door teams in coordination with store leadership.

Education, Licenses, Certifications and Experience

• High school diploma or GED.
• 2+ years of managerial experience in a high volume fast paced business - retail or other customer service-oriented environment preferred.
• Current valid driver's license without restrictions.
• Associate or bachelor's degree in retail, business management or related field is preferred.
• Ability to acquire a Chauffeur’s License and a D.O.T. medical card preferred.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Ability to provide support, motivation, direction, and training to new and existing staff.
• Ability to coordinate multiple activities.
• Good organizational skills required,
• Must have effective communication skills, both oral and written.
• Ability to make timely and thoughtful decisions.
• Intermediate computer skills with Microsoft Outlook, Teams, Word, and Excel.

Physical and Other Requirements

• The work environment is sometimes hectic with occasional high stress and occasional short deadlines.
• Routinely walks, stands, pushes pulls, bends, kneels, reaches, twists and turns throughout the shift.
• Medium lifting (20-50 pounds of force) with occasional heavy lifting (exerting 50-100 pounds of force).
• At least 30% of the role is office-based work, routinely using phone, email, and other computer applications to communicate, coordinate donation activity, and complete administrative tasks.
• Reliable transportation. Requires regular travel to all sites.
• Ability to work weekends, holidays and evenings as needed.
• This position is considered a Safety Sensitive position and is subject to zero tolerance under the Goodwill Industries of Northern Michigan Drug Free Workplace Policy.