Managing Director, Marketing & Brand

About Robin Hood

Founded in 1988, Robin Hood is a 501(c)(3) public charity that finds, fuels, and creates the most impactful and scalable solutions lifting New Yorkers permanently out of poverty in New York City. We convene philanthropists, civil society organizations, government, businesses, nonprofits, community members, and those living in poverty to develop and advance programs and policies that can make the American Dream real here in New York City.

Our investments include best-in-class organizations providing legal services, housing, meals, workforce development training, childcare, education, and other vital services that give New Yorkers the tools to build better lives. The programs it funds are often the first of their kind and serve as demonstration models to identify what works before being replicated in other cities. Because our Board of Directors covers 100% of all administrative, fundraising, and evaluation costs, every dollar donated goes directly to organizations helping New Yorkers in need.

While Robin Hood’s primary focus is on New York, its impact extends far beyond the borders of the city. Its pioneering, metrics-based approach has become the gold standard for charities around the nation as Robin Hood works to understand and evaluate the impact of its partners to ensure that its philanthropic dollars are utilized to maximum impact. Robin Hood also supports its community partners and their leaders with financial and strategic support and management assistance that allows those organizations to maximize their impact.

Robin Hood also understands that if we are to support families living in poverty on the path towards financial independence, we must become an effective partner with government. We do this by collaborating with government partners to build program and policy innovations that hold the promise of expanding economic opportunity in New York City - providing nimble “risk capital” for high-potential strategies. We also work to advance public policies that research tells us expand economic opportunity. In this way, we seek to leverage our philanthropic investments by finding ways to advance the highest-impact strategies at scale.

Robin Hood has the unique ability to be a catalyzing force for those living in poverty, bringing distinct constituencies together to develop and spread the most effective strategies to advance economic mobility in New York City and beyond.

Our Approach:

• Focusing on Results: We invest in best-in-class organizations operating effective programs. We fund research to understand how poverty persists and what strategies are effective in fighting it. And we track grant outcomes and apply cost/benefit analyses to ensure every dollar we invest demonstrably improves the lives of low-income New Yorkers.
• Building Institutions that Transform New York City: We offer management advice, strategic real estate consulting, board placement services, financial and communications coaching, leadership development, and other technical assistance to help our partners increase scale and impact.
• Driving Innovation to Solve Unmet Needs: We invest in new leaders, new organizations, and new ideas that have groundbreaking potential.
• Scaling What Works: We partner with government and other funders to grow proven solutions in New York City and beyond, so more people benefit from investments that work.

Role Summary

Robin Hood is entering an important new chapter for its marketing function. Over the past several years, the team has built a strong operational foundation, formalizing the systems and editorial planning behind its donor-facing communications. Marketing now operates as its own function, distinct from Communications, and strengthening Robin Hood’s digital presence is a priority for both the Board and the organization.

As Managing Director of Marketing & Brand, you will lead this next phase. You will establish a single, consistent Robin Hood voice and visual identity, and you will build a more integrated, audience-driven approach that connects brand, campaigns, donor marketing, digital presence, creative output, and major organizational moments. Robin Hood is a venture philanthropy organization at heart, and its story calls for messaging that is both smart and effective with sophisticated audiences.

You will also serve as a senior thought partner to marketing leadership, helping translate Robin Hood’s mission, proof, events, partnerships, and leadership voice into marketing that builds reputation, relevance, donor engagement, audience growth, and action.

If you bring a clear point of view on brand along with the humility to build on what a strong team has already started, this role offers a rare chance to shape how one of New York’s most distinctive philanthropies speaks to the world.

The Managing Director, Marketing & Brand will report to the Chief Marketing & Events Officer and work closely with the Chief Development Officer.

Key Priorities for the First Year

In your first year, you will:

• Corral the voice: Listen across the organization, distill what you hear, and equip staff and board members with clear central messaging and collateral for priority fundraising campaigns.
• Deliver early digital wins: Partner with Robin Hood’s digital agency on its brand and digital audit and early experimentation, and build visible momentum on Instagram and LinkedIn.
• Set the plan: Within six months, present a marketing plan that defines direction, priorities, resourcing, and the metrics the function will use to measure success.
• Report progress: At one year, report on results against that plan, including how consistently Robin Hood’s voice and point of view show up across donor touchpoints.

Core Responsibilities

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Define and steward Robin Hood’s voice, point of view, and visual identity across every audience touchpoint, from one-on-one donor materials and events to CEO remarks and digital channels.
• Lead an integrated marketing strategy across donor marketing, campaigns, digital, social, web, email, creative/design, brand collateral, and event-related marketing.
• Build on the team’s existing marketing systems, tools, and planning processes to create greater connection across campaigns, content, audiences, channels, and major moments.
• Lead the planning, prioritization, and resourcing of the marketing, digital, and creative function, ensuring the team has the structure, capacity, agency support, and clear decision-making needed to deliver against organizational priorities.
• Provide senior leadership across Robin Hood’s digital work, including social, web, content, analytics, executive visibility, and future platform growth, responding to the Board’s priorities with Instagram as the first focus and a refined LinkedIn presence close behind.
• Clarify the role of each priority channel, beginning with Instagram as a platform for emotion, culture, talent, and belonging, and LinkedIn as a platform for proof, leadership, credibility, and peer influence.
• Translate Robin Hood’s strongest raw material, including proof, people, partners, and moments, into compelling campaigns and content that feel credible, emotionally resonant, useful to Development, and distinctly New York.
• Turn major events and organizational moments, including the Benefit, Investors Conference, Heroes Breakfast, donor campaigns, programmatic work, and leadership activity, into a stronger year-round marketing engine.
• Develop central campaign messaging and collateral that equips staff and board members to speak about Robin Hood’s work with one voice.
• Oversee the creative/design function to ensure Robin Hood’s visual identity, campaign creative, digital assets, donor materials, and event-related marketing are cohesive, elevated, and strategically connected.
• Partner closely with Development, Events, Communications, Program, and senior leadership to ensure marketing supports fundraising priorities, institutional messaging, audience growth, and high-quality stakeholder engagement.
• Evaluate the agency landscape and manage external agencies and consultants, including near-term digital agency support and outsourced content capture, ensuring their work is strategic, practical, well-integrated with the internal team, and useful in building capacity rather than creating parallel workstreams.
• Manage resources across the function, including people, budget, agency partners, timelines, and competing priorities, to ensure the highest-value work moves forward.
• Establish the function’s first clear framework for measuring marketing effectiveness, moving beyond vanity metrics to include quality reach, audience engagement, stakeholder amplification, donor/prospect signals, RSVP or conversion performance, and contribution to organizational goals.
• Guide the organization through the shift to a single voice and point of view, setting clear standards and holding colleagues to them while preserving room for their ideas and ownership.
• Lead and develop the marketing, digital, and creative teams through this next phase of growth, building on the strong work already underway and bringing the senior vision and management that create greater clarity and capacity across the function.

Ideal Candidate

The strongest candidates will bring most of the following:

• You are a senior marketing leader with at least 12 years of experience across brand, digital, social, campaigns, creative, content, audience growth, and donor or customer engagement, including 8 years of managerial experience.
• You have a clear point of view on brand and voice, along with the discipline to communicate it well and enforce it consistently across a complex organization.
• You think strategically and connect big ideas to practical plans, clear briefs, strong execution, and measurable outcomes, with the judgment to say yes or no based on what is achievable within nonprofit budgets and resources.
• You listen and observe before acting, build on the institutional knowledge already in place, and put the organization’s priorities ahead of a personal agenda.
• You are an excellent manager and cross-functional partner who builds trust, clarifies roles, manages resources, and leads through change in a way that feels additive to the team.
• You bring strong creative and editorial judgment, with a clear sense of what makes content meaningful, credible, shareable, and effective.
• You know how to motivate and engage external audiences. Experience with donor-facing or fundraising marketing is a plus.
• You appreciate Robin Hood’s venture philanthropy model and can bring it to life for sophisticated donors and the broader New York community.
• You are comfortable in a high-touch, relationship-driven environment with senior leadership, donors, board members, partners, talent, and internal teams.
• You are operationally strong and can manage agencies, budgets, timelines, priorities, and cross-functional workflows.
• You are results-oriented and mission-driven, and you understand that marketing should help build the conditions that make fundraising, reputation-building, audience growth, and donor engagement easier.

Salary and Benefits

Robin Hood offers a competitive compensation package, with a salary range determined by years of experience, skills, and abilities. Each candidate’s placement within the range will be based on these factors while ensuring alignment with our commitment to equitable internal pay practices, in accordance with the NYC Pay Transparency Law.

The salary range for this role is $200,000-240,000 base plus bonus potential based on performance.

Our extensive benefits include:

• Medical insurance
• Employer-paid covered dental and vision insurance
• Employer-paid life and long-term disability insurance, plus employer-paid Paid Family Leave premiums
• 403(b) retirement plan with employer match, and a 12% employer contribution to a 401(a) retirement plan
• Employer contributions to Health Spending Account (must be enrolled into the High-Deductible Health Plan)
• Pre-tax flexible spending account (FSA) for health care and dependent care expenses
• Paid time off, including 20 days of accrued PTO (prorated for new hires), plus a separate Sick and Safe Leave bank in accordance with NYC’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act
• Paid Parental Leave and NYS Paid Family Leave

Location

This position is based in New York City and follows a hybrid model, with team members on-site four days a week. Scheduling details may evolve based on organizational needs, with any changes communicated well in advance. This role occasionally requires evening and weekend availability for events and other organizational commitments.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Robin Hood is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, arrest or conviction record, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. Applicants from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

About Orr Group

Robin Hood has retained the Orr Group to conduct this search. Please direct all inquiries, interest, and nominations to the Orr Group search team.

Jessica Shatzel

Senior Director | Orr Group

Jshatzel@orrgroup.com

Orr Group is a strategic partner to nonprofit organizations, offering comprehensive fundraising and executive recruitment support that advances mission, maximizes philanthropic potential, and builds long-term sustainability. We specialize in the business of philanthropy, helping our partners drive results through data-informed strategies, embedded team members, and hands-on implementation.