Growth Manager, Paid Media

About this role

Individual Giving has set an objective to double new donor acquisition in 2027 and expand our awareness through brand ads for key segments. Paid media is the biggest lever we have to get there, and as Growth Manager, Paid Media, you’ll own delivery of this important priority. To help get us there, GiveDirectly is planning to expand its spend on paid media.

We are looking for someone who will be a strong cultural fit—curious, keen not to follow industry standards but to look for disproportionately high-leverage opportunities, keen to constantly learn and adjust, and comfortable launching a paid program without agency support. This role would suit someone comfortable in a fast-paced environment, able to pivot and change tactics based on data and changing circumstances.

Reporting to our Director of Individual Giving, you’ll manage all paid acquisition for Individual Giving across Meta, Google, YouTube, and TikTok, and also work closely with the VP of Marketing to manage all upper-funnel media buys (e.g., newsletters, podcasts, etc.) for both the Individual Giving and Marketing teams. This role is responsible for executing our paid media program end to end, including negotiating and managing contracts, creating ads, capturing screenshots for documentation, publishing campaigns, and monitoring performance. You will also build our tracking and attribution systems and use that data to grow both one-time and monthly giving. To do so, we are looking for a strong individual contributor who is comfortable executing within the platforms without a big team or agency.

The Individual Giving team is responsible for generating revenue across donors with an annual gift below $50k. To do so, the Individual Giving team executes compelling public fundraising campaigns, drives creative donor-facing content, and tests new marketing initiatives aimed at expanding our donor base and raising awareness of direct cash transfers. You’ll join a small but high-performing team that runs several campaigns at once and works with a lot of independence. You’ll partner with Brand and Marketing colleagues each campaign cycle to ensure integrated marketing across all public-facing materials.

What you’ll bring:

• 3–5+ years in growth or performance marketing with a proven track record running paid media to a conversion or revenue target, in-house or agency, across Meta, Google, YouTube, and emerging platforms. Non-profit experience is a plus, but not required.
• Experience managing a paid media budget of at least US$5M a year with a track record of strong performance measurement, with the discipline to trust your own data over platform recommendations and the judgment to know when to scale a channel, cut it, or admit it isn’t working—pause and reset.
• A genuine test-and-learn habit: you design multivariable testing across creative, audience, messaging, and landing pages, using these insights to scale the program.
• Strong written communication, the ability to own creative direction of ads (from conception and drafting through launch), and experience with or a strong eye for graphic design (Figma, Canva). You’ll work with content creation teams for bigger projects, but initial ideation and direction should come from you.
• Strong, succinct communication, and the ability to work productively with a Brand and Marketing team focused on brand awareness.
• Alignment with GiveDirectly’s values and active demonstration of our core competencies: emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity.
• Experience with tracking and attribution to ensure detailed reports are shared with senior management.

Bonus skills:

• Experience with our tech stack (WordPress, Salesforce, PostHog, Google Analytics, Tableau, Zendesk, Ahrefs) or similar tools.
• Experience with paid ads with a non-profit of a similar size or an agency supporting non-profits.

What you’ll do

Own paid media strategy and performance to execute growth and brand goals

• Develop and execute the paid digital fundraising strategy that acquires new donors, grows revenue, and strengthens long-term supporter value across Meta, Google, YouTube, TikTok, programmatic, and emerging platforms (approx. 50% of time).
• Run top-of-funnel brand ads, from placement and contracting to creative direction and development, including podcasts, OOH, and connected TV (approx. 30% of time).
• Manage and optimize paid investment daily, monitoring spend, pacing, cost per acquisition, and conversion, and reallocating budget as performance dictates.
• Run a continuous test-and-learn program across audiences, creative messaging, channels, landing pages, and donation experiences, and turn results into decisions rather than reports.
• Make key and strategic recommendations to the Director of Individual Giving and VP of Marketing on where budget spend should be allocated based on performance data.

Grow one-time and monthly giving through paid

• Run acquisition and conversion campaigns for both one-time and monthly giving, testing paid tactics to grow the recurring program—the fastest-growing part of our portfolio.
• Optimize the digital supporter journey so paid campaigns connect cleanly to landing pages, donation forms, email, and CRM, maximizing conversion and retention.
• Analyze acquisition, conversion, revenue, and retention trends by segment to inform where the next dollar goes.

Measurement & Reporting

• Stand up standardized paid-channel attribution and UTM tracking so acquisition spend is evaluable outside the ad platforms.
• Build and maintain performance dashboards that connect campaign, website, and CRM data into a single view of what each channel returns.
• Develop a forecasting model that projects cost per acquisition and revenue by channel, so budget increases are decisions rather than bets.
• Report to senior management on budget and paid campaign performance on a bi-weekly basis.