Event Manager
World Vision USA
Level: Associate (4 years minimum experience)
Duration: 1-year limited-term assignment.
Must-Have Experience: A Bachelor’s degree or 8 years of equivalent work experience. In addition, this position requires a minimum of 4 years of work experience that includes designing, planning, marketing, and executing highly relational large-scale events.
Nice-To-Have Experience: Any language proficiency with Spanish, Korean, or Mandarin/Chinese.
Location: Flexible. Role can be based in 30+ U.S. states.
Travel: Up to 50% on a consistent basis to various weekend church services and other fundraising events throughout the U.S. or internationally.
Salary Range: Your salary is important to you so it’s important to us. If you need the approximate range to inform your decision on whether to apply or not contact Grace using one of the ways below. We have a robust and comprehensive benefits package to round out our total compensation package.
Benefits: Yes.
Company Size: 900+ (World Vision USA) / 37,000 worldwide (World Vision International)
01. The Job: You’re an event management professional aspiring to use your gifts and talents to make a positive impact on the world by eradicating poverty and transforming the lives of children, families and communities. Join World Vision USA as an Event Manager working alongside our Fundraising Events and Experience Team as together we inspire more donors to positively impact the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children through their support of products and programs such as child sponsorship, WASH, and more. Your role will have you working at the heart of our empowering new way to invite donors into making a life-changing connection with a child called Chosen, where the power to choose a sponsor is in a child’s hands. The stakes are high and our call to action is urgent. Nearly 1,000 children under age 5 die every day from diarrhea caused by contaminated water, poor sanitation, and improper hygiene. But we believe the global water and sanitation crisis can be solved within our lifetimes. And your expertise added to our team will be a difference maker. Be an integral contributor on a 6-person team that covers the strategy, event budget, planning, logistics, communication, integration, and optimization of events across the organization and with our church partners with a focus towards donor acquisition and fundraising. Your work will also include things like facility selection, vendor contract negotiations, event registration, food and beverage selection, audio visual service, speaker/entertainment, transportation, proper execution of event preparation and production details, event budgeting, and the like. Specifically, lead out with events at various weekend church services and other fundraising events throughout the US or internationally. Some seasons will be busier than others but travel on average will require 2 trips per month that run 3-5 days in duration. At larger events you’ll have assistance from your team as well as high-capacity volunteers from the church or location where the event is taking place. As an Event Manager, you’ll be a vital link in helping our team and the larger organization fulfill our funding commitments to the field with respect to our international relief and development work underway in nearly 100 countries around the world. The successful Event Manager will have a desire to build into and support the next generation of church leaders and globally-minded citizens by serving as a catalyst for introducing fresh perspectives, narratives, creativity, as well as have a gift for raising up and cultivating pioneering spirits that overcome the enemy of apathy and join the fight to solve poverty. At World Vision we have a God-sized dream to see multitudes of new children affected by poverty become sponsored by donors and for those children and their communities to experience the fullness of life that God intends for them. Do you share in this dream with us and so many others? We hope so. Reach out and let us know.
02. What success looks like: (1) You design, plan, market, and execute highly relational events and experiences that delight our donors and achieve the prayerful goals set for donor response rates/activation’s. (2) You effectively steward and strengthen key relationships with churches and pastors across the country that you touch with your work in the event management space. (3) You strive towards continuous improvement by consistently bringing innovative ideas and concepts to your event management work that improves the donor experience and improve our response rate. (4) You have a faith-centered passion to help carry out our Christian organization’s mission, vision, and strategies as well as personify the ministry of World Vision by witnessing to Christ and ministering to others through life, deed, word and sign.
03. Where this job could take your career: World Vision USA is a part of the larger World Vision International partnership. Globally, we have over 40,000+ staff working in nearly 100 countries. Just over 1000 of us call World Vision USA home. You’ll have opportunities to advance within our robust and talented group of fundraisers as you continue to stretch and grow your career for the future.
04. About World Vision USA: When you work at World Vision, your passions and talents come together to meet the greatest needs in the world today. We go to ends of the earth and into the margins. Where few go and the road is less traveled. Because Jesus is alive in the hardest places to be a child. We are dangerously soft-hearted. But just the right kind of dangerous. That’s because we’re a global Christian humanitarian organization. We partner with children, families, and their communities to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. We empower people out of poverty. For real. For good. For nearly the last 70 years. Jesus’ love at the center. Always. We’re Christian and follow Jesus’ example to show unconditional love to the poor and oppressed. Serving every child we can regardless of faith. Are you feeling called to explore joining us? We hope so.
05. You bring: A Bachelor’s degree or 8 years of equivalent work experience. In addition to education or equivalent work experience, we need you to have 4 years of work experience that includes successful large-scale event planning or project management. It goes without saying but the roots of success in this role will be in your ability to be highly relational and detail orientated. We know you can grow and flourish if you’re planted there. It’s a small ask, but we strongly desire someone that is proficient in Excel or Google Sheets. An added plus would be any experience you could bring using event planning/management platforms or apps.
06. Additional skills we’re interested in: Your deep passion to serve children, families, and communities in greatest need around the world through orchestrating events that contribute to generating the financial support from donors that relieves suffering, demonstrates unconditional love, and promotes sustainable transformation in their lives. A flare for flexibility and poise. You understand events never go 100% as planned so you’re quick to troubleshoot problems that arise getting everything and everyone back on track. The ripple effect is everyone around stays calm throughout and is able to give their best. People who know you well would say you have a winsome way with words. Your clear communication means you can explain anything to anyone. You’re a natural when it comes to speaking in front of a group of volunteers or leading a meeting. You bring a relationship-building bone. Meeting new people gives you energy and you might say something like “I’ve never met a person who wasn’t my friend”. You’re an effective networker who develops, grows, and maintains relationships both within and outside the organization. You know the importance of dialing up the right ice-breaker at the right time to strike up a meaningful conversation with someone. A “get it done” attitude that finds motivation from within. Grit is one of your greatest qualities. You understand that many hands make the light work and you’d never ask anyone to do something you wouldn’t do yourself. You get your hands dirty, lead from the trenches, and love the satisfaction that comes from a hard day’s work. Your laser focus means rarely do things fall through the cracks. You hold to a belief that anything worth doing is worth doing right, every single time. You love helping others and don’t get flustered easily. And finally, resourcefulness. If you don’t know the answer, you’ll dig in until you find it.
07. Let your work be your faith in action: Every day, nearly 14,000 children under the age of 5 die from preventable causes. Our call to action is urgent. That’s why we’re looking for someone who is ready to place their expertise behind helping the world’s most vulnerable children. Every project, every shoot, every edit can help influence whether someone chooses to help today or not. If not you, then who?
08. Salary Range & Benefits: Your salary is important to you so it’s important to us. If you need the approximate range to inform your decision on whether to apply or not contact Grace using one of the ways below. We have a robust and comprehensive benefits package to round out our total compensation package. Click here to learn more.
09. To Apply: go to – https://www.worldvision.org/about-us/job-opportunities/jobs and click on the latest listings. Still not sure? I really want to hear from you, even if it’s just to ask some questions about the job in confidence. Contact Grace in Talent Acquisition at gslaght@worldvision.org. or Connect with me on LinkedIn.
10. What happens next? Glad you asked. We owe you that and strive to not leave you wondering. We review applications nearly every day assessing strength of fit for the role. Sometimes questions arise on our end so we message you to learn more. Short-listed candidates are contacted for an initial phone conversation with our recruiting staff. Moving deeper into our selection process you can expect to interview 1:1 with a hiring manager. Finalists normally participate in a panel interview where the opportunity to meet additional members of our staff lends itself to more of a 360-view of the role. Our most valuable resource is our talented staff. Our goal is to fill this vacancy with the right person in the shortest amount of time, so we have all hands-on deck to move this important work forward.
Working Environment / Conditions: Standard office environment. Up to 50% travel on a consistent basis to various weekend church services and other fundraising events throughout the U.S.
