JAMES COATES
Philadelphia,PA
Summary
Fundraising strategist with over 13 years of experience in developing donor pipelines and enhancing retention for public media organizations. Proven track record in analyzing donor behavior to drive strategic initiatives and exceed revenue goals through targeted engagement and cultivation strategies.
Overview
13
13
years of professional experience
Work History
Assistant Director, Membership Fundraising
WRIT 90.1 FM / Temple University
Philadelphia, PA
03.2025 - Current
- Lead individual giving and membership fundraising strategy for a public media organization serving more than 300,000 weekly listeners.
- Lead acquisition, renewal, lapsed-donor reactivation, sustainer growth, upgrade, stewardship, and engagement initiatives for approximately 17,000 donor households.
- Developed donor-lifecycle strategies to retain newly acquired supporters, convert one-time contributors to recurring giving, increase existing commitments, and strengthen pathways to mid-level and major giving.
- Analyze donor, transaction, campaign, source-code, and audience data to identify giving patterns, upgrade opportunities, retention challenges, and segments requiring differentiated cultivation and stewardship.
- Partner with mid-level and major gift colleagues on donor strategy, stewardship, prospect movement, campaign activity, and opportunities for deeper engagement.
- Led three consecutive major campaigns exceeding revenue goals in FY26; Spring 2026 surpassed $145,000 goal, generated nearly 100 sustainer upgrades, and secured over one-quarter of gifts from new members.
- Directed integrated fundraising campaigns across email, broadcast, web, digital, direct response, and social channels, leveraging performance data to refine segmentation, messaging, cadence, ask strategy, and follow-up.
- Manage fundraising technology and external partners supporting CRM, email, donation forms, call-center fundraising, gift processing, matching gifts, recurring gift maintenance, and donor fulfillment.
Assistant Director, Online Strategy
WAMU 88.5 / American University Radio & DCist
Washington, DC
03.2017 - 02.2024
- Led digital and individual-giving strategy within advancement program producing approximately $16-$18 million annually.
- Reviewed giving history, donor behavior, membership status, engagement, and donor-file data to find opportunities for increased support and guide segmentation, cultivation, stewardship, and upgrade plans.
- Partnered with major gifts colleagues to gather and review donor data for wealth screening, prospect identification, qualification, and assessment of higher-capacity donors.
- Worked across membership, mid-level, major gifts, planned giving, and institutional development to strengthen philanthropic relationships with donors.
- Created targeted solicitation and stewardship plans based on giving level, donor behavior, engagement, and capacity, and improved transition pathways from membership to higher levels of support.
- Contributed to initiatives that increased donor contributions and participation.
- Built relationships with major donors through station events, donor volunteer activities, and individualized communications supporting major gifts cultivation and stewardship.
- Managed recurring-giving strategy focused on sustainer acquisition, monthly conversion, upgrades, retention, and communicated the long-term value of recurring giving.
- Planned and executed four integrated fundraising campaigns annually across broadcast, digital, email, social media, and direct mail, including segmentation, testing, creative development, deployment, reporting, and analysis.
- Served as principal advancement team member for annual fundraising benchmarking with M+R, Blackbaud, and Greater Public, using comparative performance data to identify trends and guide strategy.
- Prepared donor analyses, dashboards, campaign reports, and strategic recommendations supporting decision-making for department and executive leadership.
- Led digital fundraising initiatives with NPR that consistently exceeded annual goals; NPR-linked year-end campaigns generated more than $230000 annually through NPR digital channels during 2019–2021.
Coordinator, Membership Fundraising | Fulfillment Coordinator
WAMU 88.5 / American University Radio
Washington, DC
04.2013 - 03.2017
- Supported integrated membership and individual-giving programs, coordinating digital fundraising, donor communications, stewardship, campaign execution, and donor-service activities that contributed to annual fundraising revenue exceeding $10 million.
- Designed technology solution for real-time tracking of on-air fundraising performance across station platforms, collaborating with donors and volunteers to enhance donor experience.
- Coordinated event logistics for live broadcasts and community outreach programs.
- Managed scheduling and communication for on-air talent and production teams.
- Assisted in the development of promotional materials for programming initiatives.
Education
Bachelor of Arts - Psychology
Belmont Abbey College
Belmont, North CarolinaSkills
- Individual and mid-level giving
- Donor retention and pipeline development
- Major gift collaboration
- Cultivation and stewardship
- Prospect qualification
- Wealth screening and analytics
- Digital fundraising strategies
- Direct response campaigns
- Fundraising benchmarking
- CRM and fundraising technology
- Cross-functional leadership
- Blackbaud and Luminate Online expertise
- Email automation techniques
- Google Analytics proficiency
- Campaign analysis and reporting
- Data analysis capabilities
- Google Workspace applications
- Campaign analysis
- CRM reporting
- Data analysis
- Google Workspace
- Wealth screening support
Timeline
Assistant Director, Membership Fundraising
WRIT 90.1 FM / Temple University
03.2025 - Current
Assistant Director, Online Strategy
WAMU 88.5 / American University Radio & DCist
03.2017 - 02.2024
Coordinator, Membership Fundraising | Fulfillment Coordinator
WAMU 88.5 / American University Radio
04.2013 - 03.2017
Bachelor of Arts - Psychology
Belmont Abbey College