Overview

The Senior Manager of Volunteer and Guest experience plays a vital role in creating the best possible experience for the Greater Chicago Food Depository 25, 000+ annual volunteers, as well as guests who visit for planned events and large meetings. This person will develop and execute strategies to curate impactful experiences for different segments of volunteers (e.g., young professionals, corporate groups, faith-based organizations, families, donors, students) while elevating the experience of every volunteer who gives us the gift of their time. This position oversees daily volunteer operations, leads a small team, and partners across the organization to ensure volunteerism remains a cornerstone of our impact.

This position requires five days a week on site: often a Tuesday – Saturday schedule with Sundays and Mondays off.

The Senior Manager of Volunteer Engagement reports to the Senior Director of Marketing and Direct Response. They collaborate closely with other departments, including warehouse operations & transportation, procurement, community impact, and development. The Senior Manager of Volunteer and Guest Experience has direct reports.

We're looking for an experienced, mission-driven leader who excels at building exceptional customer experiences.

Responsibilities
Responsibilities of the Senior Manager of Volunteer and Guest Experience include but are not limited to the following:

• Ensure the Greater Chicago Food Depository offers the best overall volunteer experience in Chicago and Cook County.
• Build innovative volunteer experiences that include evolutions of traditional food repacks.
• Build innovative volunteer experiences that include twists on the traditional food packing, but could also include a volunteer experience for advocates, donor thank you session, young adult sessions, or sessions with young children. (e.g., young professionals, corporate groups, faith-based organizations, families, donors, students)
• Create meaningful organization relationships with Volunteer Ambassadors and high frequency volunteers, included but not limited to meaningful volunteer recognition/gratitude initiatives
• With support from marketing leadership, develop and execute an annual plan to engage volunteers more deeply in the mission to end hunger, including the conversion of volunteers to advocates and donors.
• Optimize the experience of guests who visit the Food Depository for planned events and large meetings. This will be done in collaboration with other departments and staff, ensuring logistics and spaces are thoughtfully organized for each opportunity.
• In partnership with the marketing team, create and maintain volunteer-facing communications, orientations and presentations – ensuring all materials are accurate, on-brand and inspiring.
• In partnership with the Food Depository’s warehouse operations & transportation department, refine processes and ensure volunteer projects efficiently support food distribution.
• In partnership with the Food Depository’s development department, identify and carry out opportunities to engage individual, corporate and foundation donors through impactful volunteer opportunities.
• In partnership with the Food Depository’s community impact department, support the connection of volunteers to community-based food distributions.
• In partnership with Policy, Advocacy and Community Engagement, support the Food Depository advocacy strategy to build a collective group of voices for policy change
• Optimize volunteer registration and communications through improved systems and software, with an eye toward future innovation.
• Support development and tracking of key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure volunteer engagement and program effectiveness.