Join rare impact agency
Seasonal Designer
Contract · Remote & Async
(August – December)
Who We Are
Rare Impact Agency is a fundraising and communications agency that creates compelling fundraising campaigns for health and science organizations, specifically rare disease foundations. We translate complex science into compelling donor stories and bring beautiful design, inspiring copy, sophisticated digital strategy, and engaging video to grassroots organizations who are transforming healthcare and spearheading life-changing treatments and cures.
Nonprofits outsource their End-of-Year and Giving Tuesday campaigns to us and our work includes providing all copy, design, video, and strategy for their campaigns. This work is creative, heartfelt, interesting, and inspiring. We take creative risks and bring new ideas to our clients. Our new Seasonal Designer will join a passionate, high-performing team to create content that literally changes the lives of families across the globe.
Rare Impact serves organizations with big missions and lean teams. Our clients are patient advocacy groups and scientific institutes that often lack in-house fundraising and communications capacity. We step in as that capacity: we exist to bring ease, strategy, and joy to fundraising.
Our team brings over 40 years of combined fundraising and communications experience, led by Shannon Bowen, a former Chief Advancement Officer for a scientific institute that focused on rare disease research. Shannon brings a nuanced lens and a deep understanding of rare disease advocacy to our work.
The broader consultant group includes six people, with a core team of three who work together on a weekly basis. Everyone operates as a fully remote independent contractor who works asynchronously on their projects. We share a love of creative ideas and a deep commitment to our clients.
Why We're Hiring
September through December is our busiest season. Rare Impact delivers a variety of digital and digital + print End-of-Year and Giving Tuesday fundraising campaigns while also serving our retainer clients. We produce a huge amount of collateral during these months, which means we need more design capacity to keep up.
Some weeks will be steady and manageable. Others will be a sprint. We need someone who can work quickly, follow style guides and templates, take direction without a lot of back-and-forth, and keep output quality high even when the pace picks up. If that sounds like you, we’d love to chat.
What You'll Do
The work covers a lot of ground: social media graphics, printed donor appeals, postcards, peer-to-peer fundraising collateral, booklets, video credits, etc. It varies by client and by week. Our Lead Designers will set the design direction and provide clear instructions on how to execute their designs.
Expect feedback rounds and revisions, sometimes the direction changes mid-project. The ability to follow a client style guide, take clear notes, adjust fast, come up with new creative ideas, and keep moving is one of the most important things we look for in this role.
Some of the work will be creative. A lot of it will be production-mode: templated, repeatable, and time-sensitive. We sell project packages to our clients at affordable prices, so efficiency matters. The designer who fits best here is someone who can do both and doesn't treat production work as lesser.
- Design social media content (templated, and some new design) for multiple client accounts
- Build and update Canva templates for campaigns, events, and end-of-year appeals
- Produce print-ready materials including brochures, booklets, remits, envelopes, postcards, and letterhead
- Support fundraising campaigns with branded graphics and digital assets
- Switch between client brand guides accurately and keep designs on-brand across accounts
- Respond to texts and emails promptly; this team moves quickly and communication is part of the job
- Iterate and communicate with Lead Designers
How We Work
We are fully remote and work async by default. There are no set hours or required check-ins. Shannon built the agency this way intentionally: good work doesn't always happen between 9 and 5, and we trust our team to manage their own time. Async does not mean slow, though. It means you own your schedule and your output.
We communicate by text, email, Canva comments, and very occasionally calls. Deadlines and turnaround times are communicated clearly upfront. When something is urgent, we say so. During September, October, November, and December, the pace picks up significantly and we need everyone available and responsive (holidays will be off of course).
We run on Google Suite (shared drives, Docs, Sheets) and Canva. Fluency in both is required. The team also uses Toggl to track hours, and Trello to project manage, an openness to learn these is required. We communicate with a lot of heart, passion, humor, and emojis. This is a fun creative team!
What We're Looking For
Must Haves
- Strong Canva skills; able to work quickly and stay true to client brand guides
- Creative risk taker who is willing to try new things to keep templates from getting stale
- Is fluent in adjusting designs between social media platforms in Canva
- Takes direction well and moves through revision rounds without friction
- Able to manage work across multiple clients simultaneously without details slipping
- Self-managed and organized; hits deadlines and communicates early when something is off track
- Responsive by text and email, especially during busy periods
- Doesn’t need a ton of context to get started and is willing to try new things
- Comfortable with production-mode work; not everything is a creative brief and that's fine
- Enjoys the art of design and believes in using art to create good in the world
- Good attitude and is excited for extra creative work!
Bonus points
Experience in fundraising or nonprofit communications is a real plus. If you already know what a year-end appeal is, what a peer-to-peer campaign looks like, or how a donor stewardship piece is supposed to feel, you will hit the ground running. Likewise, if you have used AI tools to support donor communications (drafting, editing, templating), we want to know. We use smart tools here and we appreciate people who do the same.
The Details
This is a 1099 independent contractor role, hourly, with hours assigned by Shannon and her Project + Operations Lead based on client workload and project volume. Think of it as a solid side gig: flexible, fully remote, and async.
Hours will fluctuate week to week and ramp up significantly during end-of-year giving season (Sept - Dec). There are no benefits, set hours, or guaranteed minimums. We are open to people in all timezones. Check out our social media to see our design style @rareimpactagency.
We hope you enjoy the interesting and inspiring work, collaborating with a fun team, and having the ability to build your portfolio with mission-driven clients in the health and science space.
- August – December 2026 (potential to extend)
- 1099 independent contractor, hourly rate TBD based on experience
- Paid monthly via direct deposit
- Hours determined based on active projects and client needs. We will ask you how many hours a week you are available and plan accordingly
- No benefits, no set schedule
- Fully remote, async hours
Sound Like You?
Send us a short note about yourself and a link to your portfolio or some recent Canva work. Tell us about your design background, how you handle async work, and any nonprofit or fundraising experience you have.
Email hello@rareimpactagency.com with the subject line Seasonal Designer Application by Friday, June 19th. No cover letter required.
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