Join rare impact agency

Seasonal Project Manager

Contract · Remote & Async
(September – 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. Our EOY and Giving Tuesday packages serve small nonprofit shops across a wide range of missions, from rare disease foundations to community, environmental, and social service organizations.

This work is creative, heartfelt, interesting, and inspiring. We take creative risks and bring new ideas to our clients. Behind that creative output sits a production system, and that is where our new Seasonal Project Manager comes in.

Rare Impact serves organizations with big missions and lean teams. Our clients are patient advocacy groups, scientific institutes, and other small nonprofits 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.
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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 focused on rare disease research. Shannon brings a nuanced lens and deep understanding of rare disease advocacy to every piece we produce.

The broader consultant group includes six people, with a core team 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.

Process Enthusiast

Champion of SOPs

Trello Maven

Why We're Hiring

September through December is our busiest season. Rare Impact delivers a high volume of fundraising campaigns during these months, spread across copywriters, designers, and video subcontractors, all working async on their own schedules. That only works if the flow of work is visible, consistent, and easy to pick up at a glance.

‍We're looking for a Seasonal Project Manager to own that flow. You'll build and manage the Trello board that our team lives in during EOY and Giving Tuesday season, keeping cards consistent enough that any subcontractor can open a card, immediately understand what stage a project is in, and find everything they need to do their part.

‍Roughly five hours a week, or 20 to 25 hours a month depending on how busy the season gets, spent making sure five subcontractors' worth of work stays organized, on time, and set up to hand off cleanly for next season.

What You'll Do

You'll work closely with Shannon and our Operations Lead to translate client intake, briefs, and past work into a Trello system that the whole team can navigate without guesswork.

Create and manage all Trello cards for our End-of-Year and Giving Tuesday campaigns across a team of five subcontractors
Build and maintain a consistent card structure (naming, stages, checklists, labels) so anyone on the team can spot at a glance where a project stands
Attach and organize all relevant context on each card, including client briefs, past designs, and notes from client intake
Move cards through stages as work progresses, flagging bottlenecks before they threaten a deadline
Track deliverables across clients to help ensure everyone receives their collateral on time
Track how much time each subcontractor is spending on individual project pieces against their allotted hours, and flag it early when a project is running over
Keep our back-end tracking and filing organized and consistent, so the system is easy to pick back up next season
Communicate with subcontractors async, by text, email, or Trello comments, to keep projects moving without unnecessary back-and-forth
Flag gaps in intake or briefing materials to Shannon so nothing falls through the cracks before it reaches a subcontractor

How We Work

We are fully remote and work async by default. You set your own hours and check in only when it's useful. 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. You own your schedule and your output, and we trust you to keep things moving at your own pace.

We communicate by text, email, Trello cards, and very occasionally calls. Deadlines and turnaround times are communicated clearly upfront. During September, October, November, and December the pace picks up significantly, and we need someone responsive and on top of the board (holidays will be off, of course). During these months, you will need to log into Trello probably once a day/every two days during the workweek to manage workflow.

‍We run on Google Suite (shared drives, Docs, Sheets) and Trello for project management. The team also uses Toggl to track hours. We communicate with a lot of heart, passion, humor, and emojis. This is a fun creative team, and this role is what keeps it from feeling chaotic during our busiest months.

We use AI tools, including Claude, throughout our production process. If you're comfortable using Claude to help draft or refine SOPs, briefs, or card templates, that's a real advantage here.

What We're Looking For

Must Haves

Hands-on experience with Trello, including building boards, cards, and workflows that other people can follow independently (Past Trello experience is required)
A genuine love of making things organized, consistent, and easy to follow across a diverse team working async
Strong attention to detail; you notice when a card is missing context or a project has stalled
Comfortable managing the moving pieces of multiple clients and projects at once without losing track of any of them
Self-managed and organized; hits deadlines and communicates early when something is off track
Responsive by text and email, especially during busy periods
Clear, friendly written communication; you'll be coordinating with subcontractors across the country through written communication

Bonus points

Experience creating SOPs and client briefs, especially using Claude or a similar AI tool.

Experience with Airtable and building automations: we might introduce this to our workflow in 2027.

Background in nonprofit fundraising, agency production, or creative project management.

The Details

This is a 1099 independent contractor role, hourly, at roughly five hours a week, with the pace ramping up during peak EOY and Giving Tuesday season. It is flexible, fully remote, and async.

September – December 2026 (potential to extend)
1099 independent contractor, $50/hour
Paid monthly via direct deposit
Approximately 5 hours a week, or 20–25 hours a month depending on how busy the season gets
No benefits, no set schedule
Fully remote, async hours

Sound Like You?

Apply here by filling out this Google Form and attaching your resume by Sept. 11th.

Interviews will take place the week of September 14th, with the role starting on September 21st.