About Leadership Brainery

Job Description

​

Title: Development Manager

 

About Leadership Brainery

Leadership Brainery (LB) is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit working with academic institutions, prospective and current graduate students, employers, and committed community members to eliminate systemic barriers to master’s and doctoral degrees and workforce leadership opportunities for underrepresented talent. LB is funded primarily by individual donors and corporate sponsors but is working to diversify its funding by increasing support from private/public foundations, major donors, and universities. To achieve this LB is seeking a dynamic and driven Development Manager. This role will work directly with the Director of Development to generate financial resources for the organization by applying for grants, writing fundraising letters, planning events, and cultivating strong relationships with potential donors and institutions. 

 

The Role of Development Manager

This is an excellent opportunity for a highly organized and motivated individual to develop skills in nonprofit resource development work and ultimately help drive education and economic equity. 

 

Overall, support development and fundraising operations for Leadership Brainery to ensure effective donor relations and stewardship, donor and prospect cultivation, and donor engagement and solicitation strategies with a focus on contributions from corporations, foundations, government sources and other partners to meet LB’s annual revenue needs. 

 

This position is an integral member of a small and energetic team and reports directly to the Director of Development and interacts regularly with the Executive Director and members of the LB Development Committee of its Board of Directors.  

 

Responsibilities:

Corporation, Foundation and Government Grant Writing 

• Work with designated program staff to understand all LB programs and its overall program model, understand and stay abreast of all program developments.

• Write and edit clear, accurate, and compelling funding requests that illustrate alignment between LB’s mission and programs and funder interest, including letters of inquiry, concept papers, proposals, and grant applications tailored to each funder's areas of interest, mission, specifications, and deadlines. 

• Collaborate with the Program and Finance Team to request supporting information and documentation for programs, as well as budgets, budget justifications and translate that information in a way that will persuade the donor.  This may also include establishing internal timelines and coordinating with LB team members to complete the collection of relevant data/information for proposal content, internal routing and approvals, and submission to funding sources.

• Frequently review higher education and workforce research and include relevant facts and statistics to craft compelling statements of need that make a strong case for supporting LB.

• Standardize our grants approach by developing and using effective templates, creating consistency in our data and language, and building a powerful set of stories and impact examples.

• Work closely with funders to determine/affirm proposal focus and reporting strategies.

 

​

Research and Donor Management Systems

• Engage in Prospect Research to identify a consistent, year-round pipeline of prospective opportunities to submit LOIs and proposals to local, state, federal, individual, corporate, and foundation funding sources.

• Stay current with foundation trends and giving priorities.

• Create and manage a grants submission calendar/dashboard that captures deadlines, funder contact information, purpose of request and other salient details like: deadlines for first draft, review process, and final draft completion, status of request (e.g., approved, declined, pending, submitted), notes re: next step, and documentation of funder/prospect communications. 

• Maintain LB’s CRM (Client Relationship Management) database and hard files to track all donations, including individual gifts and corporate, foundation and government grants and to track/log all donor appreciation efforts/donor touchpoints.

• Ensure that all donor acknowledgement letters/tax receipts for ALL gifts to LB are prepared and sent within 48 hours of receipt of grant funds.

• Track/be aware of state-by-state fundraising compliance filings/guidelines.

• Participate in weekly grants meetings to provide updates on submission, award, and prospecting statuses.

 

Cultivation and Stewardship. Manage and steward relationships with funders and prospects by:

• Establishing protocols for regularly communicating with funders and tracking correspondence with funders.

• Preparing all presentations, briefings, and other types of documents/materials to cultivate corporate and foundation prospects to secure new funding.

• Supporting grant management activities for secured grants, including submitting all progress/impact reports in a timely manner and according to funder requirements.

• Assisting the Director of Development and Executive Director with representing LB externally with significant foundation funders and foundation prospects during meetings and site visits.

• Assist with events, including cultivation events and an Annual Gala.

 

Other

• All other duties as assigned.

 

The ideal candidate must: 

• Be responsible, flexible, hard‐working, ethical, and committed to the mission of LB  

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and experience with at least 2+ years of grant writing or relevant experience.

• Excellent persuasive written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to proofread and draft high-quality documents.

• Exceptional organizational skills. Ability to manage concurrent projects and deadlines and identify priorities in a fast-paced, high-volume, results-oriented work environment.

• Strong research skills.

• Strong attention to detail, particularly concerning funder specifications and deadlines

• Solutions-oriented and resourceful self-starter who shows determination to solve problems and can work independently and as part of a team.

• Strong analytical skills, including synthesizing financial information and program data and communicating conclusions through writing and speaking.

• Proficiency in Microsoft office, on-line applications, database management and research data search tools.

• Ability to periodically attend select community events occurring outside of regular working hours (e.g., mornings, evenings and occasionally weekends).

• Possess an interest in a nonprofit career ‐ particularly resource development and fundraising.

• Be a creative and optimistic thinker and possess a passion for social justice.

 

Time commitment

Fulltime 

 

Compensation

Competitive Compensation Package offered commensurate with experience and demonstrated skill set.

To apply, please visit www.LeadershipBrainery.org/join-our-team. For questions, please contact Jonathan Allen, Director of Development, at ja@leadershipbrainery.org.

​