Development Manager

Position Summary: Reporting to the Director of Development, the Development Manager will manage significant aspects of fundraising and development activities for AFA, particularly focused on individual giving, direct mail and fundraising events. The Development Manager will work cross-departmentally to develop and implement strategies for donor relationship management (recruit, cultivate, nurture, retain, and steward) to meet the annual and long-term goals of the department and the organization.

The specific tasks for this role are to manage the event specialist, development coordinator and development assistant toward engaging and retaining donors and helping to build a major donor pipeline for the organization.
As the Development Manager, you will play a pivotal role in driving our fundraising initiatives, ensuring smooth event logistics, and creating meaningful relationships with donors. The Development Manager will lead efforts in logistics, fundraising, and the organization/event execution ensuring fundraising goal achievement through effective leadership, engagement, empowerment, mobilization, and stewardship.

Responsibilities:

• Initiate the research and qualify individual and institutional prospects for fit and recommend next steps to strengthen the revenue pipeline and generate new sources of support.

• Manage the execution of cultivation strategies.

• In partnership with the Director of Development and the Director of Communications, implement a systematic and meaningful donor communication and stewardship program including collaborating to create multi-channel appeals, newsletters, and other fundraising campaigns to engage donors; maintain communication with existing partners.

In Collaboration with the Director of Development:

• Build relationships with key departments across AFA to aggregate, package, and present data and information that will strongly align with mission-based interests of each prospective partner and donor; work closely with other departments to integrate partnership efforts across the organization.

• Manage stewardship calendar and schedule to ensure that AFA is designing and executing on a comprehensive touchpoint strategy throughout the year for donors.

• Collaborate with Director of Finance to develop routine, data-driven revenue projections and monitor with ongoing review and analysis.

• Track and analyze fundraising metrics, trends, event participation data, and financial performance to evaluate the effectiveness of fundraising strategies and event outcomes.

• Set strong vision for team, including clear objectives and goals and motivate team to meet these deliverables.

• Prepare comprehensive reports for management, donors, and board members to showcase the impact of fundraising efforts and events.

• Asist with other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Strong time-management, project management, and organizational skills, including the ability to develop and maintain best-in-class systems, policies, and tools that directly support individual giving and the overall development department.

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build relationships and engage diverse stakeholders. Expertise in cultivating an array of internal and external working relationships with finesse.

• Ability to plan and prioritize work to meet commitments aligned with organizational goals.

• Creative thinker with strong problem-solving skills and a proactive approach to addressing challenges and opportunities.

• Your expertise in fundraising strategies, project management and event planning will be instrumental in advancing our mission and expanding our impact.

• Ability to pivot between priorities as needed.

• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to interpret data and use insights to inform decision-making.

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, Asana and PowerPoint; Proficiency in using fundraising software.

• A team player who is adaptive, has a sense of humor and is comfortable working for a small organization with a roll-up-your-sleeves environment, preferably in a nonprofit.

• Strong researcher and relationship mapper; experience with philanthropy research tools

• Enthusiasm and dedication to AFA's mission and values.
Education & Experience:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent of education and experience

• Knowledge of 'best practices" in development.