Senior Manager, Development

The Challenge & Opportunity

Washington, DC has dramatically outperformed peer cities in overall improvement in its public schools over the last decade. Still, only 1 in 9 of the city’s most vulnerable students (those with special education needs and those living in extreme poverty) are on track for college and career success. It is more critical than ever that we redouble our efforts to build on past successes by working to ensure that all students and families – particularly those furthest from opportunity – have access to a great education.

The Organization

Education Forward DC (Ed Forward DC) is a nonprofit organization founded in 2016 in Washington, DC. Guided by our core values, we work to advance quality and equity in public schools to ensure that every DC student gets a great education. Specifically, our current five-year goal is to double the number of underserved students who are college and career ready. Ed Forward DC accelerates the work of local leaders by aggregating and disseminating $70M of local and national philanthropic dollars to local grantees who are committed to transformational change. We take an active role with each grantee in our portfolio to help them create sustainable organizations that generate breakthrough results for the students they serve.

The current public health crisis has dramatically changed the work schools and the city must do to ensure quality and equity in DC public education. We continue to support our grantees in addressing the emergent needs of students and families, including supporting our portfolio schools’ efforts to develop and implement distance learning operating and instructional plans that center underserved students’ needs, and working more broadly to ensure that the citywide COVID-19 response in education prioritizes the most vulnerable students and families.

The Person

As we finalize our next five-year plan to guide the work of Ed Forward DC starting in summer 2021, you will support the External Relations Partner in executing an aggressive fundraising program that will provide the resources needed to reach our ambitious goals. As Development Senior Manager, you will play a central role in fundraising, primarily through strategic leadership, donor engagement, and team and systems management.

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Strategic leadership

• Play key role in working with team to develop, update, and execute against long- and short-term fundraising strategies and to monitor progress against those strategies on an ongoing basis, adjusting course as needed
• Lead efforts to raise $5M over five years from individual and corporate donors as a sub-strategy of overall $60M fundraising goal for the next phase of work that begins in July 2021
• Support Chief Executive Officer and External Relations Partner in developing tactics and messaging to advance fundraising to meet overall $60M five-year goal

Donor and Board engagement

• Identify, research, and cultivate new donors primarily at and above $50,000 per year with a particular focus on scaling donations by individuals and corporations
• Support the Chief Executive Officer and External Relations Partner in defining objectives, setting agendas, and otherwise preparing for donor meetings, and lead donor cultivation meetings on occasion
• Plan and execute regular cultivation and stewardship meetings and events for donors and prospective donors, and draft compelling materials to engage funding partners in experiences that connect them to our mission, work, and grantees
• Draft high-quality, timely, and complete reports and proposals in support of our goal of deploying substantial resources toward making sure every DC student can go to a great school
• Lead efforts to leverage Board members in cultivating new funding relationships, and create high-quality fundraising update materials for Board and committee meetings

Team and systems management

• Manage agendas for External Relations team meetings and step backs to support team learning and coordination of workflows across the team to accomplish the projects, activities, and goals of the team throughout the year
• Develop, improve, and help maintain donor relationship management systems, as needed (including gift chart, individual donor profiles, and touchpoints) 

Skills and Qualifications

• We work intentionally to disrupt patterns of racial inequity; a strong candidate will demonstrate an unwavering commitment to educational equity and improving public education in DC
• Effective project manager with attention to detail and ability to drive high-priority tasks and projects to completion with minimal guidance and support
• Comfort managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced and often fluid environment
• Excellent writing skills with demonstrated ability to synthesize complex ideas and findings in compelling oral and written communication
• Ability to positively influence people and build strong, authentic, collaborative relationships with team members and external stakeholders
• Strong strategic thinking skills to understand, frame, and address complex problems
• Impeccable judgment and personal presence necessary to effectively interact with senior internal and external stakeholders
• Responsive to feedback, with capacity to learn quickly and continuously
• Excellent technical skills, including fluency with Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word

Education and Experience

• Minimum 5-7 years of development, sales, or nonprofit management experience preferred. K-12 public education experience valued.
• Bachelor’s degree required