Development Manager

We’re looking for a Development Manager!

Worth Rises seeks a driven and relationship-centered Development Manager (exempt) to strengthen and grow the organization's fundraising program. This individual should have experience cultivating donor relationships, managing a grants portfolio, and building the funding infrastructure that sustains mission-driven work. They should be a strategic thinker and skilled executor who can move seamlessly between stewarding direct individual donors and managing complex institutional funders. The Development Manager will report to the Director of Finance & Operations and collaborate extensively with the Executive Director, who is the organization’s primary fundraiser.

Worth Rises is a non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to dismantling the prison industry and ending the exploitation of those it touches. Partnering with directly impacted people, we work to expose the commercialization of the criminal legal system and organize and advocate to protect the economic resources extracted from affected communities and strip the prison industry of its power.

Key Results (Year One)

• Identify and land initial meetings with at least five new major donors.
• Maintain 100% compliance with all grant reporting deadlines.
• Build a comprehensive donor cultivation and stewardship strategy that ensures contact with every major donor on a quarterly basis.
• Establish small donor program and increase participation to 100 monthly donors.

Major Responsibilities

• Prospecting
  • Conduct research on donors in the criminal justice, economic justice, racial justice, and gender justice fields to identify potential donors who are aligned with the organization’s mission and programmatic priorities.
  • Identify and profile new potential mid-size and major donors, conduct initial outreach, and secure meetings for the Executive Director.
  • Prepare the Executive Director for new donor meetings, briefing them on the donor and drafting talking points.
  • Coordinate all meeting logistics, notetaking, and follow-up, making sure to track all touchpoints and movement in the organization’s CRM.
  • Collaborate with communications to build a small donor program and recruit and manage monthly donors.
• Grant Writing and Reporting
  • Maintain a comprehensive grants calendar to ensure all deadlines, reporting requirements, and renewal timelines are tracked and met with accuracy and care.
  • Draft and maintain suite of general development materials, including a two-page brief, presentation deck, and question and answer bank.
  • Draft all grant proposals and reports as required by grant agreements or requested by prospective and existing donors, with responses tailored to every donor.
  • Collaborate with program staff to gather accurate and compelling content for proposals and reports that authentically reflect the organization's work.
• Donor Stewardship
  • Support the Executive Director in managing donor relationships, tracking key touchpoints and opportunities for donor engagement based on their interests.
  • Maintain accurate and up-to-date donor records in the organization's CRM to support data-informed decision-making and relationship management.
  • Track renewals, initiate renewal conversations, and prepare the Executive Director for renewal conversations.
  • Develop a comprehensive donor cultivation and stewardship strategy that includes regular touchpoints for mid-size and major donors.
  • Draft gift acknowledgment letters, quarterly donor updates, and other ad hoc donor communications.
  • Collaborate with the communications team to develop and execute a donor communications strategy, including a year-end campaign for giving season.
  • Research our small donor list and identify candidates for conversion to mid-size or major donors.
• Operations and Infrastructure
  • Support the development and continuous improvement of systems, processes, and tools that strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of the development function.
  • Work with the Director of Finance & Operations to prepare monthly and ad hoc development reports, tracking progress toward revenue goals.
  • Contribute to the organization's annual development planning process, including goal-setting, revenue forecasting, and calendar development.

Critical Factors for Success
This role requires a motivated self-starter who takes initiative, consistently delivers high-quality work, is an excellent project manager, is a proactive and innovative problem-solver, appreciates direct feedback, and has the following:

• At least five years of professional experience in non-profit development, with demonstrated success in both individual and institutional donor fundraising and grants management.
• Demonstrated ability to manage a grants calendar and multiple donor relationships simultaneously, meeting deadlines with accuracy and care.
• Demonstrated experience identifying and qualifying new funding prospects, including individual donors and institutional funders, and moving them through the cultivation pipeline.
• Exceptionally strong written and oral communication skills, including the demonstrated ability to craft compelling, mission-aligned proposals and reports and interpersonal communications.
• Experience with donor databases and CRM systems; familiarity with Instrumentl, Bloomerang, and similar platforms is a plus.
• Demonstrated ability to build trusted working relationships with donors, partners, and colleagues, which includes exhibiting reliability, following through on commitments, and practicing empathy.
• Regular and disciplined practice of active listening, seeking clarification, and note taking.
• Direct impact by the prison industry or experience working in or alongside directly impacted communities, strongly preferred.
• Working understanding of the prison industry, the criminal legal system, or strong interest in learning.
• A genuine commitment to Worth Rises' organizational values: act with integrity, focus on impact, deliver excellence, get it done, and operate with intellectual curiosity (visit worthrises.org/jointhefight).

Compensation and Benefits
The annual salary for the Policy Campaigns Associate is $92,000. Worth Rises offers a generous compensation package, including comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, 20 days of vacation time, ten days of personal/sick leave, and three days of bereavement leave in addition to 11 holidays and winter break. Employees also receive a generous 401k contribution match, $75 monthly technology stipend, monthly wellness reimbursement, and dedicated budget for professional development. Finally, we offer retention benefits every five years. We currently operate in a remote-first environment with office options and an on-video culture.

Worth Rises is an equal opportunity employer, and strongly encourages formerly incarcerated individuals, directly impacted individuals, people of color, members of the disabled community, gender-variant and non-binary individuals, and other members of the LGBTQIA+ community to apply.