Grants & Development Manager

An employer based in the Brooklyn Navy Yard is seeking a Grants & Development Manager to join their team. Our mission is to increase the number of 100+ book homes for kids 0-18 in NYC. We provide access to and ownership of books, builds community, and creates a passion for learning through free events and literacy-based community programming. Founded in 2018, its work has expanded and grown each year.

Description:

We raise funds from public and private sources to support its mission. The Development Team is responsible for executing a strategic fundraising roadmap to secure $1.3M in annual revenue for FY26 while positioning the organization for sustainable future growth. The Grants and Development Manager plays an integral role in driving this growth. Reporting directly to the Executive Director & Cofounder, this position serves as the organization’s lead writer and grant lifecycle owner, while simultaneously anchoring the systems that power individual donor campaigns and special events.

This is a dynamic, execution-heavy role designed for a system-focused fundraiser. Working closely with leadership, you will research foundation and government RFPs, craft highly compelling narratives, manage compliance tracking, and optimize our donor database. You manage our grant pipeline, ensure deadlines are met, write excellent proposals and reports, proactively share information across teams, ensure donor data is clean and useful, and actively identify opportunities.

You will be the engine of our institutional giving pipeline and the steward of our donor operations, directly supporting a rapidly growing, mission-driven non-profit.

Key Responsibilities:

• Grant Management and Proposals:
  Identify grant opportunities, write proposals, and manage reporting requirements – effectively managing the “life-cycle” of a grant. Develop and lead drafting of persuasive letters of inquiry, grant proposals and applications, and related materials.
• Tracking and Compliance Maintenance:
  Maintain the grant administration process. Utilize the established, appropriate systems to manage and track grants, proposals, budgets, and timely, accurate report submissions. Establish and calendar project plans for grants; manage timelines and deliverables to meet deadlines for grant submissions and reporting requirements. Keep relevant staff informed about upcoming deadlines and deliverables, ensuring smooth completion of tasks and responsibilities.
• Individual Giving and Database Administration and Donor Stewardship:
  Anchor the operational systems for individual giving campaigns by accurately managing the donor CRM, tracking donor giving history, and executing segmentation pulls. Oversee back-end stewardship workflows to ensure timely acknowledgement and receipt of donations.
• Cross-team
  
  Collaboration:
  
  Lead internal collaboration to ensure proper allocation, tracking, and reporting of grant funding. Coordinate with program staff and management to aggregate impact metrics, narratives, and field deliverables for compliance reports. Ensure all application and reporting materials are ready when needed and resolve open issues relating to monitoring grants, deliverables, reports. Proactively identify potential challenges, identify gaps, and make a plan to resolve open issues.
• Fundraising Strategy:
  Contribute to the development and execution of plans to raise funds through grants, individual donations, and special events, under the guidance of senior team members.
• Systems Monitoring:
  Audit and maintain organization profiles across key government portals (e.g., grants.gov, New York Statewide Financial System, Passport) and all online rating agencies (e.g., Guide Star) to ensure records are current and accurate.

Requirements:

• 4+ years of…