Development Manager; Chicago​/Hybrid

Work. Serve. Thrive.

Imagine a place where your talent can make a meaningful difference in peoples' lives. Working at Feeding America is a uniquely rewarding experience in which our employees work together as vital parts of a much larger mission. We are innovative, mission-focused, diverse, collaborative, values-driven and focused on results.

Feeding America is the nation's largest charity and the leading domestic hunger-relief charity in the United States. Our mission is to feed America's hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks and engage our country in the fight to end hunger.

Learn more about Feeding America here.

This position is based out of Feeding America's Chicago office. At Feeding America, we believe in offering a flexible work environment. Employees can be in the office an average of 2 days a week (when not travelling for work) and work from home on other days. Employees also have access to a 30-day “work anywhere” program during the course of each calendar year that can be combined with PTO and/or holidays.

The Manager, Development serves as a frontline major gift fundraiser, driving new and increased philanthropic revenue through proactive prospecting, meaningful relationship building and direct solicitation. Builds and guides a pipeline through outbound prospecting, discovery conversations and meaningful engagement strategies to secure and renew mission-based partnerships. Matches charitable motivations with strategic priorities to secure gifts of $25,000+. Conducts prospect research, develops personalized philanthropic content, completes gift and pledge documentation and records all donor interactions.

Here at Feeding America national organization, equality is central to our mission and is an integral part of our compensation policies and structures. As such, we maintain transparent salary ranges and clearly defined practices for how our team, including new hire salary offers, moves through these ranges. You can expect us to offer the best salary up front based on these clearly defined pay practices with little room for negotiation.

We make exceptions for highly experienced (multiple years of at-level experience) new hires in accordance with our pay practices. Once hired, employees have the opportunity to progress through salary ranges via regular merit increases and step promotions.

Salary Range: $97,000 - $102,000 Based on Experience

• Actively identifies, cultivates and thanks donors, managing relationships and developing cultivation and solicitation strategies to secure gifts of $25,000+.
• Conducts high volumes of donor outreach through visits, phone calls and highly personalized communications to build relationships, advancing donors through the development cycle.
• Develops personalized stewardship plans for individual philanthropists and family foundations in partnership with colleagues in Development, Executive Leadership, program leads and Network fundraising colleagues with clarity, purpose and actionable next steps.
• Prepares materials for and delivers personalized solicitations including briefing memos, verbal asks, proposals and stewardship including thank you letters, reports and gift documentation.
• Evaluates giving vehicles and recommends charitable plans in alignment with policies and programs that achieve a donor's philanthropic goals and meets Feeding America's funding needs.
• Prioritizes a better together mindset collaborating with network members to cultivate, solicit and steward donors and create regional strategies.
• Co-creates regional strategy for major and principal gift development and Network partner engagement in assigned territory.
• Utilizes research tools and wealth screenings to prospect and prepare for donor meetings.
• Assures that all donor interactions in assigned portfolio are recorded in Feeding America's database and all gifts are properly recorded by gift accounting staff.
• Supports Department wide initiatives to mobilize external partners through special projects and campaigns.
• Builds personal and team capacity through ongoing learning and innovation.
• Actively engages in and exhibits Feeding America's commitment to inclusion and belonging in daily interactions and communications.

• 5+ years of experience with best practices for the cultivation of major gifts including developing donor strategies, solicitation approaches and donor stewardship.
• Ability to screen prospective donors from lists provided by network members and senior leaders to quickly determine which to direct cultivation efforts toward.
• Familiarity with donor relationship management tools and software.
• Ability to do first level prospect research using Wealth Engine and other tools and to coordinate higher level prospect research with other team members at Feeding America.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills and ability to work collaboratively with all levels of staff, food bank network member colleagues, volunteers, donors and…