Development Specialist

Please consider joining our team! Reach Out and Read, an affiliate of the national Reach Out and Read program, reaches 200,000 families annually across Washington and Oregon, distributing over 330,000 books through 3,200 medical providers in over 400 clinics. Our focus is on serving underserved communities, where 62% of the children we reach are from low-income families, 42% identify as children of color, and 21% speak a home language other than English.

Together, we contribute to the broader impact of the organization, which serves 4.6 million children across the country and distributes over 7.7 million books annually.

The Development Specialist is an early-career fundraising professional who brings strong writing and editing skills and thrives on collaboration. After an initial onboarding period, they will take on a significant share of our grant writing, drafting proposals and reports for review by the Associate Director of Development, while keeping deadlines on track, maintaining Salesforce data, and ensuring funders are thanked and stewarded well.

The Development Specialist reports to the Associate Director of Development and works closely with program team members coordinates with Regional Executive Director serving as an integrator who helps teams share information and meet funder commitments. As the Development Specialist grows in the role, they will have opportunities to take on more of the grant cycle, build relationships with funders, and develop their own portfolio over time.

• Work alongside the Associate Director of Development to learn our programs, funders, and proposal library, then grow into drafting the majority of foundation and corporate proposals and reports
• Write and edit grant proposals, adapting existing templates and boilerplate and translating program impact into clear, compelling, funder-aligned narratives
• Coordinate the grant reporting process: gather program and financial information from colleagues, prepare drafts, and ensure interim and final reports are submitted accurately and on time
• Maintain and update proposal templates, boilerplate language, and resource documents, including visually engaging materials created in Canva or similar tools
• Support prospect research and funder qualification as requested

• Manage the Northwest grants calendar, planning weeks ahead so applications, deliverables, and reports are on track well before deadlines
• Track grant requirements, deliverables, and timelines in Asana, keeping teams informed and following up with the right colleagues for content and approvals
• Help prepare agendas and materials for biweekly development team meetings
• Enter and maintain grant and donor data in Salesforce, ensuring accuracy and alignment with National standards
• Run recurring Salesforce reports, such as monthly or quarterly pipeline and grant status reports, to support team planning
• Clearly communicate grant requirements and restrictions to leadership and finance, and submit backup materials promptly

• Facilitate donor and funder acknowledgment, ensuring gifts and grants are thanked promptly and personally
• Prepare materials and briefings for stewardship and cultivation meetings led by the Associate Director of Development and Executive Director, and join select funder meetings to learn and inform upcoming proposals
• Draft follow-up applications and communications that result from these opportunities
• Support additional development projects as requested

There are innumerable ways to learn, grow, and excel professionally. We respect this commitment to growth when we review applications and take a broad look at the experience of each applicant. We want to get to know you and the unique strengths you will bring to the work. We will honor your lived and professional experience as key aspects of your candidacy for the role and prioritize applicants with experience dismantling the structural inequities that disproportionately impact children and families with traditionally marginalized identities.

• Commitment to equity in opportunities and outcomes for children, with recognition of factors including race, ethnicity, language, and socioeconomic status
• Approximately two to three years of experience in nonprofit fundraising, development, or a related role where writing was a regular part of the work
• Project management…