Development Manager

Development Manager

Reports To: Vice President of Development

Classification: Remote with some travel

Location: Twin Cities or Nashville preferred; open to remote candidates anywhere in the U.S.

Soles4Souls Mission: Soles4Souls turns shoes and clothing into educational and economic opportunities.

Our CORE values: Transparency, Entrepreneurial, Accountable, Meaningful represent who we are!

Summary: The Development Manager is a dynamic, versatile fundraising professional responsible for executing a broad portfolio of revenue-generating activities that advance the organization's philanthropic goals. This role is central to the day-to-day operation of the Development team, with primary ownership of donor stewardship, retention, and the monthly giving program, plus a strong secondary focus on grant writing and management. The ideal candidate brings a data-driven mindset, strong project management skills, and the ability to move fluidly between relationship work and operational execution. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role for a fundraiser equally comfortable stewarding a monthly donor, writing a grant proposal, or running a campaign dashboard.

Primary Responsibilities:

Donor Stewardship & Retention

Design, implement, and continuously improve a comprehensive donor acknowledgement and stewardship program that ensures every donor feels valued, informed, and connected to the mission.

Own and grow the monthly giving program in partnership with the Digital Marketing team: acquisition, retention, upgrade asks, and donor communications.

Manage the matching gift program, including eligibility verification, platform optimization, and donor communications to maximize match revenue.

Lead year-round stewardship touchpoints across the donor lifecycle, including impact reporting and personalized recognition, to strengthen retention and giving overtime.

Grant Writing & Management

Work closely with the Director of Institutional Partnerships to write compelling grant proposals, letters of inquiry, and stewardship reports; coordinate with program staff to gather data and impact metrics.

Maintain a grants calendar ensuring timely submission of all applications, acknowledgements, and reports in full compliance with funder requirements.

Track grant performance and reporting obligations, ensuring accurate documentation across all active grants.

Fundraising Events & Sponsorship Activation

Plan and execute fundraising events from concept through post-event follow-up, including budget management, logistics, vendor management, volunteer coordination, and timely donor acknowledgement.

Build and manage a documented process for tracking sponsor benefit fulfillment across all events and campaigns; ensure all contracted elements are delivered accurately and on time.

Collaborate with the Marketing team on collateral events, sponsor recognition, and promotion to ensure consistent branding.

Development Operations

Manage pledge accounts receivable, including tracking outstanding pledges, generating reminders, and coordinating with finance for accurate fulfillment.

Serve as internal project manager for development initiatives, keeping timelines, follow-ups, and deliverables on track across all programs.

Qualifications:

Minimum 3 years of professional fundraising experience with demonstrated success across donor stewardship, retention, and grant writing.

Strong understanding of fundraising best practices and development operations within a nonprofit with a meaningful revenue portfolio.

Proficiency with CRM systems; NetSuite experience strongly preferred.

Demonstrated grant writing success with private and corporate foundations.

Proven ability to plan and execute fundraising events and manage sponsorship relationships from activation through renewal.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to craft compelling, on-brand donor-facing materials.

Highly organized self-starter; able to manage multiple projects and deadlines with minimal supervision.

Proficiency in Office 365; ability to learn new software quickly.

Bachelor's degree preferred

Compensation: To provide greater transparency to candidates, we share base pay ranges for all US-based job postings regardless of state. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including skills, depth of work experience and relevant licenses/credentials, and may vary from the listed below.

S4S is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse staff and strongly encourages applications from candidates of color and other diverse backgrounds. Competitive salary. Benefits include medical insurance with 80% employer coverage, HRA account, 100% dental insurance & vision coverage, long-term disability, life, 401K with up to 6% employer match, professional development benefits, open FTO and paid parental leave.