Development Manager

 ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION 

The Black Teacher Collaborative (BTC) believes in the genius and beauty of Black children and the unique role of Black Teachers in cultivating their gifts. BTC seeks to ensure that all Black children will have challenging, affirming, and innovative learning environments staffed by a critical mass of Black educators equipped to maximize their shared racial identity to push students’ academic growth, sociopolitical consciousness, and socio-emotional well-being. BTC aspires to be the leading expert and service provider for supporting the success of Black k-12 public schools while expanding our impact across the American South and to urban centers serving high concentrations of Black students.   

Black Teacher Collaborative is a social entrepreneurial venture providing professional development, products, and services for Black educators working in Black schools.  BTC’s work centers around our Black Liberatory Pedagogical framework that seeks to represent the ideological and instructional manifestations of the concept of education as a vehicle for liberation for Black people as represented across the Black teaching tradition translated into a 21st context.   BTC’s work and pedagogical framework are grounded in the socio-political theory of Black Self-Determination.  We marry our pedagogical framework with a critical interrogation of mainstream best practices and emerging innovations in teaching and learning, Black child development, and the spectrum of disciplines that intersect with Black children and Black educators' educational experiences.     

THE ROLE

BTC is seeking a systems-focused Development team member to build a strong infrastructure to support our fundraising operations. As BTC builds its administrative functions, this role will be the first full-time hire for the new Development team. The leader in this role will build and execute strong systems while supporting the ambitious goal to raise $30M over the next 3 years to fulfill BTC’s strategic plan, supporting BTC’s primary external fundraiser, CEO and Founder Hiewet Senghor. 

THE CANDIDATE

You love connecting missions you believe in to money and people – but you prefer to be mostly behind the scenes, preparing others for the ask, ensuring that others are strong partners to the organization’s stakeholders, and driving efficiency for the team through strong operations. 

Building and running systems and processes that allow BTC as a whole and our CEO to “flow” is your key contribution.  Where we need a system, you thoughtfully build it.  Where we have a system, you champion and use it, iterating appropriately.    However, you work knowing that  the system itself is not the goal - what it allows BTC to get done is.  This means while you focus on systems, you talk to others about outputs and outcomes.  Other than when you are onboarding or training, you rarely talk about the “how to” because you’re focused on the “toward what end.” 

You lift others up but maintain a strong POV about the right course of action to take to reach your goals or drive a relationship forward.  Your POV comes through both research and a personal belief that donors/key stakeholders play a key role in the organization as funders and thought-partners but that these relationships are not one-sided or power lopsided.  A good day is when your colleagues have made meaningful connections, surfaced leads, surfaced a new funding opportunity – and you have been behind the scenes managing incoming and outgoing information. 

You are a great communicator.  You have strong written skills, allowing you to translate what you hear inside BTC to an external community.  You have strong verbal skills,  allowing you to keep up with complex conversations and play a role in them.  Your communication is direct - folks know what you are asking and why and when you need it - whether it be a Board Member, Funder or colleague.  

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES 

As BTC seeks to fund its ambitious strategic plan with $30M, the Development Operations team member will play a key supporting role in identifying, engaging, cultivating, and stewarding BTC’s philanthropic donors.   Currently, a Development consultant is leading the overarching Development strategy and will coordinate the work for support strong execution of the plan.

BTC’s fundraising strategy focuses on large gifts, primarily from institutions and individuals who give similarly to institutions.  We seek 5-figure gifts from local funders and 6+ figure gifts from national funders.   Our goal is not a long donor list but to maintain a mighty set of champions, who not only make large investments but also leverage their connections and influence. 

Our Development Manager is responsible for strong execution of strategy. The Manager will often contribute to strategy development and be asked to lead portions of strategies. 

Responsibilities will include: 

1. Launch of Resource Council, a new leadership group of funders and connectors to support BTC’s fundraising efforts
   1. Manage RC portfolio
   2. Group and Individual Communications 
   3. Track group and individual impact 
2. Leading donor prospecting
   1. Manage list of prospects to engage 
   2. Create outreach strategies 
   3. Coordinate and prep CEO outreach 
3. Complete New Funding Applications
   1. Work across teams to get right info (activities/outcomes)
   2. Project management to ensure deadlines are met
   3. Prep budgets with finance
   4. Prep/draft and submit proposals
4. Manage existing grants
   1. Work across teams to get right info (activities/outcomes)
   2. Prep budgets with finance
   3. Draft/compile and prepare reports for submission
5. Manage and maintain BTC’s donor and project management systems 
   1. Currently, Bloomerang for Contact Information
   2. Currently, Asana for Project Management

Reports to:  CEO, but will be managed and coached by the Development Consultant

BODIES OF KNOWLEDGE/REQUIREMENTS

• Job is based in Atlanta, GA.  Work is mostly home-based but team member should be prepared to attend meetings and work in person with other team members throughout the week,
• At least 3 years of fundraising experience with a nonprofit organization, with at least 2 consecutive years at one organization
• Experience reporting to and working to support a senior leader
• Understanding of grant-making organizations and experience seeking and managing large grants
• Interest and passion for Black Liberatory Education

SKILLS

• Project Management using Asana software
• CRM 
• Internal and External Stakeholder Engagement 
• Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail 
• Proven ability to hold self and others to achieving project milestones and goals
• Strong writing and oral communication skills
• Knowledge of Google Suite productivity apps

MINDSETS/CHARACTERISTICS 

• Deep belief and commitment to a Black ideology of self-determination and Black children
• Highly structured 
• Bias towards action 
• Goals and results driven
• Courageous and Adaptive
• Thinks systematically about challenges and solutions 
• Agile/flexible

Disclaimer: This job requisition provides a high-level job definition. It is not intended to provide a comprehensive or exclusive list of job duties. As such, job duties and/or responsibilities within the context of this job requisition may change at the discretion of the employee’s direct supervisor