Development Manager

About SkillUp

Founded in July 2020, SkillUp Coalition is an innovative nonprofit connecting more than 4 million individuals skilled through alternative routes (STARs) with the right tools, resources, and support to make confident career shifts, find quality living-wage jobs, and achieve promising career growth without the need of a college degree.

Through its cutting-edge technology platform and step-by-step career guidance options, SkillUp has connected STARs with career, training, and job support nationwide. The coalition brings together more than 150 leading organizations, including training and education providers, technology developers, policymakers, employers, and philanthropies.

SkillUp is a remote-first organization rooted deeply in our values to Champion Worker-First, Empower Impact, Embrace Collaboration, Exemplify Curiosity, and Embody Accountability. By 2030, we plan to serve 10 million users and help more than 1 million workers and learners attain quality employment.

Overview

The Development Manager is a highly organized, detail-oriented fundraising professional responsible for executing and managing the day-to-day operations of the development function. Reporting to the Vice President, Development, this role plays a critical part in implementing the organization’s comprehensive fundraising strategy that sustains and grows a $10M+ annual budget.

The Development Manager ensures grant and donor processes run seamlessly — managing timelines, coordinating proposal development, maintaining CRM integrity, tracking revenue performance, and supporting stewardship activities. This individual is both a strong project manager and systems thinker who thrives at the intersection of fundraising, data, and cross-functional collaboration.

This role is ideal for someone who enjoys turning strategy into execution, strengthening infrastructure, and driving accountability across the full development lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities

Grants Management & Proposal Execution

• Manage the full grant lifecycle, including tracking deadlines, coordinating proposal development, submission, reporting, and renewals.
• Draft, edit, and assemble compelling grant proposals, reports, LOIs, and supporting materials in collaboration with program, finance, and communications teams.
• Maintain a detailed grants calendar to ensure timely submissions and compliance with funder requirements.
• Conduct prospect research to support pipeline growth across foundation, corporate, and individual funders.
• Track grant deliverables and reporting metrics to ensure alignment with funder expectations.
• Support the Vice President in stewarding funders with accurate, timely updates and materials.

Development Operations & CRM Management

• Serve as primary manager of the donor CRM (e.g., Copper), ensuring data accuracy, integrity, and consistent usage across the team.
• Establish and enforce best practices for data entry, segmentation, pipeline tracking, and donor records.
• Generate fundraising dashboards and regular performance reports to monitor KPIs, grant status, and revenue forecasts.
• Maintain documentation for audit readiness, grant files, and reporting systems.
• Partner with Finance to track revenue, reconcile grants, and monitor budget allocations and expenditures.
• Support the implementation and optimization of fundraising tools (e.g., Instrumentl and related platforms).

Individual Giving & Stewardship Support

• Coordinate individual donor communications, acknowledgments, and stewardship tracking.
• Support donor cultivation efforts through meeting preparation, briefing documents, and follow-up materials.
• Ensure timely gift processing, acknowledgments, and reporting.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with program teams to collect impact data and success stories for proposals and reports.
• Coordinate with communications to ensure consistent messaging and compelling storytelling.
• Collaborate with Finance on budget tracking, grant allocations, and financial reporting.
• Support board reporting preparation with accurate and well-organized fundraising data.

Systems & Process Improvement

• Identify opportunities to streamline workflows and improve efficiency across development operations.
• Create and maintain internal documentation for grants processes, CRM protocols, and reporting systems.
• Contribute to revenue forecasting and scenario planning efforts led by the Vice President.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives to strengthen development infrastructure.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in nonprofit development, grant management, or fundraising operations.
• Demonstrated experience managing foundation and/or corporate grants, including proposal writing and reporting.
• Strong project management skills with the ability to manage multiple deadlines simultaneously.
• Experience working with fundraising CRMs and grants management platforms (e.g., Copper, Instrumentl, Salesforce, or similar tools).
• Exceptional writing, editing, and organizational skills.
• Ability to translate program data into clear, compelling narratives.
• Detail-oriented, proactive, and highly accountable.
• Strong collaboration skills and ability to work cross-functionally.
• Entrepreneurial mindset — comfortable navigating complexity and identifying new opportunities.

And while all of the above qualifications are important, there are three demonstrated capabilities most important for this job, and they are (blatantly borrowed from Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn):

• Dream Big
• Get Sh*t Done
• Know How to Have Fun

Compensation & Benefits

Target salary for this position is $65,000 - $90,000, depending on experience, geography, and internal equity. Most candidates are expected to fall within the middle of this range.

SkillUp offers a generous compensation package which includes employer-sponsored healthcare, vision and dental, 401K employer match, 25 days of office closure, PTO, education stipend, and annual salary increases based on performance.

Our Commitment to Diversity

At SkillUp, our mission is to help workers get hired for in-demand jobs in high-growth industries. Success in this mission requires that we don’t just accept differences, but that we celebrate and embrace the diverse community and backgrounds individuals come from. We stay true to our mission by ensuring that our place can be anyone’s place, and we embrace diversity and equal opportunity in a serious way. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.

As a proud equal opportunity employer, SkillUp does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state or federal law or local ordinance.