Development Manager

Development Manager

Reports To: Development Director

Salary: $80,000 - $87,500

Location: Hybrid – Minimum 2 days/week in Brooklyn, NY office

Position Type: Full-Time, Exempt

Start Date: September 2025

How to Apply

Complete the form on our career page to submit your cover letter and résumé. In your cover letter, we invite you to respond to the following prompt:

As you survey your professional toolbox, what is your top strength that will make you a culture add to the team at Chicken & Egg Films?

Position Overview

Chicken & Egg Films seeks a Development Manager to help advance our mission to support and champion women and gender-expansive documentary filmmakers. As a key member of a three-person development team, the Development Manager will play a central role in driving our fundraising strategy—leading efforts in institutional giving, overseeing customer relationship relationship systems (CRM), developing donor communications, and managing a portfolio of donor-facing events. This role blends strategic insight with operational execution to deepen donor engagement, support stewardship, connect filmmakers to funders, and strengthen the systems that power our fundraising work.

We are looking for a colleague who has nonprofit fundraising experience, ideally working in one or more of the following fields: gender equity, documentary film, human rights, social justice, and arts and culture. Even if you do not have direct experience in those fields, we are open to candidates who are deeply interested in visual storytelling and are inspired by Chicken & Egg Films’ vision of a world transformed by films that inspire empathy, learning and action.

Key Responsibilities

Institutional Giving and Sponsorships

• Manage a growing portfolio of institutional funders; research and identify new prospects and develop cultivation and stewardship strategies.
• Write compelling grant proposals and reports; collaborate with the program team to gather narratives, outcomes, and metrics.
• Track grant deadlines, submissions, and reporting using Salesforce, in collaboration with the Development Assistant.
• In collaboration with the Development Director, develop sponsorship proposals and manage relationships with corporate partners.

Events and Donor Engagement

• Lead planning and execution of in-person and virtual donor events, including film screenings, cultivation dinners, and festival engagements.
• On behalf of the Development Director and CEO, draft donor correspondence and develop email stewardship touchpoints and regular donor updates.
• Build and maintain relationships between donors and filmmakers, in coordination with the Industry & Artist Development Manager.
• Support fundraising campaigns, including year-end appeals and special initiatives.

Salesforce and Development Operations

• Serve as the primary Salesforce administrator for the development department, ensuring accuracy and completeness of donor data; implement deduplication and data hygiene protocols.
• Create and maintain Salesforce dashboards and reports to track KPIs and donor engagement.
• Ensure quality control by peer reviewing gift processing, data entry, and acknowledgments.
• Manage system integration with online donation, email marketing, and event platforms.
• Manage and track the department’s budget, in collaboration with the Development Director.

Team Leadership and Internal Collaboration

• Serve as a strategic partner to the Development Director on planning, revenue forecasting, and process improvement.
• Coordinate with program, communications, and operations teams to support a holistic fundraising strategy.
• Stay abreast of film industry and philanthropy research, trends and news, including that of C&E-supported films and filmmakers, to increase and elevate C&E as a leader in the space.

Qualifications

Minimum Requirements

• 5 years of directly relevant experience, with at least 3 years in nonprofit fundraising
• Writing and managing successful grants for foundations, corporations, or government agencies
• Experience managing CRM systems for development, including reporting, maintenance, and user training
• Experience managing fundraising events, such as anniversary celebrations and high-touch donor events
• Exercises a high degree of confidentiality and discretion, professionalism, integrity, and ethics
• Excellent attention to detail and time management ability; anticipates obstacles and proactively considers solutions
• Strong skills in the following:
  • Project Management: tracking, driving, reporting, and engaging the necessary stakeholders, tools, resources, and information to produce desired results; ability to move nimbly among a variety of projects with varying timelines
  • Communications: verbal and listening; managing expectations; understanding who are the key stakeholders; curious, asks questions early
  • Writing: Exceptional writing, editing, and storytelling skills for funder communications with an ability to translate tone and style that is representative of the organization
  • Technology: Google Workspace (Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides)
• Strong decision-making skills with the ability to escalate concerns/challenges appropriately
• Proactive problem solver who finds creative solutions to achieve desired outcomes
• Committed team player; is respectful, inclusive, values diversity, highly collaborative, proactively seeks and provides thought partnership, assistance, and resources with colleagues

Desired Qualifications (not required)

• Strong Salesforce proficiency
• Proficiency with project management platforms (e.g. Notion, Asana) and Airtable
• Experience working in one or more of the following fields: gender equity, documentary film, human rights, social justice, and/or arts and culture

What Else You Should Know

Deadline: Applications will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis with a priority for applications submitted by July 9. Early submission of your application is recommended. First round interviews are anticipated in mid to late -July with the goal to fill the position by early September.

Location and Hybrid Work Policy: This position is based in Brooklyn, New York. We have a hybrid work schedule with a minimum of two days a week in our Brooklyn office.

Compensation: Chicken & Egg Films offers a salary informed by the organization’s Total Rewards Philosophy and Practices, which is grounded in market data. The salary range for this full-time position is $80,000 to $87,500. Actual salary from this range will be based on the candidate’s experience and qualifications.

Benefits: 100% employer paid health, dental, and vision insurance, plus life and short and long-term disability insurances. Flexible spending accounts for medical, dependent care, transit, and parking expenses. A 403(b) plan with a matching employer contribution. Annually 15 vacation days (20 at the two-year mark), 10 safe and sick leave days, and 4 personal days. The office is closed for 10 holidays, in addition to December 24 - 31, and offers a Summer Fridays schedule. Professional development opportunities and home office stipends offered. Employees are eligible for a paid 6-week sabbatical after every 5 years of continuous employment.

Sponsorship: This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the US.

Equal Employment Opportunity: Chicken & Egg Films is an equal opportunity employer. As such, we strongly encourage and seek applications from all backgrounds, including but not limited to women and gender-expansive individuals, people of color, bilingual and multicultural individuals, people with working class backgrounds, people with disabilities, as well as members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

We take great pride in providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, disability, genetics, protected veteran or military status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, political affiliation, marital or familial status, arrest or conviction record, status as a victim of domestic violence, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

E-Verify: We participate in the E-Verify Program. https://everify.uscis.gov

Applicants with Disabilities: Reasonable accommodation will be made so that qualified applicants with disabilities may participate in the application process. Please reach out to access@chickeneggfilms.org with any requests.

Hiring companies: We will not respond to emails about this position.