Development Associate

Since 1987, Meals on Wheels Chicago has been serving more than a meal to seniors and people with disabilities. We impact the lives of the most vulnerable citizens in every neighborhood of Chicago. Partnering with the City of Chicago and Open Kitchens, programs include home bound meal delivery, Holiday meals, Home Meal Delivery Programs, The Nourish Chicago Pantry, A Nourishing Pets Program & Wellness Packs. In addition to social activities like Bingo and Boxed meal events, Senior-palooza Parties & Cooking demonstrations.

We believe in a mission that supports these 3 goals: to Fight Hunger, Malnutrition, and Food insecurity; to promote social activities that helps with isolation; and to promote health and wellness in the senior population.  

The Development Associate will work as part of a dynamic team to optimize the fundraising and communications systems for philanthropic gifts, messages to the community, and participation in events that benefit the mission.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

The Development Assistant will work under the direction of the Executive Director to maintain the Meals on Wheels Chicago mission.

Fundraising:

• • Manage gift processing, solicitation, and acknowledgement efforts.
  • Assist with preparation, outreach, setup, and day-of corporate volunteer events, and the Nourish Chicago Pantry.
  • Maintain accurate records, donations, current contact info, and RSVPs in donor database, including data entry, running reports, and updating donor records.
  • Analyze donor data and generate development reports including dashboards, data analysis and giving trends.
  • Support all development events like the upcoming in-person gala our Celebrity Chef Ball, and fundraising campaigns.
  • Research new grant opportunities and assist in gathering information for grant applications, administration, data collection, and monitoring. 
  • Research and identify prospective major donors and proactively initiate sponsorship and funding ideas.
  • Support Executive Director with research, data analysis, email responses, and reporting.
  • Support the Team with other duties as assigned.    

QUALIFICATIONS

Minimum qualifications:

• • 2-4 years experience in development
  • Ideally 1-3 years’ experience with Salesforce and Givesmart
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills. You are a great listener who has positive energy. 
• Strong analytical, interpersonal, and organizational skills. 
• You have experience with fundraisers and understand the importance of details. 
  • Commitment to supporting the mission of Meals on Wheels Chicago
  • Experience with graphic design tools for use in digital, print and website marketing; experience with Canva and/or Adobe preferred.
  • Experience with content management systems (particularly Squarespace).
  • Must have a car and live in Chicago
  • Ability to occasionally work outside of business hours to support events

Candidate Values:

Candidate and self-motivated and is eager to problem solve.

Candidate is interested in working with a small and flexible team.

Candidate thinks “beyond” job role to larger opportunities to grow MoWC donor base and increase fundraising for the organization.

Candidate is familiar with Chicago neighborhoods and is eager to be hands-on with Nourish Chicago Pantry Programming around the City.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Meals on Wheels Chicago has a long-standing policy of equal employment opportunity for every person regardless of age, race, color, disability, marital status, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, or citizenship.

Meals on Wheels Chicago recruits, hires, and promotes individuals without regard to these characteristics, and all staffing decisions are based solely on the qualifications of each individual.

Meals on Wheels Chicago does not discriminate in working conditions, physical facilities or any other terms, conditions or privileges of employment, including transfer, compensation, training, promotion, demotion or separation based on age, race, color, disability, marital status, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry or citizenship. Meals on Wheels Chicago seeks to provide a work environment that is free from discrimination, intimidation, and harassment based on any of these or other characteristics.

Job Type: Temp for 6 months with potential to hire.