Senior Manager of Development Operations

SENIOR MANAGER OF DEVELOPMENT OPERATIONS

POSITION DESCRIPTION

June 2025

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION

Edible Schoolyard NYC (ESYNYC) is on a mission to make edible education accessible for every child in New York City. We believe edible education—where kids experience hands-on

cooking and gardening—helps kids gain the skills to contribute to a healthy and sustainable

food system for us all. We believe in a future where all children are empowered to make healthy choices for themselves, their communities, and their environments. Together with public school communities across the city, we’re building spaces for kids to flourish.

During the 2023-24 school year, we reached nearly 4,000 students and taught 2,145 classes across 23 schools. We also trained over 580 educators to incorporate edible education into their own classrooms.

Established in 2010, Edible Schoolyard NYC is a nonprofit organization committed to bringing Alice Waters’ vision to New York City public schools. As the first official “Founding Edible Schoolyard” in the Northeast, Edible Schoolyard NYC has created a curriculum and a vision to fit the unique needs of New York City public school children and communities. Now in our 15th year, Edible Schoolyard NYC is excited to continue deepening our impact at our Core School Sites as well as supporting schools and communities across New York City through our Mobile Education and Educator Professional Development Programs.

As an organization, the Values we live by include:

Community: We believe the greatest impact can only be realized by centering the community in our work.

Equity: We commit to cultivating and advancing a culture of diversity, inclusion, and belonging as we strive for equitable opportunities for all.

Stewardship: We know it is our duty to respect and care for all around us: our environment, our community, and ourselves.

Adaptability: We listen, learn, and act in response to the ever-changing needs of those around us.

ABOUT THE POSITION

The Senior Manager of Development Operations is a new, full-time role that will build the capacity of the Edible Schoolyard NYC’s Development and External Affairs team. The Senior Manager of Development Operations will ensure strong donor pipeline and relationship management, revenue reporting and analytics, donor data and gift data entry and management, and team operations. As a result, this position will play a critical role in expanding ESYNYC’s development efforts, supporting the team as they deepen donor relationships, cultivate new donor prospects, and pursue new fundraising opportunities. The Senior Manager of Development Operations will report to the Vice President of Development & External Affairs (VP) and work closely with all Development & External Affairs (Dev EA) team members, the Executive Director (ED), and the Finance & Operations team.

The ideal candidate will demonstrate strong development operations skills in donor database management (Salesforce experience preferred), donor stewardship and pipeline management, and development operations. They will also be highly organized, entrepreneurial, solutions-oriented, and collaborative.

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES

Donor Database & Gift Management

• Serve as the primary administrator of ESYNYC’s donor database (Salesforce).
• Manage Salesforce integrations with fundraising and marketing platforms.
• Stay informed of current and new functionalities of Salesforce and ensure the development team is trained on database usage and data entry best practices
• Identify, recommend, and implement database improvements, focusing on prospect and moves management functionalities.
• Manage fundraising platforms, collaborating with the Senior Manager of Individual Giving & Donor Engagement to manage fundraising initiatives, especially year-end giving, email and online campaigns, and the Senior Manager of Events to support special events.
• Manage the complete gift processing cycle, ensuring accurate and timely data entry, weekly check deposits, gift processing, and tax acknowledgments.
• Maintain accurate donor and gift records, including daily and weekly data entry to record donor intent, pledge documentation, and reporting.
• Provide additional data entry support to record key donor communications involving leadership (ED, Board, and VP).
• Manage pledge tracking, including documenting pledge timelines and restrictions, preparing gift agreements and invoices, and ensuring timely follow-up for pledge payments and tax acknowledgements.
• Manage incoming revenue by monitoring bank accounts for wires, credit card processing services, development email, and post office box for mailed checks.
• Prepare and track earned income invoices for educational partnerships; work with the program team to ensure timely collection.

Reporting & Analytics

• Generate regular donor engagement, gift, and activity reports, including weekly income reports.
• Support the VP in managing revenue projections by creating monthly progress-to-goal and pipeline reports for the fiscal year.
• Collaborate with the Senior Manager of Finance & Operations and ESYNYC’s accounting team to reconcile income records between Salesforce and Quickbooks records on a monthly basis.
• Partner with the Senior Manager of Institutional & Corporate Giving and the Senior Manager of Finance & Operations to monitor restricted grants, ensuring compliance with grant intent, grant periods, and other gift requirements for public and private funders.
• Support audit and fiscal year-end close-out, including preparing gift schedules and reports as needed.
• Provide reports and data to support fundraising stakeholders (such as the Board, Associate Board, and Event Leadership), including peer-to-peer campaign, contact lists, and give/get fundraising.

Donor Pipeline Management & Growth Support

• Review and refine moves management system tracked in Salesforce.
• Manage donor lists and pull segmented lists of donors and prospects for stewardship, communications, and solicitation strategies.
• Support the VP with annual and quarterly revenue projections based on fundraising and gift opportunities entered by the team.
• Identify strategies to support and track stewardship activities in Salesforce, and support the team’s implementation.

Team Operations & Initiative Support

• Collaborate with the Senior Manager of Institutional Giving & Donor Engagement and Senior Manager of Finance & Operations to support grant budget and expense report development.
• Collaborate with Senior Manager of Institutional & Corporate Giving and VP to manage government grant portals and ensure that reporting and administrative requirements are met.
• Provide critical support during the annual Spring Benefit, including financial reports, event budget, night-of contribution tracking, and tax acknowledgements.
• Provide operations and logistics support for volunteer engagement events, as needed.
• Monitor charity rating websites to ensure ESYNYC’s information is up to date and accurate.
• Make recommendations to continuously improve development operations and implementation.
• Manage development subscriptions and development department expenses.
• Assist VP and the Dev EA team with special projects or events as needed.
• Participate in cross-organizational committees, meetings, and initiatives.

QUALIFICATIONS

• A deep commitment to ESYNYC’s mission and social impact.
• Experience with and committed allyship to students and communities of color.
• 7-9 years of relevant experience in development and operations.
• Ability to build strong internal and external relationships.
• Excellent project management and organizational skills, including the ability to prioritize, manage multiple deadlines and projects, and attention to detail.
• A strong understanding of development operations and fundraising principles.
• Ability to understand the bigger fundraising picture, as well as short- and long-term development strategy.
• Advanced proficiency in donor database management; experience with Salesforce preferred.
• Advanced proficiency in Excel and/or Google Sheets as well as other Microsoft Suite and Google Suite tools.
• Experience with online fundraising and giving platforms (i.e. Classy, GiveSmart, Give Lively), communications platforms (i.e. Campaign Monitor, MailChimp), and/or prospect research and wealth screening tools is a plus.
• Experience with the complete gift processing cycle (data entry, acknowledgments, and reporting).
• Ability to identify and learn new technology tools, make recommendations, and train team members for implementation.
• Skills in donor pipeline management, including prospect research and moves management.
• Ability to generate and analyze donor engagement, gift, and activity reports.
• Experience with revenue projections and reconciliation with finance records.
• Familiarity with restricted grant management and reporting.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• A proactive, entrepreneurial, and solution-oriented approach.
• A collaborative and team-oriented mindset.
• A growth mindset; Ability to give and receive constructive feedback.

You don’t need to meet every qualification to be considered! If you’re excited about this role and believe you could succeed in it, we encourage you to apply.

Work Environment

• This is a hybrid position with regular in-person events and meetings in New York City. Qualified candidates must be based in the NYC metropolitan area.
• Many of our events require standing and walking around venues for long periods as well as lifting/moving of boxes and equipment.
• Willing to work extended hours to meet deadlines as needed, as well as work some evenings and weekends to participate in donor events as needed. Note: ESYNYC has a comp time policy.

Salary Range: 80,000 - $85,000 with generous benefits. This is a full-time exempt position.

Highly competitive benefits package:

• 100% health and dental insurance coverage; able to purchase vision insurance.
• 403(b) retirement plan with up to 3% employer match.
• Pre-tax Transit Program.
• Pre-tax Flexible Spending Account (FSA) Plan.
• Life and ad&d insurance.
• 3 weeks paid vacation in the first year that increases annually with tenure.
• 8 sick days and 3 personal days annually.
• ESYNYC is closed between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day and closes for all federal holidays.
• Additional paid time off and early close in the summer on Fridays.

Edible Schoolyard NYC provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status or any other protected characteristic as established by applicable law. We seek to build a diverse staff representative of the communities we serve. All qualified applicants are strongly encouraged to apply.

To apply, please submit your resume and cover letter addressed to Ariel Grace, Vice President of Development and External Affairs, through our careers page at https://www.edibleschoolyardnyc.org/careers. In your cover letter, we’d love to hear why you’re excited about joining the Edible Schoolyard NYC Development team and how your skills make you a great fit for this position.

We will review applications on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Please note that we are unable to accept phone calls regarding this position.