Senior Development Manager

Town Hall Seattle amplifies ideas, fosters civil discourse, and connects people through events in a vibrant historic building — inspiring lifelong learning, discovery, and dialogue. Founded as a nonprofit in 1998, Town Hall underwent a $35.5 million top-to-bottom renovation of its historic landmark building in 2019 and today serves as a vital community hub for curiosity and conversation. As both a venue and a producer, Town Hall creates space for independent voices, emerging thinkers, and world-class talent, making room for big ideas and the people engaging with them. Each year, more than 100,000 people gather at Town Hall for a unique mix of events produced by and for the community, from book talks and concerts to cultural conversations and civic dialogues.

ABOUT THE POSITION

Town Hall Seattle seeks a Senior Development Manager to lead our institutional fundraising portfolio and strengthen the systems, data, and infrastructure that support our broader fundraising efforts.

This role manages a six-figure grants portfolio, including grant calendars, submissions, reporting, and funder stewardship. The Senior Development Manager also plays a central role in development operations, supporting Salesforce administration, data integrity, reporting, and the internal systems that help the team manage donor relationships with greater clarity and consistency.

The ideal candidate is highly organized, systems-oriented, and enjoys process improvement and connecting day-to-day operations to long-term fundraising strategy. The role is both donor-facing and deeply operational, with responsibility for institutional fundraising, development systems, and the data infrastructure that helps Town Hall build stronger donor relationships and grow its fundraising capacity.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Institutional Fundraising & Grant Management — 50%

• Lead Town Hall’s institutional fundraising calendar, including proposal deadlines, reporting deadlines, stewardship touchpoints, compliance requirements, and internal planning timelines.
• Manage the full grants process, including drafting, assembling, submitting, and tracking grant proposals and reports in collaboration with departments across the organization.
• Maintain complete and accurate institutional funder records in Salesforce, including contacts, proposals, reports, restrictions, outcomes, deadlines, and stewardship requirements.
• Coordinate institutional funder stewardship, including acknowledgements, recognition tracking, funder updates, reporting schedules, and other ongoing communications.
• Prepare funder-facing materials, including proposals, reports, acknowledgements, stewardship updates, and supporting materials for cultivation and renewal.
• Serve as the primary administrative and reporting contact for institutional funders, as well as any fundraising consultants or contractors supporting this work.
• Support institutional fundraising strategy and relationship cultivation in partnership with the Director of Development and Executive Director.
• Support the growth of corporate giving by building prospect lists, preparing research and materials, tracking opportunities, coordinating sponsorship information, and maintaining stewardship systems in partnership with Development leadership.

Development Operations & Salesforce Administration — 30%

• Serve as the Development team’s primary Salesforce administrator, managing data integrity, system configuration, documentation, reporting, and team support.
• Establish and maintain standards for data entry, reporting, segmentation, gift tracking, donor records, and development workflows.
• Build and maintain dashboards, reports, and recurring data outputs to support individual giving, institutional fundraising, campaigns, board reporting, and leadership decision-making.
• Partner with Development Associate and Finance team on gift reconciliation, month-end and year-end close, audit preparation
• Ensure accurate and consistent tracking of gifts, pledges, grants, memberships, in-kind contributions, restrictions, and donor communications across systems.
• Identify and implement improvements to development systems, workflows, reporting practices, and cross-department data use.
• Create and maintain documentation for development systems, processes, and institutional fundraising workflows to support onboarding, training, continuity, and long-term organizational resilience.

Fundraising Strategy, Reporting & Stewardship Support — 20%

• Support Development leadership with donor research, pipeline tracking, and fundraising data analysis.
• Manage pipeline tracking tools that support cultivation, solicitation, renewal, and stewardship across fundraising areas.
• Create segmentation and reporting workflows that support individual giving appeals, membership campaigns, donor renewals, and targeted outreach.
• Manage acknowledgement and stewardship systems to ensure donors receive timely, accurate, and thoughtful follow-up.
• Translate fundraising data into clear reports and recommendations for staff, board, and committee use.
• Serve as a key internal resource on development systems, reporting, and data practices, including training and documentation for staff.

SKILLS, QUALIFICATIONS, AND PREFERRED ATTRIBUTES:

• 5+ years of experience in nonprofit development operations, institutional fundraising, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience managing Salesforce or a comparable CRM, including data integrity, reporting, and system stewardship.
• Experience supporting or executing institutional fundraising, including grant applications, reporting, and compliance tracking.
• Strong analytical and organizational skills, with the ability to manage complex workflows and multiple deadlines.
• Comfort partnering closely with Finance and translating between fundraising and accounting needs.
• Excellent written communication skills, with experience drafting grant materials, reports, and donor communications.
• High level of judgment, discretion, and attention to detail.
• Collaborative, service-oriented mindset with the ability to work effectively across teams.
• Commitment to Town Hall Seattle’s mission and values, including equity, accessibility, and community-centered work.
• Familiarity with arts, culture, or civic organizations is a plus.

Status: Position is full-time (40 hours/week), non-exempt; ability to work flexible hours; evenings and weekends, required.

Reports to: Director of Development

Location: Town Hall is a hybrid workplace, with this role requiring significant in-person responsibilities. Town Hall administrative staff currently work in the office 2-3 days per week. Our office is located at 720 Seneca St, and our venue is located at 1119 8th Ave. This role requires management of on-site events on evenings and weekends (up to 1 to 2 nights per month plus special fundraising events, 2-3 per year).

• Medical, dental, life, and AD&D insurance (employer-paid)
• 403(b) with employer match (up to $2,000)
• Generous PTO, sick leave, and holidays (plus annual office closure)
• Subsidized ORCA transit pass