Development Manager

HOW TO APPLY

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and must be received by November 10, 2025. Applications received after the deadline may be reviewed dependent upon qualifications. Submit a resume and cover letter that demonstrates your understanding of the role and how your experience aligns with the job responsibilities. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until the position is filled. We strongly discourage the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the preparation of application materials for this role.

We will only review applications submitted through the JazzHR portal as received and will invite a short list of candidates to schedule a video screening. All submitted inquiries and materials will be for the purposes of interviewing and hiring only, kept strictly confidential, and will not be used in Emergent Fund’s work. Interviews will take place in November and early December, with an anticipated start date of January 5th, 2025.

To protect the integrity of our structure candidacy process, we kindly ask that all applicants do not call, email, or message our office or any member of the Emergent Fund or Amalgamated Charitable Foundation (ACF) Team about this opportunity.

ABOUT US

The Amalgamated Foundation is a platform for progressive, social change philanthropy that manages more than 200 donor-advised funds and collaborative funds. Committed to innovation, the Foundation is uniquely nimble and efficient in forging connections between individual donors, institutional funders, and grantees.

ABOUT EMERGENT FUND

Movements have long relied on creative collective responses to crises and catalytic moments as strategic opportunities to advance visionary organizing. Emergent Fund and Emergent Action Fund are movement rapid response funds led by and for organizers with intersectional, collective liberation values. As a nationally recognized philanthropy culture disruptor and praxis leader, Emergent Fund challenges power in who we fund as well as with how we fund. We serve as one of the few open, accessible trust-based, no strings attached grants for rapid response and emergent organizing led by frontline Black, Indigenous, and people of color. All our grantmaking is driven by the leadership of directly impacted communities who are committed to building movement and transforming sociopolitical catalysts into lasting social change. Our model demonstrates that people-powered philanthropy can move at the speed of trust and at a pace that meets movements’ needs.

The need to expand capacity for our work is clear. Since our founding in 2017, Emergent Fund has mobilized over $14 million directly into the hands of frontline organizers and thousands of movement organizations across the US and its colonized territories. Last year, Emergent Fund expanded its leadership team to include a Director of Philanthropic Partnerships (DPP) - the DPP is now in critical need of support and partnership to execute their vision for movement-accountable resource mobilization efforts.

The Emergent Fund (501c3) and our sibling Emergent Action Fund (501c4) are respectively fiscally sponsored by The Amalgamated Charitable Foundation (c3) and Organize Action (c4).

JOB OVERVIEW

Emergent Fund is hiring a Development Manager to support the implementation and coordination of our development and fundraising work. This is a new role that will work closely with the Director of Philanthropic Partnerships to build out the systems, tools, practices, and infrastructure necessary for a small team to raise and move millions annually to the frontlines of grassroots movements. As essential movement funding infrastructure and one of the few rapid response funders who operate at our pace and scale, the Development Manager will be critical for our own organizational sustainability to protect and grow organizer’s access to trust-based, nimble rapid response dollars when it matters most. This is primarily a support and implementation role, but with opportunities for leadership, ownership, and growth, particularly in areas like donor communications, CRM selection and management, and project oversight.

We are looking for someone who is energized by project management, systems and spreadsheets, writing and editing, organizing workflows, and keeping a lot of moving parts coordinated. This role will serve as the engine behind our development work, providing critical logistical, communications, and project management support across a wide range of fundraising strategies. The ideal candidate is a skilled writer, a proactive project manager, deeply values-aligned, and excited about supporting movement fundraising from behind the scenes.

VALUES ALIGNMENT

At Emergent Fund, our work is driven by a deep belief in collective liberation and a fierce commitment to resourcing movements led by those most directly impacted by systemic injustice. We are not a traditional philanthropy, and we don’t want to be. We operate from a place of trust, relationship, and solidarity, not control, extraction, or saviorism. The DPP sees fundraising not as charity, but as a political practice rooted from deeply ancestral roots in mutual aid and solidarity. The DPP and Emergent Fund are actively working to dismantle harmful dynamics in the field while resourcing visionary organizing that builds power at the grassroots, equally using both traditional and more modern fundraising philosophies and tools.

The Development Manager should have a background in social justice and movement fundraising, specifically, and bring a values-aligned approach to their day-to-day responsibilities. This role is not just about managing systems or supporting donor engagement; it’s about ensuring that Emergent Fund’s development practices are in right-relationship with the communities we serve. We’re looking for someone who has seen the inside of movement spaces, , understands that conducting movement and social justice fundraising is deeply unique and different from other nonprofit fundraising fields, and this person can bridge movement commitment with strong fundraising execution.

We’re looking for someone who:

• Believes in aggressive and nuanced fundraising strategies that merge old-school and new-school philosophies and tactics.
• Understands that how we raise money matters just as much as how much we raise.
• Has direct experience with movement fundraising and grasstops/grassroots power-building ecosystems.
• Brings a lens of anti-racism, anti-colonialism, feminism, disability justice, trans and queer liberation, and class consciousness to their daily work.
• Feels excited about challenging and transforming extractive fundraising norms, but still knows how and when to use traditional fundraising tactics for the greater good of unlocking resources for communities living at the margins of society.
• Is committed to redistributing wealth and power, and believes in putting more trust and resources into the hands of grassroots organizers.
• Is willing to name harm, take feedback, and remain accountable to frontline movements, not just donors or institutions.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Development Writing and Communications (25%)

• Drafts and supports grant proposals, reports, lens and concept papers, and other donor materials
• Prepares donor meeting prep documents and leads in follow-up communications support
• Coordinates and contributes to fundraising campaigns and appeals
• Collaborates with the Director of Storytelling and the DPP to use storytelling as a tool for fundraising.

Administrative and Operational Support (25%)

• Manages donor meeting scheduling, follow-ups, donor meeting logistics, and other internal/external scheduling and logistical support for the DPP
• Lead note-taker during funder and donor meetings to ensure key points and action items are captured and directed to the DPP
• Creates systems to track and follow-up on fundraising touchpoints
• Supports planning, preparation, and follow up for donor events, virtual events, and in-person gatherings

Data and Database Infrastructure Development (20%)

• Leads the process of researching, selecting, and implementing a CRM/database
• Manages data input, maintenance, and data consultant relationship management
• Helps analyze donor trends and supports donor segmentation and targeted engagement
• Creates systems that center relationship over transactions and builds institutional memory

Donor Research and Pipeline Development (15%)

• Conducts prospect research to identify newly aligned funders and donors
• Tracks funder landscape trends and shifts in philanthropic priorities

Internal Coordination and Cross-Team Collaboration (15%)

• Collaborates with other EF staff to gather content and context for proposals, reports, and other funder communications.
• Leads in building a culture of resource mobilization for the organization in creatively engaging key departments in fundraising processes.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• A strong personal and professional commitment to Emergent Fund’s mission and model with demonstrated experience supporting social justice movements, in particular directly impacted communities.
• 5+ years experience in movement fundraising including some mix of relationship management, prospect research, institutional and individual giving, and a proven track record of successfully securing grant funds and/or major gifts. Experience in BOTH c3 and c4 fundraising preferred but not required.
• Superior original writing and editing skills, especially in creating clear, concise, and dynamic content for funder audiences that does not rely on Artificial Intelligence to craft original content.
• Self-directed and proactive, with the ability to take ownership of projects and follow-through reliably.
• Ability to “speak to and reach” a big tent of funders and donor spaces compellingly and authentically on our work.
• Understands philanthropy and social justice movements explicitly through an intersectional lens of race, class, and gender that reflects sharp power analysis.
• Knowledge of a growing toolbox of scaled fundraising strategies, including annual giving, foundation/corporate giving, major gifts, and special events.
• Deep knowledge of at least some pockets of the social justice funding ecosystem, including key players, internal politics, historic dynamics, and other landscape awareness that can’t be discovered by a google search and can only be gained from years of on-the-ground experience
• Flexible and excited about being on a growing, emergent, and highly collaborative team
• Significant experience using various donor platforms, particularly Salesforce
• Highly organized and self-directed with exceptional follow-through
• Ability to prioritize and maintain lasting relationships with key supporters
• Movement experience/background in grassroots labor, reproductive justice, racial justice, disability justice, climate justice, queer liberation, restorative justice, democracy, or other applicable social justice/movement arenas.

SALARY & BENEFITS

This role will be individually compensated $100,000/yr plus a generous benefits package. For equity and internal parity, title and salary are non-negotiable with eligibility for cost-of-living annual salary adjustments and promotions if our work scales, as needed. All staff can expect transparent and values-aligned annual performance reflection processes that center accountability to movement and our partners, to ourselves in our own joy, purpose, and power, and to each other in our shared work of resourcing our movements. Our team shares their time appropriately and as needed between our c3 and c4 side.

 Generous benefits package that includes 100% employer-paid health insurance (medical, dental, and vision) for employee and eligible dependents, 401k match, 20 paid vacation days, 13 paid holidays, 10 sick days, paid FMLA after one year and a remote work stipend.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

Emergent Fund is a commitment to abundance, care, and community with unapologetic radical politics around resourcing our movements. We aim to create a values-aligned, sustainable, and effective movement organization that balances transparent, collective power with the autonomy and trust that allows you to show up in your full power for movement and to own your work. As critical movement infrastructure, our highest work accountability is to deliver real material change and resources that our frontline movement partners need to protect our communities and build a thriving world. Here’s how that looks in practice:

• Proactive, not Reactive: We sustain emergent strategy, not urgency and emergencies, to stay in our power and value community over crisis to meet the needs of organizers facing extraordinary conditions
• 4-day, 32-hour work week. Staff have agency in determining their specific schedules, with the expectation that they are available and responsive during core hours of 10am-4pm local time.
• Occasional unconventional work times may be needed to meet the needs of frontline organizers, for organizational strategic retreats, fast proposal/report turnarounds, partnerships/critical relational organizing opportunities, or for work travel that may happen outside of business hours and on weekend.
• Highly Iterative: We are not afraid to take risks, experiment with new ideas and shift when needed
• Generative Accountability: We commit to principles of transformative justice and being in right relationship to address conflict and tensions directly both internally and with partners
• Highly collaborative: We collaborate with clarity about our specific roles and responsibilities, and meet weekly to discuss organizational updates and development.

LOCATION & TRAVEL

We are primarily a remote workplace. While applicants can be based in any of the fifty United States or its occupied territories, they should anticipate that the core team operates largely on East Coast Time.

The Development Manager is expected to travel 2 - 4 times per year for external funder and donor meetings. For in-person work travel, the utmost care and regard for access needs and covid safety will be prioritized.

At the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, we value a diverse, inclusive workforce and we provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees. All qualified applicants for employment will be considered without regard to an individual’s race, color, sex, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, marital status, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, genetic information, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local laws. Women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and people from working-class backgrounds and/or with lived experiences are strongly encouraged to apply.

Research indicates members of marginalized groups tend to underestimate their qualifications which deters them from applying. If you are an experienced movement fundraiser and think you have what it takes to be successful in this role, even if you don't check all the boxes, please apply! We welcome the opportunity to consider your application.