MapLight, an innovative, award-winning nonprofit that tracks money’s influence on politics, is seeking a Development Manager to join its dynamic fundraising team. This position is full-time and based in downtown Berkeley, California (close to BART).
In this role, you will work closely with MapLight’s Director of Foundation Relations, Deputy Director, and President to design and implement development strategies that will help us sustain current and new activities and continue to grow in size and effectiveness. The role will focus primarily on developing foundation proposals, preparing reports to funders, researching and prioritizing foundation prospects, and tracking grant requirements and deadlines, as well as assisting with other aspects of our fundraising such as donor communications.
The ideal candidate will have at least five years of experience developing grant proposals and reports, excellent writing and organizational skills, and a personal interest MapLight’s mission and work.
Responsibilities include:
- Draft foundation reports, proposals, and LOIs
- Track foundation deadlines and ensure that materials are submitted in full and on time
- Conduct prospect research on potential foundation and individual donors
- Track and organize examples of demonstrated impact and write up “case studies” of organizational successes
- Working with other development staff, create and update collateral materials for donor meetings
- Draft donor and prospect communications including periodic organizational updates, letters, newsletter articles, emails, and invitations
- Other projects and responsibilities as needed
Required qualifications:
- 5+ years professional nonprofit fundraising experience, with track record of success securing funding from foundations
- Demonstrated ability to identify new foundation targets, build and maintain strong relationships, and write compelling grant proposals and reports
- Self-starter who can work with executive leadership to set and execute priorities
- Excellent written and verbal communicator, including writing and copy-editing skills
- 100% attention to detail, 100% accurate
- Excellent time management skills with the ability to plan, organize, and prioritize workload and handle several tasks simultaneously
- Strong sense of social judgment and tact
- Ability to quickly learn how to best navigate the democracy and journalism funder landscape
- Personal dedication to MapLight’s mission and work
This full-time position is available immediately and includes health benefits, paid vacation, and competitive salary. MapLight is located in downtown Berkeley (near BART). Our hardworking but casual office environment includes quality-of-life perks such as a fully-stocked office snack bar, biweekly team lunches, delicious fair-trade coffee, ergonomic workstations, and bike storage on the premises.
MapLight believes that diversity makes us stronger. Building a team with diverse perspectives and life experiences enhances our ability to design products that inspire informed engagement with our political system across an inclusive audience. To that end, we are an equal opportunity employer and encourage all qualified applicants to apply. If you have a disability and may require accommodation during the recruitment process, please contact us at jobs@maplight.org.
Come work with us on the cutting edge of government transparency and accountability!
Application package:
- Cover letter
- Resume
- Development related writing sample
To apply, send application package to Barbara Bonifas at jobs@maplight.org. Please reference “Development Manager” in the subject line. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. No phone calls please.
About MapLight:
MapLight is a growing organization with a $3 million budget, funded primarily by foundation funding and major gifts. We are a nonpartisan research organization that reveals money’s influence on politics. Our groundbreaking transparency website, http://maplight.org, combines lobbying and campaign contribution data with how every legislator votes on every bill, making connections between money and votes that would previously have taken days or weeks to uncover available to the public at the click of a mouse. Our widely-disseminated, evidence-based findings highlight the relationship between campaign donations and legislative outcomes for the specific issues people care about, focusing citizen outrage and political energy on the root cause of government’s failure to serve the public interest: our broken system of campaign finance.
Since our founding in 2005, MapLight has reached over 315 million people with our data highlighting the impact of political influence. We’ve also launched Voter’s Edge, a comprehensive, nonpartisan online voter guide for the 21st century, and won a James Madison Freedom of Information Award, a Knight-Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism, a Library Journal Best Reference Award, an American Library Association MARS: Best Free Reference Web Site Award, and a Webby Award nomination.
For more about MapLight’s work, check out the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s profile of MapLight (http://maplight.org/SSIR) or visit http://maplight.org and http://votersedge.org.