The Senior Development Manager is a key role on Educate!'s revenue team, sitting at the intersection of strategy, execution, and relationship management. This person will play a critical role in driving our ambitious fundraising goals - leading external engagements with funders, developing compelling proposals, and ensuring seamless coordination across teams, while taking on increasing ownership of a growing portfolio of philanthropic funders.
This role demands both strategic thinking and hands-on execution. In the near term, the balance leans toward execution: building proposals, coordinating funder visits, and keeping complex workstreams moving. Over time, as you develop your portfolio and demonstrate ownership, the balance shifts toward strategy and leadership. We're looking for someone who is energized by both, and clear-eyed about what that journey looks like. This role sits one step below Head level on our development team, and we expect the right candidate to grow into that position as they build impact and demonstrate ownership.
Key Responsibilities
Relationship Management (30%)
- Serve as a primary relationship manager for a defined portfolio of philanthropic funders — building trusted, long-term partnerships.
- Progressively take on ownership of a broader funder portfolio, with increasing responsibility for revenue targets and strategic account management.
- Maintain a deep understanding of funder priorities and proactively identify opportunities to align Educate!'s work with their interests.
- Represent Educate! with professionalism, warmth, and credibility in external engagements.
- Identify and develop new funder relationships in line with Educate!'s funding strategy and growth ambitions.
- Contribute to team strategy discussions and help shape how Educate! approaches the market as it scales toward $100M.
Proposal Development & Strategic Writing (30%)
- Lead the development of high-quality funding proposals, concept notes, and grant applications — from strategy and structure through to submission.
- Edit and peer review external communications, ensuring consistent messaging and branding within the fundraising function.
- Synthesize complex programmatic information into compelling, funder-ready narratives.
- Collaborate with program and leadership teams to ensure proposals are accurate, ambitious, and aligned with organizational strategy.
- Manage proposal timelines and processes, ensuring on-time delivery and strong quality control.
Donor Visits (20%)
- Plan and coordinate end-to-end funder visits, including logistics, briefing materials, agendas, and on-the-ground facilitation.
- Prepare internal teams for funder interactions, ensuring clear talking points, relevant data, and a cohesive experience.
- Lead post-visit follow-up, including thank-you communications, action items, and documentation of key takeaways.
- Travel to Educate!'s programs in East Africa to support in-country donor engagements and connect funders directly with program impact.
- Continuously improve the quality of the visit experience, developing reusable materials and processes that reflect Educate!'s professionalism and mission.
Strategic Projects & Support (20%)
- Support the Director of Philanthropy and broader revenue team on high-priority strategic initiatives, including new market development and funder segmentation.
- Contribute to pipeline tracking, reporting, and revenue forecasting to keep the team organized and accountable.
- Help build and refine systems, templates, and processes that strengthen the team's overall effectiveness as Educate! scales.
- Conduct landscape research and analysis to inform fundraising strategy and identify emerging funding opportunities.
- Serve as a collaborative thought partner across the revenue team, stepping in to support where needed and contributing to a high-performing team culture.
Who You Are
This role is well-suited for a proactive and systems-minded professional with 3–5 years of experience in Operations, Systems Management, or a high-level Administrative role, who is passionate about improving how teams work and leveraging technology to drive efficiency.
The ideal candidate brings:
- A strong ability to identify, prioritize, and implement process improvements by listening to team needs, spotting operational pain points, and proactively developing solutions that enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
- Enthusiasm for exploring and adopting automation and AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Zapier, and Google Workspace integrations, with a belief that technology should be used to simplify work and enable operational excellence.
- Strong analytical and organizational skills, with experience managing data, building spreadsheet formulas, and creating systems that streamline workflows, improve visibility, and support decision-making.
- Exceptional communication and training skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts into practical, user-friendly tools and processes. You enjoy helping others build confidence and capability, ensuring teams can effectively use and manage systems independently.
- A self-starter mindset, strong attention to detail, and the ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment while managing multiple priorities and delivering high-quality results.
- An undergraduate degree and demonstrated experience not just following operational processes, but designing, improving, and building systems that enable teams to perform at their best.
- Resonance with our Five Cultural Tenets.
