Development Manager

Our work is driven by the belief that parents-not government bureaucracies-are best positioned to determine the educational path for their children., The Development Manager serves as the operational leader of BPUE’s fundraising and donor engagement efforts. This individual is responsible for executing the organization’s development strategy by managing fundraising operations, supporting executive donor cultivation, overseeing donor portfolio management, maintaining the development database, implementing strategic fundraising initiatives, and ensuring that every donor interaction is intentional, timely, and moves relationships toward greater investment.

The Development Manager does not carry primary responsibility for closing major gifts. Rather, this individual creates the systems, discipline, and execution that enable the CEO and President to maximize their effectiveness with current and prospective donors.

The ideal candidate is highly organized, proactive, detail-oriented, and deeply committed to expanding educational freedom in America. This is a full-time role reporting directly to the President of BPUE.

BPUE strongly prefers candidates who are based in or willing to relocate to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. However, exceptional candidates with a demonstrated record of success working remotely may be considered for a fully remote arrangement. All candidates must be willing to travel up to 20% of the time for meetings, events, and other role-related responsibilities.

Mission Alignment

Candidates must be fully committed to educational freedom and school choice. This is a mission-critical position requiring conviction that every family deserves the opportunity to choose the educational environment that best meets the needs of their child.

The successful candidate must enthusiastically support and communicate BPUE’s vision for expanding:

• Educational Freedom
• Parent Empowerment
• Education Savings Accounts (ESAs)
• Scholarship Tax Credits
• Charter Schools
• Microschools
• High-quality educational opportunities for underserved communities

Primary Responsibilities

Development Operations

• Manage all day-to-day development operations, ensuring fundraising systems, processes, and workflows operate efficiently.
• Translate BPUE’s annual fundraising plan and goals into clear priorities, calendars, and work plans.
• Oversee gift processing, acknowledgments, and donor stewardship workflows.

Donor Portfolio and Executive Development Support

• Manage the organization’s donor portfolio, including the CEO’s and President’s portfolios, using a disciplined moves management process.
• Develop individualized cultivation plans for donors and prospects.
• Track donor meetings, next steps, proposals, commitments, and follow up activities to ensure timely execution.
• Monitor donors’ and prospects’ movement through the cultivation cycle and recommend adjustments to strengthen portfolio performance.
• Schedule donor meetings.
• Prepare donor profiles, briefing materials, proposals, talking points, and follow-up correspondence for the CEO and President.
• Coordinate stewardship plans for major donors.

Development Strategy and Project Management

• Coordinate execution of fundraising campaigns, donor events, and other major initiatives.
• Collaborate across departments to ensure development priorities are integrated into organizational operations.
• Coordinate grant application timelines and reporting requirements.

Prospect Research and Pipeline Development

• Conduct proactive research to identify prospective individual, foundation, corporate, and faith-based donors.
• Build and maintain a healthy pipeline of qualified prospects.

Reporting & Analytics

• Produce accurate fundraising reports, dashboards, donor analytics, and mailing lists for executive leadership and the Board.
• Track fundraising performance against established goals.
• Monitor key performance indicators, including donor retention, pipeline growth, proposal activity, and revenue.
• Maintain accurate donor records, including interactions, gifts, proposals, and stewardship activities.
• Develop systems that improve organizational efficiency and donor engagement., Within the first year, the Development Manager will:
• Establish a disciplined moves management process for all major donors.
• Maintain accurate, up-to-date donor records and reporting.
• Build a robust pipeline of qualified donor prospects.
• Ensure every donor receives consistent and timely stewardship.
• Enable the CEO and President to spend significantly more time cultivating and soliciting major gifts.
• Strengthen BPUE’s fundraising infrastructure to support continued national growth.

• Minimum of two years of experience in nonprofit development, fundraising operations, or advancement.
• Demonstrated experience supporting major gift fundraising.
• Strong knowledge of moves management and donor stewardship.
• Experience managing donor CRM systems (Salesforce, Bloomerang, DonorPerfect, Virtuous, or similar).
• Excellent writing, organizational, and project management skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining exceptional attention to detail.
• High degree of professionalism and discretion when handling confidential donor information.
• Ability to travel up to 20%.
• Experience with grant management and proposal development preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree preferred.

Desired Competencies

• Strategic thinker with exceptional execution skills.
• Highly organized and systems-oriented.
• Strong project management abilities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Relationship-focused with outstanding interpersonal skills.
• Self-starter who anticipates needs and solves problems proactively.
• Commitment to excellence and continuous improvement.

The salary range for this position is $70,000 to $90,000, depending on experience.