Development Coordinator

GrubStreet is the leading literary arts center in the country, located in the Seaport District in Boston, Massachusetts. We are a passionate and dedicated team of professionals who take pride in our work and are committed to creating a warm and supportive work environment. We are currently seeking a Development Coordinator to play a key role in helping GrubStreet to support our mission.

The Development Coordinator is responsible for critical tasks, including processing donations, coordinating gift acknowledgements, database maintenance, and serving on the GrubStreet website team. This is a full-time, permanent position, with occasional evening work required for donor events. This position reports to the Individual Giving Officer and works closely with the entire Development team, as well as the Finance and Marketing teams.

GrubStreet strives to dismantle every system, process, or structure that would discourage any person from working with us. We actively seek diversity, equity and inclusivity because the excellence of our work and the value of its impact depend on them. We strive to create an environment where the perspectives we bring to our work are valued as much as the work we produce.

Responsibilities

Processing and Acknowledging Gifts

• Process gifts in coordination with the finance team.
• Enter gift and donor data into database and development reporting spreadsheets.
• Manage all aspects of gift acknowledgements, including preparing, assigning, and sending out formal acknowledgement letters and call lists for thank you calls.
• Coordinate with all members of the team and volunteers to ensure that assignments are completed and information is entered into the database.
• Communicate with donors regularly by sending thank you letters and making thank you calls.
• Manage all aspects of pledges, including entering pledge commitments and payments into the database, preparing and tracking pledge forms, and communicating with donors to remind them of their pledges.
• Lead monthly reconciliation with the Finance team.

Database Maintenance, List Management, and Systems Responsibilities

• Pull and clean custom lists for donor communications, including appeal mailings, event invitations, and donor reports.
• Assist with annual appeal communications, including mail-merging letters and logging mailings into the database.
• Identify and flag overlap among outreach lists across multiple campaigns to ensure smooth donor communications.
• Enter details of donor meetings and other donor contacts into the database for record keeping and to ensure follow-up.
• Pull donor reports and analyze trends on as needed basis.
• Complete regular database maintenance tasks, including ensuring that donor notes and funder meeting notes are consistently logged, updating contact information and contact preferences, auditing database gifts to ensure all gifts are imported and coded correctly, and other tasks as needed.
• Serve as Development liaison to GrubStreet’s web developer to request updates to the website as needed, and support the team with updating Development pages on the website as needed.
• Adhere to strict confidentiality agreements related to donor and gift information.

Events and Membership Support

• Assist with coordination of fundraising events including pulling and cleaning invitation lists, sending invitations and tracking RSVPs, coordinating with vendors, staffing events, welcoming donors at events, and event follow up.
• Meet with donors and members as needed to cultivate support.
• Support the Development team with lead generation efforts.
• Register and track complimentary, gift, and staff memberships.
• Pull membership reports and send mail-merge acknowledgement emails.
• Respond to any membership inquiry that relates to pricing or requests to be removed from auto-renewal.

Qualifications

We acknowledge that there may be exceptional candidates who may not fulfill all these criteria, and we are aware that you might offer valuable insights, experiences, and skill sets that we haven't considered. If this resonates with you, we encourage you to submit your application and share your story with us.

• 2+ years of related experience.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to build strong donor relationships.
• Acquaintance with CRM software for managing donor data.
• Organizational skills to manage multiple projects and deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
• Understanding of nonprofit fundraising strategies and best practices.
• Experience with event planning and execution is a plus.

Statement of Belonging

At GrubStreet, belonging means creating and maintaining spaces where we boldly share our voices, our experiences, and our work as writers, readers, and audience members. Every member of our community commits to engaging across differences with curiosity and a desire to learn and grow together.

Community Agreements:

• Practice cultural humility, ask questions, and engage with different perspectives
• Grace to speak in draft form and be open to making mistakes
• Check our biases and be aware of how we carry our own identity and privilege

Position Status: Full time

Position Level: Coordinator

Position Reports to: Individual Giving Officer

Location: Boston (Seaport); Hybrid position with remote work eligibility 2 days per week

GrubStreet’s policy is to assure equal employment opportunity to all qualified employees and applicants by prohibiting discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran or military status, or any other characteristic protected by law. This practice applies to all terms, conditions and privileges of employment including hiring, transfer, compensation, layoffs, promotions, training, benefits, termination and retirement.