Senior Development Manager, Donor Relations and Communications

The Organization

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (GLI) is the nation’s leading American history organization dedicated to K–12 education. The Institute’s mission is to promote the knowledge and understanding of American history through educational programs and resources. Since its founding in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute has created powerful and meaningful ways to teach and learn history. Focusing on primary sources, the Institute offers teacher seminars, online courses, exhibitions, digital materials, and print publications that enable students of all ages and backgrounds to study the nation’s past.

The Institute brings the work of today’s leading historians into classrooms and homes around the globe. Through public events, publications, posters, videos, exhibitions, essays, and a dedicated website rich in primary sources, the Institute brings every period of American history to life. The Institute’s diverse education programs, including the acclaimed Hamilton Education Program, provide opportunities to explore five centuries of American history. The Gilder Lehrman Affiliate School network comprises more than 12 million students and 90,000 teachers from over 34,000 schools worldwide.

Are you passionate about the field of education? Excited to inspire young people to be civically engaged at this critical moment for American democracy? Looking for an entrepreneurial fundraising role that allows you to be creative, hands-on, and part of recruiting the next generation of engaged supporters? The Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Development team is looking for you! 

The Institute’s annual operating budget is approximately $11M, nearly $5M of which comes from philanthropy. We are currently seeking a Senior Manager of Donor Relations and Communications, reporting to the Director of Development. The successful candidate will truly love to write and be excited about being a leader in rethinking how the Institute pairs words, images, and video to communicate the urgency of our mission and the impact of our programs to current and prospective donors. While writing will be an important component of this job, the Senior Manager will also have the opportunity to engage directly with donors. This is an ideal position for someone who is interested in the donor relationship-building aspects of fundraising, while relishing the idea of spending a significant portion of your time immersed in creating the materials that are so essential to effective fundraising. The writing that the Manager oversees will range from shorter to longer formats depending on the donor-related need, but with an overall emphasis on distilling our work into highly concise pieces that use graphic design and visual elements as useful to our storytelling. 

The Senior Manager will play a key role in

• Creating compelling marketing materials that help staff, Trustees, and other stakeholders fundraise for priority programs and our annual fund  
• Strengthening our donor stewardship by regularly producing compelling communications pieces 
• Helping to sustain and grow our portfolio of donors by writing impact reports, proposals, and other materials to secure funds   
• Cultivating current and prospective donors in meetings  

The Senior Manager will be joining the Institute at a dynamic time, as we celebrate our 30th anniversary throughout 2024 and continue to enhance and expand our nonpartisan K–12 and public programming at a critical time for our nation.  

This role will be based in New York City, and currently requires working in person at least one day per week in GLI’s midtown office. 

The Senior Manager will play a crucial role in bringing our stories to life across donor audiences and mediums, helping us sustain our current donor base and significantly expand and diversify this base. Specific responsibilities will include

• Creating a toolkit of essential fundraising collateral for staff, Trustees, and President’s Council members to use in reaching out to donors, developing materials in both deck and document-based formats 
• Producing donor newsletters and other key donor communications pieces that capture highlights of the Institute’s work, taking these projects from start to finish by proposing the most compelling content, writing copy, and executing relevant graphic design elements  
• Supporting the success of donor cultivation events by writing event-related collateral including e-blasts to advertise event opportunities, written program materials distributed to event guests, and post-event publicity pieces  
• Developing and executing a plan for Trustee communications to inspire their giving and outreach by sharing impact stories 
• Managing a calendar of direct mail appeals, identifying compelling opportunities to solicit giving to our annual fund, and developing aligned appeal pieces (which could take the form of letters, videos, or any other creative approach to fundraising)
• Managing communications with donors who give to specific initiatives and/or programs in specific states, developing a calendar of outreach opportunities, and writing compelling updates to provide regular touchpoints throughout the year 
• Writing donor reports and proposals, working with the Institute’s Education team to develop compelling updates on our impact and cases for support 
• Supporting or leading annual meetings with a portfolio of donors to secure critical funds

• Bachelor’s degree
• An excellent writer, who also enjoys writing in multiple different formats and finding the right balance between telling stories through words, images, and videos 
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office and Google Suite applications 
• Basic graphic design skills strongly preferred (i.e., you feel comfortable using Canva or equivalent tools to design a 1-page marketing document or design an e-blast)
• Prior experience in non-profit fundraising and/or communications, or demonstrated experience in another professional role that requires writing for external audiences and building key external relationships  

• Commitment to GLI’s mission and enthusiasm about communicating the mission to external audiences
• Exceptional project management skills, with the ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment that involves juggling multiple projects at once and being detail-oriented about each task
• Strong relationship management skills and intuitive understanding of how to handle sensitive communications with care  
• Team-oriented with a desire to participate in creating a strong team culture