Description

Reports to: Chief Development Officer

The Tulsa Flyer is seeking a Development Manager to serve in an essential fundraising role at an independent, community-centered, nonprofit news startup.

The Development Manager will report to the Chief Development Officer (CDO) and is responsible for maintaining and growing a portfolio of active grants and donors, developing compelling proposals and reports, maintaining the organization’s donor database, conducting prospect research, and supporting donor stewardship.

This is a unique opportunity to join an innovative organization in its early stages and to play a critical role in building its base of support across Tulsa and establishing its long-term sustainability and ongoing community impact.

This role is based in our downtown Tulsa office and is expected to work in person on a regular basis.

About the organization:

The Tulsa Flyer is a startup nonprofit organization that has raised $14 million so far in service of a vision to give everyone in Tulsa the local news they need to live more informed and more connected lives. The newsroom produces high-quality journalism while engaging with residents to produce and distribute reporting, employing an innovative model for local journalism that is directly responsive to local information needs. In addition to a team of editors and beat reporters, the Tulsa newsroom has best-in-class community engagement expertise, multimedia production, dedicated capacity for service journalism and research, and a program that trains citizens as government watchdogs called the Tulsa Documenters. 

At the Tulsa Flyer, we value learning, curiosity and diverse perspectives. We are dedicated to equitable hiring and follow best practices to create an inclusive hiring process.

Essential Functions:

Fundraising and Donor Communications

• Lead the development and submission of grant proposals and grant reports, soliciting and incorporating feedback from internal and external stakeholders
• Manage fundraising proposal and reporting lifecycles for institutional funders, major donors, and others, ensuring alignment with place-based fundraising priorities, timely reviews from stakeholders, and compliance with grant conditions
• Partner across the organization to develop and monitor project budgets, ensuring accuracy, grant compliance, and alignment with financial goals and resource allocation needs
• Work closely with leadership to develop funder-specific cases for support and renewal strategies for key funders
• Collaborate across the organization to ensure organizational materials are accurate, aligned, and impactful
• Support the creation and maintenance of one pagers, decks, and other materials that help explain our work to potential philanthropic partners 

Donor Qualification and Research

• Proactively identify new prospects through research, including assessment of qualification for fit with our numerous place-based fundraising efforts
• Conduct in-depth research and produce high-quality prospect briefs to support leadership and external-facing staff in meetings and outreach
• Implement systems to manage and track pipeline of prospective funders, coordinating handoff of qualified prospects, including meeting prep as directed
• Maintain prospect research through ongoing review and updating core research briefs with relevant news and developments 

Database Management and Fundraising Operations

• Oversee use of a CRM, managing data accuracy, pipeline reporting, and analytics to inform fundraising strategies
  Implement and maintain systems for fundraising operations, including workflow processes, team documentation, and budgeting tools
• Develop and deliver actionable insights and custom reports to track fundraising progress, analyze donor trends, and inform decision-making
• Collaborate with finance and operations staff to ensure seamless processes for gift tracking, reconciliations, receivables, and grant compliance

External Support 

• Support external engagements with local partners, which may include attending meetings with potential funders, or providing support during special events, including donor engagement events, board presentations, and special fundraising events
• As needed, support major fundraising events, ensuring a seamless and engaging experience for donors and attendees

Requirements

Consider applying if you have some of these skill sets:
This role might be a fit if you are:

• Detail-oriented – You’re able to organize, delegate and monitor projects with clear structure that also provides for flexibility for others to adapt and lead as well.
• Mission-oriented – You’re committed to our mission to improve the lives of all Tulsans.
• A self-starter – You’re a decisive critical thinker who can prioritize and come up with solutions to challenges that exist in a startup environment.
• A multitasker – Your flexibility to move from task to task almost seamlessly is a must as we are ever-changing and adapting to improve our workflows.
• An exemplary communicator – You’re empathetic and persuasive in driving home our mission, values and priorities to peers, other staff and stakeholders. Able to interpret and convey thoughts easily to all levels of organizational leadership to provide order and prioritization to projects at hand.
• Growth-oriented – You’re prepared to grow your role in a new organization and expand your responsibilities as our fundraising progresses and the pathways to new positions become available.
• Passionate, positive and patient – You want you and your peers to consistently achieve stretch goals, and you foster a workplace where collective achievement is celebrated.

What background and skills do you have?

• Strong organizational skills and experience with fundraising, including writing grant proposals and reports
• Experience producing development materials and content
• Strong research skills
• Knowledge of fundraising principles/practices and ethics
• Proficient with CRMs (ActiveCampaign, Saleforce, etc.) and other office software, primarily Google Suite, including strong presentation design skills
• Preferred work experience in a fundraising and development environment

We value a wide range of experiences and backgrounds. If our mission resonates with you and you believe you have the potential to thrive in this role, we’d love to hear from you—even if you don’t meet all of the listed qualifications.