Director, Development Operations

About NYC Kids RISE 

NYC Kids RISE is a nonprofit organization working with the City of New York and the NYC Department of Education (DOE) to manage the Save for College Program. Through the Program, eligible students enrolled in an NYC public school (including participating charter schools) automatically receive a free NYC Scholarship Account with an initial allocation of $100 invested in a NY 529 Direct Plan, and opportunities to receive additional rewards over time. Their families can open and connect their own college savings account through the platform, and communities can contribute to groups of NYC Scholarship Accounts as both a targeted and universal platform for community-driven asset-building in every neighborhood. This approach draws from a variety of best practices and disciplines across the fields of asset building, child savings accounts, financial empowerment, education, community wealth building, urban poverty, collective impact, neighborhood effects and social capital research, and more. 

Read more about NYC Kids RISE and the Save for College Program through a series of briefs about the Program, and listen to stories from partners who helped build the platform during its pilot phase from 2017 to 2022.  You can also review articles in Fast Company, the Wall Street Journal, and the NYCHA Journal; and read more about NYC Kids RISE’s theory of change in a report by the Urban Institute. 

After a successful pilot phase in the communities of School District 30 in Queens, NYC Kids RISE

expanded citywide during the 2021-2022 school year. This school year more than 200,000 elementary school students across more than 1,000 elementary schools will have anNYC Scholarship Account for their educational futures.

Director of Development Operations

NYC Kids RISE seeks an innovative, systems-oriented, detail-oriented, operational expert with experience in building, managing, and improving systems and structures to increase an organization’s effectiveness to serve as the organization’s first Director of Development Operations. As a key member of the new Development team, the Director will be responsible for creating, maintaining, and leveraging the tools necessary to ensure the organization is able to execute its fundraising strategy effectively, solidifying its long-term sustainability. 

Reporting to the Managing Director of Development, the Director will primarily be responsible for the creation and support the execution of a set of tools designed to allow the Executive Director and Managing Director of Development to collect, aggregate, analyze and use data to secure ongoing financial support from individuals and institutions across the city and beyond. In addition, the Director will serve as a key liaison with the Finance, Communications, and Research and Evaluation teams to support key initiatives related to fundraising, reporting, budget tracking and donor engagement.

Key responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Create, update, and maintain policies and procedures for all development database systems, including research related to which platforms will best meet our needs as we move towards building a CRM
• Create a plan for and execute regular data integrity checks, including managing our donor outreach data, to ensure consistency and integrity of data in order to improve pipeline management & forecasting, so we know at all times where we stand against our goals
• Lead on cross-functional partnerships by:
  • Partnering with the Research & Evaluation and Technology teams to manage and maintain fidelity of all fundraising data (via CRM tbd); analyze data and run reports to show progress on fundraising strategies, and create tools and dashboards to support Managing Director, Development and Executive Director in understanding that data
  • Partnering with the Finance Team to execute gift processing and ensure accuracy of donor information across the organization, including tax acknowledgements
  • Partnering with the Finance Team to manage Network for Good platform our current online donor platform, including gift reconciliation
  • Partnering with the Finance Team to execute a monthly finance reconciliation process, including reviewing deposits, wire transfers and stock gifts
  • Partnering with the Finance Team to produce donor-facing budgets and special reports used for annual planning and revenue forecasting purposes
  • Partnering with the Finance Team and legal counsel to develop the infrastructure and compliance systems for an endowment and/or other sustainable funding strategies
• Collaborate cross-functionally on organization-wide projects, including Annual Report coordination, 990 completion, and audit spanning Finance, Development, Communications, and Community Scholarships
• Support public grants project management, specific responsibilities to be determined

• Contribute to NYC Kids RISE core operations
  • Participate and share in the organization’s work to advance racial equity and anti-oppression in the organization’s and program’s operations and practices; proactively identify opportunities to advance the development of an anti-racist organization; share and solicit ongoing feedback and conversations to advance this work;
  • Maintain, and support other staff and volunteers to maintain strict adherence to NYC Kids RISE data security and privacy policies.

Qualifications

• At least eight years of experience, including at least 4 building systems and structures for a new or evolving function within an organization;
• Experience working across cross-functionally in a growing organization;
• Adaptable, flexible and effective problem solver in fast-paced settings; 
• Proven project manager, highly organized, strong attention to detail, ability to multitask;
• Strong judgment; 
• Knowledge of, and demonstrated interest in, increasing economic opportunities and long-term financial security for low-income New York City families and neighborhoods, and combating wealth inequality and the racial wealth gap; 
• Familiarity with New York City neighborhoods and systems (schools, community-based organizations, social services, local and state government, philanthropy, etc.) preferred;
• Experience in a start-up setting is preferred. 

NYC Kids RISE currently maintains a hybrid work environment where staff work both from home and in the office, as determined by the staff member's preferences as well as the needs of our organization and the specific responsibilities of individual roles and teams. Our offices are based in Long Island City (Queens, NY).

To apply, a cover letter and resume is required. Please list the name of the position “Director of Development Operations" in your cover letter. The potential salary for this position is from $125K to $145K which represents a range commensurate with experience.  

NYC Kids Rise is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate in employment on the basis of basis of gender, religion, race, creed, color, national origin, citizenship status, age, disability, marital status, caregiver status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, military status, unemployed status, or any other characteristic protected by law.