Project Manager, Principal Giving

Thanks for your interest in Success Academy! Running the largest, fastest-growing, and highest-performing network of public charter schools in New York City takes a village - families, children, teachers, staff and faculty, advocates and supporters alike. We would love to welcome you to our community! We work tirelessly every day to ensure each child in NYC has access to a fun, rigorous, whole-child education regardless of zip code or economic status. When you join SA, you play a part in giving every student who walks through the doors of one of our 57 schools in NYC a fair shot at reaching his or her potential.

Job Description

Reporting to the Chief Advancement Officer (CAO) and serving as a key member of the Development team within the Advancement department, the Project Manager, Principal Giving advances the mission of Success Academy Charter Schools (SA) by managing and coordinating various programmatic, administrative, and operational functions that enable successful engagement of individual and institutional donors and prospects at the principal level (i.e., $1 million and above). Specifically, this includes providing sophisticated coordination and support to the Chief Advancement Officer (CAO), the Founder & CEO, and the Head of Development (HOD) relative to principal giving strategies, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship that enables fundraising success and meeting/exceeding goals. This includes but is not limited to contributing to development of engagement strategies; conducting prospect research and analysis; preparing executive briefings; coordinating and tracking donor meetings, tours, calls, and requisite follow-up; occasionally drafting donor correspondence; liaising with Executive Office support, the School Management Office, and other departments; and maintaining timely and accurate documentation of donor interactions in Raiser’s Edge NXT (RE) database.

The Project Manager, Principal Giving, is a proactive, confident self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment that values results. They are persistent and driven to succeed in advancing efforts to grow a robust pipeline of principal donors and in meeting or exceeding goals. Success in this role will require the following qualities:

• Self-motivated, self-sufficient, and driven to lead and collaborate with others to achieve success.

• Detail-oriented, analytical, with strong organizational and project management skills

• Strategic, proactive, and forward thinking;

• Outgoing, and confident with exceptional communication skills. 

• Possesses the highest standards of personal and professional integrity; and

• Adheres to and promotes SA’s mission, culture, and strategic priorities.

Key responsibilities include:

Principal Giving Project Management

• Coordinates and assists with Principal Giving prospect strategies through briefings prepared for the CAO, CEO, and Head of Development; actively participates in strategy/planning sessions, and gathering and sharing of data and other information relevant to prospects’ and donors’ philanthropic engagement. 

• Leads and/or assists with scheduling, briefing, and follow-up of all CEO and senior executive-level meetings and tours, and assists CAO in ensuring all activity is tracked and recorded in the RE NXT database. Liaises with executive office support team on same.

• Collaborates closely with the CAO (and the Head of Development) in coordinating and managing recurring strategy meetings and planning for Principal donors/prospects (individual and institutional), including the compilation of research, past giving, touchpoints, etc. to inform strategies,  next steps, and follow up.

• Liaises and works closely with the Head, External Relations, and team to coordinate and manage bespoke CEO communications with Principal donors/prospects with appropriate context and nuance, as well as accuracy and timeliness, including serving as a key checkpoint for context/quality assurance. This includes VIP correspondence, VIP scheduling, stewardship, and follow-up activity. 

• Collaborates closely with Advancement Services team to ensure data integrity with respect to all Principal Giving donors, necessary reports, and updates in database, as well as high-priority research requests.

• With the CAO and Advancement leadership team, coordinates the Principal donors/prospects’ “VIP experience” at key events, ensuring quality of experience and interactions with CEO, CAO, and/or other key individuals, as we