Development Manager - Cookie Cart

Cookie Cart is seeking an experienced, results-driven Development Manager to lead philanthropic relationship development and grow contributed revenue.

This position is responsible for building and managing a portfolio of individual donors, major gifts, corporate partners, family foundations, and other philanthropic relationships. The successful candidate will bring a strong business development mindset, a passion for youth workforce development, and demonstrated success converting relationships into sustainable financial support.

Pay offered $ 75,000 - $85,000

Essential Duties & Responsibilities 

Individual Giving & Donor Relationship Management 

Manage and grow a portfolio of individual donors and philanthropic supporters.

• Cultivate, steward, solicit, and retain donor relationships through meaningful engagement and personalized outreach.
• Coordinate donor communications, recognition, stewardship plans, and impact reporting.
• Identify opportunities to deepen donor investment and long-term support.
• Maintain accurate donor records, engagement activities, and fundraising data within the CRM.
• Develop and execute donor cultivation strategies that support annual fundraising goals.
• Track and monitor donor pipeline activity, giving trends, and retention metrics.

Corporate Partnerships & Sponsorships

• Manage relationships with corporate partners, business supporters, and sponsorship stakeholders.
• Coordinate sponsorship opportunities, employee engagement initiatives, volunteer experiences, and partnership activities.
• Develop proposals, presentations, and partnership materials that communicate organizational impact and funding opportunities.
• Track partnership commitments, deliverables, sponsorship benefits, and stewardship activities.
• Identify and cultivate new partnership opportunities that advance organizational goals and sustainable revenue growth.

Grants & Grants Partnership

• Manage a portfolio of foundation grants, government grants, and third-party funding partnerships.
• Coordinate grant application, reporting, compliance, and stewardship activities across departments.
• Monitor grant timelines, deliverables, outcomes, and reporting requirements to ensure successful partnership implementation.
• Track grant performance, funding results, pipeline activity, renewal opportunities, and overall grant revenue forecasts.
• Collaborate with program, finance, and leadership teams to collect outcomes, data, and impact measures required by funders.
• Ensure funding opportunities align with Cookie Cart's mission, strategic priorities, youth development goals, workforce development outcomes, and community impact objectives.
• Develop and maintain a healthy grant pipeline that supports organizational growth and sustainability.
• Build strong relationships with grant partners, consultants, funding organizations, and collaborative stakeholders through proactive communication and stewardship.
• Oversee third-party funding partnerships and collaborative initiatives to ensure mission alignment, accountability, measurable outcomes, and community impact.
• Support development of grant narratives, budgets, proposals, impact reports, and funder communications.

Events & Community Engagement

• Support planning, execution, and follow-up activities related to fundraising events and donor engagement opportunities.
• Coordinate sponsor engagement, donor participation, volunteer involvement, and stewardship activities connected to events.
• Partner with staff and volunteers to ensure successful event execution and relationship-building opportunities.
• Utilize events as a strategy to strengthen donor engagement, expand community visibility, and support fundraising goals.

Fundraising Operations, Planning & Collaboration

• Support organizational fundraising priorities through effective planning, implementation, and relationship management.
• Collaborate with leadership and staff to align fundraising activities with organizational goals and annual objectives.
• Manage fundraising projects, timelines, and initiatives while maintaining strong attention to detail and follow-through.
• Provide fundraising reports, portfolio updates, grant activity summaries, forecasts, and performance metrics to leadership as requested.
• Maintain accurate donor records, grant tracking systems, and fundraising databases.
• Utilize CRM and reporting tools to support pipeline management, forecasting, donor stewardship, and revenue tracking.
• Assist with fundraising budget tracking and performance monitoring.
• Identify opportunities to improve fundraising systems, donor experiences, stewardship practices, and operational efficiencies.
• Stay informed on fundraising trends, community partnerships, grant opportunities, and emerging funding sources.

Key Performance Expectations

• Manage and grow a portfolio of individual, corporate, foundation, and community supporters that contributes to annual fundraising goals.
• Maintain an active grant pipeline with measurable funding, submission, and renewal outcomes.
• Ensure timely grant applications, reporting, compliance, and stewardship activities.
• Increase philanthropic engagement through donor retention, relationship development, and pipeline growth.
• Support successful fundraising campaigns, partnerships, sponsorships, and community engagement efforts.
• Maintain accurate data management and reporting practices that support informed fundraising decision-making.
• Contribute to sustainable revenue growth while supporting organizational mission and impact goals.

Qualifications & Experience

Required 

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and professional experience.
• Three to five years of experience in fundraising, development, nonprofit advancement, grant management, relationship management, sales, business development, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience managing donor relationships, fundraising initiatives, grants, sponsorships, partnerships, or business development activities.
• Experience coordinating fundraising campaigns, donor stewardship, community partnerships, and revenue-generating initiatives.
• Experience utilizing CRM systems, fundraising databases, or relationship management platforms.
• Proven ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, stakeholders, and deadlines simultaneously.
• Strong organizational skills with exceptional attention to detail and follow-through.
• Excellent written, verbal, interpersonal, and presentation communication skills.

Preferred

• Experience with grant management, foundation fundraising, and institutional giving.
• Experience supporting fundraising events, sponsorships, and donor engagement initiatives.
• Experience in youth development, workforce development, education, or community-based organizations.
• Familiarity with the Twin Cities philanthropic, corporate giving, and grant-making landscape.
• Experience utilizing fundraising analytics, reporting tools, and donor engagement metrics.
• CFRE credential is welcomed but not required.

Core Competencies

• Relationship Building & Donor Engagement
• Fundraising & Development Management
• Grant Management & Stewardship
• Corporate & Community Partnerships
• Project & Pipeline Management
• Strategic Communication
• Data Tracking & Reporting
• CRM & Fundraising Systems Management
• Collaboration & Cross-Functional Partnership
• Problem Solving & Continuous Improvement
• Community-Centered Approach
• Commitment to Youth Development and Workforce Readiness

Cookie Cart believes in the limitless potential of young people. By providing meaningful work experiences, leadership development opportunities, and workforce readiness training, Cookie Cart helps youth build the skills and confidence necessary for lifelong success.

The Development Manager plays an important role in sustaining and growing philanthropic partnerships, grant investments, community relationships, and donor support that make this mission possible. Through relationship management, stewardship, and strategic execution, this position helps advance opportunities for young people while strengthening Cookie Cart's long-term impact across the community. A strong commitment to fostering diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice within youth programming and across the organization.

This is a full-time position, requiring availability Monday through Friday during normal office business hours. Flexibility on weekends is also required on an as-needed basis for organizational events or youth programming activities.

1119 W Broadway, Minneapolis, MN

 Medical and Dental: Company-paid medical and dental

• Vision: Voluntary vision
• Health Savings Account (HSA): Available for eligible employees + employer
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA): Includes both healthcare and dependent care
• 401(k) with Match: Company matches contributions to your 401(k) retirement
• Disability Insurance: Short-term and long-term disability coverage
• Life Insurance: Company-provided life
• Paid Time Off (PTO): Generous PTO policy to support work-life
• Paid Holidays: 10 paid holidays

Cookie Cart is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We encourage anyone, regardless of race, age, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy or any other classification protected by law to apply. We pride ourselves on inclusiveness and honor diverse strengths, contributions, voices, and backgrounds.