Development Officer

Title:                    Development Officer

Location:            50 East 168th Street, Bronx, NY 10452

Reports To:        Vice President, Development and External Affairs

About Us:

The Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco) is a community development organization founded on the radically simple idea that all people deserve to live in healthy, vibrant communities. We build award-winning, sustainable, affordable homes – but our work is not over when our buildings are complete. WHEDco believes that to be successful, affordable housing must be anchored in strong communities of which residents can be proud. WHEDco's mission is to create and bridge access in the South Bronx to resources that support thriving neighborhoods-- from stable, affordable housing to early childhood and school-age youth education programs, comprehensive family and community services, business and entrepreneur assistance, and cultural programming. See www.whedco.org for more information.

Job Summary:

The Development Officer is part of a team that identifies, secures and maintains funding primarily from government, foundation, and corporate sources of support. The Development Officer will have a broad understanding of WHEDco’s affordable housing, community economic development, childcare, family support, early childhood and youth education and development, small business, and arts work.

The Development Officer will be a principal developer of institutional giving opportunities for intersecting areas of WHEDco’s work, primarily: family support services, family literacy, and early childhood care and education.

The Development Officer will work closely with the Family Support, Head Start preschool, and Home-Based Child Care teams to produce high quality proposals, reports and other communications to a portfolio of foundation and government funders, and to identify new opportunities to engage supporters for early childhood care and education, child care provider professional development, family ESOL literacy, and comprehensive supportive services for residents and community. This position will report to the Vice President, Development and External Affairs at the outset of employment, with supervision transitioning to the Director of Institutional Funding within the first year. The Development Officer will be responsive and supportive to the Family Support, Head Start/Family Literacy, and Home-Based Child Care teams, as well as WHEDco’s communications, fiscal, and research, policy, and evaluation departments.

The Development Officer will work primarily on a remote basis with the expectation that the person will be available to attend in-person meetings, site visits, events, and other functions on occasion and as scheduled. A partial- or full-time in-person schedule is possible if desired.

Responsibilities:

• Writing high quality, persuasive grant proposals and reports to communicate with corporate, foundation and government funders
• Understanding the organizational and program budgets and developing appropriate and contextualized grant expenditure budgets and reports in concert with fiscal and program staff
• Developing strong understanding of WHEDco’s programs, particularly those for which the Development Officer is raising funds, and building strong collaborative relationships with program leadership and staff
• Researching, identifying, and developing appropriate and contextualized approaches to potential new funding sources
• Cultivating and maintaining funder relationships, including setting up funder visits in coordination with Executive and Program staff
• Tracking foundation/corporate relationships, deadlines and gifts in funding database
• Developing collateral materials, as necessary

Qualifications include:

• Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s degree preferred
• Minimum two years’ experience in writing and editing, with a strong preference for grant writing and management
• Excellent time management skills with the ability to handle multiple assignments and meet deadlines
• Strong understanding of budgets and intermediate to advanced ability and experience using Excel
• Experience coordinating projects and teams across multiple departments
• Experience coordinating events and/or site visits
• Good professional judgment and discretion in being of service to multiple teams and senior managers
• Ability to work efficiently and effectively in a collegial and fast-paced environment
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Organized with strong attention to detail
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office, donor management systems such as Donor Perfect Online, and Adobe Creative Suite highly desirable

TO APPLY: Please submit a cover letter, resume and two writing samples (preferably at least one grant proposal that has been funded) via the application platform.

WHEDco affords all qualified applicants equal employment opportunities without discrimination because of race, creed (religion), color, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, military status, age, disability, predisposing genetic characteristic, marital status or domestic violence victim status, or any other category protected by law. WHEDco follows the requirements of the New York Human Rights Law with regard to non-discrimination on the basis of prior criminal conviction and prior arrest.

WHEDco is an E-Verify employer. E-Verify is an Internet-based system that compares information entered by an employer from an employee’s Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, to records available to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to confirm employment eligibility