WHAT DOES A DEVELOPMENT MANAGER DO?
Published: Oct 22, 2024 - The Development Manager oversees an annual giving program, orchestrating the planning, execution, and evaluation of varied fundraising initiatives including direct mail, online donations, and special events. Focuses on setting and achieving budget goals, monitoring fundraising metrics, and enhancing donor acquisition strategies through effective segmentation and data analysis. Coordinates grant management and donor relations, integrating marketing efforts to enhance the donor experience, ensuring superior customer service, and maintaining up-to-date knowledge of fundraising trends and regulations.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Development Manager
1. Development Manager Duties
- Fundraising Management: Responsible for an annual giving program, including the planning, execution, and evaluation of direct mail, online donations, workplace giving, monthly sustainers, vehicle donations, #GivingTuesday, and other programs.
- Budgeting: Establish annual fundraising budget goals, monitor metrics to track progress, and take action to ensure success.
- Campaign Management: Plan, execute, and evaluate direct mail appeals and donor acquisitions using effective segmentation.
- Data Analysis: Analyze and report statistics, data, and trends.
- Campaign Coordination: Strategize and coordinate fundraising campaigns with marketing activities to effectively integrate online and offline promotional efforts through multiple channels.
- Donor Experience Design: Craft online donor experience in coordination with the Marketing Manager to reflect the organization's mission, accomplish fundraising goals, and build online donor recruitment, recognition, and stewardship.
- Donor Management: Expand the donor base and improve donor retention, renewal, and solicitation programs.
- Grant Management: Strategize and coordinate grant proposals and reporting for charitable foundations and corporations.
- Donor Relations: Cultivate, solicit, and nurture relationships with annual donors.
- Customer Service: Provide extraordinary service to donors in person and on the phone, quickly responding to inquiries and requests.
- Verbal Communication: Verbally communicate the organization’s mission to galvanize potential donors.
- Fundraising Knowledge: Remain up to date on current fundraising trends, tools, resources, relevant economic factors, legislation, and regulations about fundraising activities and donor acknowledgment.
- Team Supervision: Supervise the performance of development coordinators responsible for data management, queries, reports, and acknowledgments.
- Event Participation: Participate in fundraising events and community events.
- Safety Compliance: Follow established procedures governing safe work practices, and perform duties in a manner that assures the safety of oneself and others.
2. Development Manager Details
- Product Development: Manage the entire Product Development process from pre-season to launch.
- Project Management: Ensure seamless hand-off of materials and adherence to the development calendar with cross-functional partners.
- BOM Management: Create and manage Bill of Materials (BOM) and spec sheet construction.
- Factory Coordination: Determine optimal production factories based on technical needs, timelines, and cost targets.
- Data Management: Manage and organize tech packs, BOMs, costing, and related documents.
- Sampling Coordination: Facilitate sampling and prototyping, identifying and resolving design or manufacturing issues.
- Negotiation: Negotiate with factories and suppliers to meet cost targets.
- Pricing Management: Create and maintain seasonal pricer.
- Problem-Solving: Problem-solve construction, cost, and quality issues and recommend solutions to cross-functional partners.
- Sample Review: Review confirmation samples and TOPs for accuracy and spec adherence.
- Capacity Planning: Work closely with Planning on forecasting and capacity planning.
- Investment Management: Understand tooling investment, qualify mold investments, and component pricing.
- Timeline Management: Create, manage, and distribute the Critical Path/GTM timeline.
- Packaging Coordination: Oversee product packaging management to ensure on-time delivery to the factory.
- Project Management: Manage timelines, systems, margins, quality, and revenue plans according to corporate goals.
- Communication: Maintain daily communications with internal partners and Supply Chain on product status and scheduling.
3. Development Manager Responsibilities
- Requirement Gathering: Facilitate sessions to elicit and evaluate information and requirements from multiple sources.
- Issue Management: Facilitate war-room situations, performance issues, and Sev-1 issues.
- Monitoring: Establish proactive monitoring with tools, scripts, and activities.
- Consensus Building: Broker consensus among stakeholders with conflicting needs.
- Task Management: Monitor, evaluate, and ensure the completion of tasks and projects.
- Documentation: Write, review, and revise product requirements and specifications.
- Scheduling: Prepare and manage schedules for 24x7 shifts and communicate with customers.
- Documentation: Create comprehensive documents for traceability, specifications, and business cases.
- Catalog Management: Manage and configure complex catalogs with dependencies and conflicts.
- Solution Design: Collaborate on solution designs, specifications, configuration, testing, and training.
- Standards Management: Ensure consistency by creating and maintaining standards for technical solutions.
- Issue Resolution: Identify and solve system and process issues through gap analyses.
- Mentoring: Provide skill and process mentoring to team analysts.
- Leadership Communication: Communicate with customer leadership and manage offshore resources.
4. Development Manager Accountabilities
- Fundraising Planning: Develop and execute an annual fundraising plan.
- Donor Management: Secure financial support from individuals, foundations, corporations, churches, and clubs.
- Relationship Building: Maintain and strengthen relationships with donors.
- Major Gifts: Grow the major gifts program and oversee prospect research.
- Team Supervision: Supervise a development team of two coordinators.
- Board Engagement: Facilitate fundraising activities for the executive director and board members.
- Grant Writing: Seek, write, and prepare grant applications.
- Content Creation: Write press releases, articles, appeals, and promotional materials.
- Feasibility Analysis: Prepare feasibility analysis using Estate Master for acquisitions.
- Project Management: Control the development life cycle and manage the consultant team.
- Tender Management: Arrange and award tenders for development projects.
- Stakeholder Consultation: Consult with authorities and stakeholders to align with strategy.
- Planning Applications: Led the consultancy team in preparing and submitting planning applications.
- Progress Reporting: Report on development progress monthly and ensure governance.
- Contract Management: Manage key contract documents and address legal issues.
- Legal Coordination: Liaise with external legal advisors on legal matters.
5. Development Manager Functions
- Software Development: Manage and oversee the design and development of applications.
- Team Leadership: Direct engineers to follow best practices and achieve business outcomes.
- Project Management: Ensure milestones are met within budget.
- Quality Improvement: Use data-driven decisions, feedback, and coaching to enhance work.
- Lifecycle Ownership: Own the complete software development lifecycle.
- Maintenance Management: Oversee maintenance and support of developed features.
- Cross-functional collaboration: Coordinate with technology, business, and operations teams.
- Agile Management: Deliver features in a fast-paced, agile environment.
- Project Planning: Define and execute project plans and delivery commitments.
- Method Consistency: Obtain consistency in technical, development, and production methods across factories.
- Communication Management: Manage communications with factory development teams and maintain open communication with sourcing functions.
- Market Evaluation: Strategically evaluate market sectors for emerging opportunities and monitor trends.
- Concept Design: Develop concept designs to RIBA Stage 3 and manage the early design phase.
- Budget Management: Manage the development budget for each project in collaboration with commercial and accounts departments.