Job Description

Job Title: Manager, Individual Giving

Job Type: Full-Time

Reports to: Managing Director, Development & Communications

Location: Hybrid, minimum two days per week in office (New York City)

FLSA Status: Exempt

Salary Range: $75-$80K (commensurate with experience)

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday (Generally: 9:00am-5:00pm with 1 hour, unpaid break)

Weekly Hours: 35

Why You’ll Love Working at LEAP

At LEAP, we don’t just build great programs — we build a great place to work. You’ll thrive here if you’re excited to be part of a mission-driven, people-centered, and joy-filled team.

We are:

🌱 Community-oriented, believing in a shared moral responsibility

🎨 Creative, flexible, and open-minded

🚀 Collaborative and mission driven

✅ Accountable to ourselves, each other, and our goals

🌟 Committed to feedback and clear, consistent communication

🌍 Champions of a compassionate and inclusive culture

💖 Supporters of self-care and the well-being of others

🎉 And above all… FUN!

At LEAP, you’ll be empowered to grow, lead, and make a lasting impact — all while being part of a community that values who you are and what you bring.

About the Role

The Manager, Individual Giving will build and grow LEAP’s individual giving program, creating meaningful opportunities for people to connect with and invest in LEAP’s mission. Reporting to the Managing Director of Development & Communications, this role will manage donor relationships and develop strategies to acquire, engage, retain, and grow individual supporters. The Manager will partner closely with the Development Operations Coordinator and Communications team to turn donor insights, compelling stories, and strong systems into sustainable individual giving.

What You’ll Do

• Collaborate with Board and leadership on the execution of LEAP’s individual giving strategy, establishing clear goals for donor acquisition, retention, renewal, and growth.
• Manage a portfolio of individual donors and prospects, building authentic relationships through thoughtful cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.
• Lead LEAP’s annual giving program, including appeals, campaigns, recurring giving, and other opportunities for individuals to support LEAP.
• Build strategies to identify and move donors through a meaningful pipeline, from first-time supporter to increasingly engaged donor.
• Develop donor segmentation and engagement strategies that use data to create relevant, personalized donor experiences.
• Partner with Communications to develop compelling donor communications, appeals, impact stories, and campaign content.
• Create a consistent and thoughtful stewardship experience that helps donors understand the impact of their support and strengthens long-term relationships with LEAP.
• Develop opportunities to engage alumni, former families, Teaching Artists, Young Professionals, and other members of the LEAP community as donors and ambassadors.
• Identify and research prospective individual donors and develop strategies for cultivating new relationships.
• Partner with the Development Operations Coordinator to ensure Salesforce, donor data, gift processing, acknowledgments, lists, and reporting effectively support individual giving strategy.
• Use fundraising data and donor insights to evaluate performance, identify opportunities, and recommend adjustments to strategy.
• Establish and monitor individual giving revenue and pipeline goals, providing regular reporting on progress, opportunities, and risks.
• Support donor cultivation and fundraising events, including LEAP’s 50th Anniversary activities.
• Collaborate across Development & Communications and the broader organization to ensure donors experience a consistent and compelling connection to LEAP’s mission.

What You’ll Bring

You are a relationship-centered fundraiser who combines genuine curiosity about people with the discipline to build and grow a strong individual giving program. You’re equally comfortable developing a donor strategy, writing a compelling appeal, analyzing a donor pipeline, and sitting down with a supporter to understand what inspires their philanthropy.

Core Competencies & Strengths:

• Relationship-centered fundraising and donor cultivation
• Individual giving strategy and execution
• Donor acquisition, retention, and stewardship
• Persuasive and audience-centered communication
• Fundraising campaign development
• Strategic use of donor data and segmentation
• Prospect identification and pipeline management
• Strong project management and follow-through
• Collaboration across teams and functions
• Sound judgment and discretion with confidential donor information
• Curiosity, creativity, and a willingness to test new approaches
• Demonstrate a commitment to equity and inclusion, with an awareness of the principles of community-centric fundraising.

Required Qualifications:

• 4+ years of relevant fundraising, development, donor engagement, or related experience, including meaningful experience with individual giving, donor cultivation, and fundraising events
• Demonstrated experience cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding individual donors.
• Experience developing or executing annual giving, donor appeals, fundraising campaigns, or similar individual fundraising strategies.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate organizational impact into compelling donor communications.
• Experience using a CRM or donor database to manage relationships, track activity, and inform fundraising strategy; Salesforce experience is a plus.
• Ability to analyze fundraising and donor data and translate insights into action.
• Strong organizational and project-management skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Ability to build trusting relationships with donors, colleagues, community members, and organizational leaders.
• Commitment to LEAP’s mission and to expanding access to arts education for young people across New York City.

PRE-EMPLOYMENT SCREENING

Pre-employment screening is required for this position, including but not limited to criminal history checks by regulating agencies as needed per placement.

WE ARE AN EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Please note: In accordance with organizational policy, LEAP does not sponsor individuals on O-1 visas.