Development Associate

The Open Space Institute (OSI) is a national leader in land protection and creating connections to nature and the outdoors for all people. Over the past five decades, OSI has protected more than 2.3 million at-risk, irreplaceable acres of forests, wetlands, and shorelines across the North American Eastern Seaboard. Expanding in both scope and size, OSI employs entrepreneurial spirit, determination, and expertise to protect the land that matters most – to preserve clean drinking water; improve the public’s access to parks, public trails, and greenways; save at-risk wildlife habitat; strengthen communities; and to combat climate change and mitigate its effects. OSI has an operating budget of $45 million, of which $32 million is derived through philanthropy, and is engaged in several multi-year campaigns and initiatives to support its mission. 

Position Overview 

The Open Space Institute seeks a Development Associate to support our essential day-to-day fundraising processes. Reporting to the Director of Donor Operations and Events and collaborating with the Director of Institutional Giving and the Senior Director of Individual Giving, the Development Associate will be responsible for all gift entry, acknowledgment, and inter-department coordination. The Associate will also be responsible for maintaining the donor database, tracking all prospect and donor stewardship and donations, producing and tailoring gift acknowledgements, generating database reports, and creating dashboards.  

Primary/ Essential Responsibilities & Duties 

• Process incoming funds and reconcile/coordinate gifts with Finance Department: 

• Manage Raiser’s Edge (RE) gift entry process, conforming to and maintaining OSI’s procedures and tracking systems 
• Pull reports from online donation platform and enter into Raiser’s Edge 
• Produce fundraising reports, donor lists and mailing lists from donor database 
• Craft gift acknowledgement letters and generate and track tax-receipts in a timely manner 
• Track and follow-up on questions about funds received, ensuring every donation issue is resolved, accurately recorded and acknowledged in a timely manner 
• Process credit card donations 

• Update and maintain the Raiser’s Edge database of donors and prospects, ensuring timely execution and entry of activities, including reconciliation with other platforms 
• Ensure consistency in data tracking, coding, reporting and data modeling in Raiser’s Edge and online donation platform.  
• Update and maintain donor notes, actions, solicitations, and proposals on behalf of the development team, OSI leadership and program staff. 
• Send reminders to donors when pledge payments are due 
• Coordinate between online gift processing system and Raiser’s Edge (utilizing system bridge) 
• Build analytical donor and prospect reports from Raiser’s Edge. Create dashboards in the database to track progress, and manage action reports.  
• Organize appeal processes (spring and year end) with list management, segmentation, preparing in house appeal letter packages, and track to completion of process 
• Track donor attribution through Raiser’s Edge and produce annual donor acknowledgement lists for publications, ensuring inclusion of all supporters 
• Interact with donors in response to inquiries and manage general level portfolio of donors 
• Update and maintain OSI’s Raiser’s Edge use guidelines 
• Manage miscellaneous procedures and registrations, such as matching gifts, and donor-advised fund portals 
• Produce and maintain letter and document templates 

Other Responsibilities  

• Support the Development team by performing administrative duties as needed including organization of digital and hard copy records, filing, copying, sorting, mailing, processing invoices etc.  
• Support and assist with fundraising events, as needed. 
• Support and assist with special communications, including mailings, appeals, event invitations, and email correspondence with portfolio prospects 
• Assist with prospect research and meeting briefings for individuals and institutions 
• Special projects as assigned 
• Assist with internal meetings including supporting schedules, confirmation with all attendees, and preparing agendas, materials or taking notes and following up on action items as needed. 
• Provide support and training for other staff members on the systems. 

Required Skills 

• Experience and understanding of Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge (NXT and Database view) strongly preferred 
• Ability to think and act strategically. Must be able to take initiative but willing to ask questions.   
• Exceptional organizational skills with a strong attention to detail 
• Demonstrated writing skills, specifically for donor correspondence  
• Excellent formatting skills and thorough familiarity with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 
• Ability to work to reasonable deadlines and plan accordingly  
• Strong time management skills with the ability to prioritize numerous ongoing projects  
• Be able to maintain the confidentiality of privileged information  

Qualifications  

• Commitment to OSI’s mission, vision, and values. Knowledge of conservation issues or experience fundraising in support of environmental issues is preferred 
• Minimum two years’ experience in fundraising/development role in non-profit sector, preferably in a development office with a stewardship or major gifts program  
• Undergraduate degree or equivalent experience 
• Experience in and successful track record in writing donor correspondence 
• Knowledge of Raiser’s Edge or equivalent CRM/donor database  

Location & Physical Requirements 

• The position is based in OSI’s New York City office. 
• Some evening and weekend hours may be required occasionally for donor events  
• Frequently sits for long periods of time 
• Frequently speaks, reads, writes and uses a computer keyboard 
• May require occasional standing, walking, lifting, stooping, and bending