Development Manager
San Francisco
Development – Development /
Full Time, Exempt, Office /
Hybrid
ABOUT LA COCINA | La Cocina (“The Kitchen”) is an award-winning San Francisco-based nonprofit business incubator for food businesses. La Cocina’s original home, which opened in October of 2005, is a 2200 sq ft shared-use commercial kitchen located in the Mission District at 2948 Folsom Street. In April 2021, La Cocina opened The Municipal Marketplace, a 7,000-sq.-ft multi-use space located in the Tenderloin at 101 Hyde Street. Initially, it was the nation's first women-led food hall. In September 2023, the space transformed and is now a shared-use commercial kitchen and event space. The mission of La Cocina is to cultivate low-income food entrepreneurs as they formalize and grow their businesses. We provide (1) commercial kitchens they can use for the development and ongoing operations of their business; (2) professional food industry technical assistance designed to improve their business operations, market penetration, profit, economic scale and sustainability; and (3) access to sales opportunities. Over the last 19 years, La Cocina has incubated more than 140 small businesses, created and ran the iconic San Francisco Street Food Festival for a decade, published the We Are La Cocina cookbook, amplified the voices of program participants via its Voices From the Kitchen show and Week of Women in Food dinner series, and supported nonprofits worldwide to implement similar incubators in their communities. You can learn more about the organization at www.lacocinasf.org.
VISION + VALUES | La Cocina was born out of a belief that a community of talented natural entrepreneurs, given the right resources, can create self-sufficient businesses that benefit themselves, their families, their community, and the whole city. We center our entrepreneurs in everything that we do, including making working directly with entrepreneurs a requirement of all employees at the organization, and including current and former entrepreneurs among our staff and board. The food that has come out of our kitchen since 2005 reflects that aspiration and, quite simply, tastes amazing. Our vision is that entrepreneurs gain financial security by doing what they love to do, creating an innovative, vibrant and inclusive economic landscape. At La Cocina, everything we do is done with hospitality, for our community, and in the service of opportunity and inclusivity. These are our values. Distributed and collaborative leadership is our culture. In practice, this can look like joining a committee or task force, covering for your team members when they are out, and completing work which may not be in your job description but for which the area or type of work aligns to your skills and expertise.
JOB SUMMARY | La Cocina’s fundraising operation is responsible for $5 million+ in annual contributed revenue derived from grants, gifts, sponsorships, and special events.
La Cocina seeks a highly motivated and collaborative fundraising professional to serve as a member of the four-person leadership team. The successful candidate will have the knowledge and experience to develop and execute multi-layered fundraising strategies, work closely with members of the board of directors and other organizational leaders, and help build, broaden, and diversify our donor base, with the utmost attention to La Cocina’s values. The incumbent will provide mentorship to a talented early-career gift officer, nurturing a bench of fundraising talent within our organization; direct and oversee a dedicated institutional giving officer responsible for grant-writing and reporting; and closely collaborate with the communications team to design, implement and service sponsorships and fundraising campaigns.
The desired candidate is an energetic and self-motivated individual who is excellent at managing multiple tasks at once, a big-picture strategist with an eye for detail who is inspired by La Cocina’s 80+ food business entrepreneurs and genuinely committed to their growth and success.
GENERAL DUTIES
Centering Entrepreneurs
- Embrace La Cocina’s mission, placing entrepreneurs in our program at the heart of every strategy and initiative.
- Serve as a trusted resource for entrepreneurs, offering strategic advice and practical solutions to operational challenges.
- Host dynamic workshops in your areas of expertise, helping foster a vibrant learning environment.
- Oversee your team’s sharing of specialized industry knowledge with our community of entrepreneurs.
Leadership
- As a people leader of La Cocina, you’ll be responsible for up to 3 employees, acting as a champion for professional development opportunities for your team and also delivering thoughtful and candid feedback to support their growth. You’ll take the lead on delivering annual reviews and for hiring for open roles in your department.
- All members of the La Cocina staff display leadership by participating in the annual review process for other members of the staff, and by supporting recruiting initiatives for open roles within the organization. This culture of feedback leads to our collective team’s growth and success.
- As the Development Manager, you’ll be responsible for the management of external resources that support your work: a consulting Development Director, and a consulting development firm that supports in grant writing and fundraising strategy.
Individual Donor Cultivation and Solicitation
- Working with the Executive Director, Development Committee and other Board members, colleagues, and volunteers as appropriate, develop and execute strategies for cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of past, current, and potential major donors
- With the individual giving manager, ensure a robust, balanced pipeline of donors and prospects in appropriate stages of cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship
- Maintain a personal portfolio of 50 major donors and prospects, including the board of directors
- Coordinate and manage agendas, meetings, activities, and follow-up for board’s development committee
- Ensure integrity and reliability of fundraising database and calendar of plans and deliverables, timely gift/grant acknowledgement and benefits delivery, and appropriate donor recognition and benefits delivery
Institutional Support and Corporate Sponsorships
- Develop a conceptual understanding of the region’s philanthropic landscape and coordinate relationships and partnership opportunities for the benefit of the organization
- Maintain communication with teams across the organization to stay current on fundraising needs and wishlists and match with available grant opportunities
- Research, monitor, evaluate, and assign promising grant opportunities to Collective Agency, La Cocina’s outside fundraising consultants for institutional giving
- For every identified grant opportunity, record all deadlines, probabilities, and prospective deliverables in Salesforce
- Maintain library of up-to-date pro-forma grant language and financial information
- Liaise between program staff and fundraising consultants as needed for bespoke grant applications
- Manage prompt acknowledgement of all grant notifications and generate and save correspondence to Salesforce
- Compose and send personal acknowledgements for grant notifications
- Oversee submission of timely grant reports
- Support Collective Agency with timely review of drafts and approval management
- Arrange and participate in site visits and maintain front-line relationships with institutional funders
- Collaborate with Communications and outside Partnerships Consultant in the development of supporting materials and creative design elements for sponsorship proposals and deliverables
Special Events
- In collaboration with the individual giving manager and impact team, plan and execute a regular program of focused, measurable donor cultivation and stewardship events, e.g., receptions and house parties
- Plan and oversee implementation of profitable fundraising events, in particular the annual gala
Data, Finance and Department Operations
- Collaborate with leadership team to create annual organizational budget
- Manage and oversee the organization’s contributed revenue status, including the fundraising pipeline, all Salesforce opportunities, contacts, deliverables, deadlines, tasks, relationships, event attendance, campaigns, dashboards, and other relevant data.
- Regularly reconcile fundraising and accounting data with finance team
- Manage development department expense budget
- Work with finance department to create budgets for grant applications
- Manage invoicing for awarded grants and contracts
- Ensure prompt written acknowledgement of all gifts, including supplementary handwritten notes from Individual Giving Manager for gifts above $1,000; work with Individual Giving Manager to regularly refresh acknowledgement text
- Maintain City of San Francisco database with up to date demographic and business detail information about La Cocina’s entrepreneurs
- Support annual audit
- Anticipate and maintain supplies of stationery, postage, thank-you cards, donor premiums, etc.
Technology and Data Use/ Impact Reporting
- Use of technology systems including Google Suite, Slack and Zoom are required to ensure smooth and effective communication across a complex organization with two locations, and staff with a mix of digital and physical duties and abilities.
- Reporting on activities using technology systems including Salesforce is an essential part of La Cocina’s ability to tell the story of the work we do and the impact we are having.
Necessary Skills, Qualifications and Attributes
- Bilingual in Spanish and English highly desirable
- Proven track record of fundraising, events, and personnel management success
- Generous colleague, ready to lend a hand when necessary
- Highly proficient in Office, Salesforce and GSuite platforms; conversant with Triple Seat or other catering client management system
- Cultural competency, empathetic experience working with diverse and BIPOC communities
- Detail-oriented, focused, and organized amidst opportunities for distraction
- Proactive, energetic problem-solver
- Equally effective communicator in writing and conversation
- Patience, flexibility, and a ready sense of humor
- Passionate dedication to La Cocina’s mission
- Valid CA driver’s license, with clean and safe driving record
$82,000 - $98,000 a year
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY | La Cocina is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to hiring a diverse workforce. All openings will be filled based on qualifications without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, marital status, veteran status, disability, age, religion or any other classification protected by law.
We appreciate your interest in this position and welcome the opportunity to learn more about you. You'll receive communication from La Cocina on the status of your application throughout our hiring process.
