Philanthropy & Prospect Development Coordinator in at Kesem

REPORTS TO: Director of Philanthropy

ABOUT KESEM:

We are a nationwide community, driven by passionate college student leaders, that supports children through and beyond their parent’s cancer with innovative, fun-filled programs that foster a lasting community.

ABOUT THE POSITION:

The Philanthropy & Prospect Development Coordinator supports the growth of Kesem’s major gifts and foundation fundraising by building strong prospect pipelines, executing foundation fundraising, and keeping significant donor and funder relationships moving.

The Coordinator conducts donor and foundation research, identifies and helps qualify high-potential Chapter-connected prospects, manages routine foundation renewals and applications, coordinates Chapter foundation prospecting, prepares donor and funder materials, and supports stewardship and moves management. The role works closely with the Director of Philanthropy and Development Operations & Revenue Intelligence to turn data and relationship signals into actionable fundraising opportunities.

The Kesem Development Team shares collective accountability for achieving Kesem’s overall fundraising goals. Every team member is expected to work across revenue streams, identify opportunities, and pursue the strongest outcome for Kesem rather than optimizing only for a single internal revenue category.

KESEM'S VALUES

The Philanthropy & Prospect Development Coordinator must uphold and build a culture that continues to support and strengthen the following behaviors to help us realize our vision:

• Continuous learning - We operate with curiosity and a willingness to try new things, and we see our successes and setbacks as opportunities for growth.
• Accountability - We are individually and collectively responsible for advancing our mission.
• Resilience - We empower and support each other through challenges while fostering a spirit of joy and hopefulness.
• Empathy - We seek to understand and appreciate other perspectives and experiences.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS & RESPONSIBILITIES

• Maintain Kesem’s master foundation and grants calendar, including prospects, applications, renewals, reporting deadlines, stewardship commitments, and other required deliverables.
• Independently prepare and submit routine renewals, straightforward applications, letters of inquiry (LOIs), reports, and other materials within established strategies and templates.
• Draft proposals, concept notes, budgets, reports, and other grant materials for Director review when opportunities are new, complex, highly customized, or strategically significant.
• Gather and maintain accurate program descriptions, outcomes, stories, evaluation data, budgets, financial information, standard attachments, proposal language, and other reusable grant resources in collaboration with the appropriate Kesem teams.
• Conduct local and regional foundation prospecting for Chapters, developing actionable prospect lists that include funding alignment, giving history, relationships, deadlines, and recommended next steps.
• Support Chapter-led foundation applications, renewals, and reporting, while identifying and elevating larger, multi-Chapter, relationship-driven, or strategically significant opportunities to the Director of Philanthropy.
• Track grant status, award amounts, restrictions, reporting requirements, recognition, stewardship commitments, and renewal opportunities, coordinating with Finance and program teams to ensure accuracy and compliance.
• Escalate significant questions involving funder relationships, strategy, compliance, budgets, or funding alignment to the Director of Philanthropy.

Portfolio, Stewardship & Executive Support

• Maintain accurate donor and foundation portfolio records, opportunity stages, next actions, meeting notes, ask amounts, expected close dates, stewardship commitments, and other required information.
• Monitor upcoming moves and deadlines and proactively flag relationships requiring action.
• Prepare donor and funder briefs, meeting materials, proposals, talking points, and other materials for significant interactions.
• Coordinate donor and funder meetings, camp visits, Visitors Days, Make the Magic experiences, executive calls, and other relationship-specific engagement opportunities.
• Support management of the CEO’s philanthropy-facing calendar, including scheduling, preparation, briefing materials, follow-up, and next-step tracking.
• Coordinate personalized stewardship materials and relationship-specific follow-up in partnership with Donor Marketing & Stewardship.
• Ensure commitments and agreed next steps from donor and funder meetings are completed and documented.

• Support major-gift and foundation pipeline, forecast, and prospect-review meetings, including scheduling, preparation, documentation, and follow-up.
• Coordinate meeting preparation and logistics for the Director of Philanthropy’s priority donor and foundation relationships, including donor visits, briefings, mission experiences, and philanthropy-related events.
• Maintain accurate Salesforce records for assigned relationships and opportunities, including prospect information, relationship ownership, cultivation activity, and next steps.
• Maintain organized proposal and report files, grant calendars, funder documentation, standard attachments, relationship records, and other philanthropy resources.
• Coordinate with Finance, Operations, Marketing, Impact/Research, and other teams to gather accurate information needed for donor cultivation, proposals, budgets, grant reporting, and stewardship.
• Partner with Finance to track grant restrictions, reporting requirements, budgets, and other non-transactional philanthropy information.
• Develop and document repeatable processes for prospecting, foundation fundraising, stewardship, portfolio management, and reporting to improve efficiency, preserve institutional knowledge, and allow the Director of Philanthropy to prioritize frontline fundraising.
• Apply Kesem’s rules of engagement for relationship and opportunity ownership, Chapter/National coordination, and fundraising credit to ensure consistent collaboration and accurate tracking.

REQUIREMENTS

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience preferred; relevant experience may substitute for formal education.
• At least 2 years of experience in nonprofit development, prospect research, foundation relations, grant writing, donor stewardship, fundraising administration, or a related field.
• Strong research skills and ability to synthesize donor, foundation, relationship, and philanthropic information into clear recommendations.
• Strong writing and editing skills, including comfort drafting grant applications, letters, proposals, reports, donor materials, and briefings.
• Excellent organization, project management, and deadline management.
• High attention to detail and strong follow-through across many relationships and deadlines.
• Comfort interpreting program information, budgets, impact data, funder guidelines, and donor history.
• Experience with Salesforce or another CRM and comfort maintaining accurate relationship and opportunity records.
• Ability to exercise good judgment about when an opportunity can be handled independently and when senior fundraising involvement is needed.
• Strong interpersonal skills and comfort interacting with donors, funders, Board members, staff, volunteers, and student leaders.
• Commitment to confidentiality and ethical handling of donor and prospect information.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with prospect research or wealth-screening tools.
• Experience researching private and family foundations.
• Experience writing grants, renewals, and funder reports.
• Experience supporting major-gift portfolios or moves-management processes.
• Experience in a national, Chapter-based, volunteer-led, or higher-education-adjacent nonprofit.
• Familiarity with donor-advised funds, family philanthropy, planned giving, or complex charitable giving.

COMPENSATION

The salary range for this position is $58,000-$63,000. Placement in this range would be based on relevant professional experience in a similar career-level role. In addition, Kesem offers a benefits package for full-time employees including employer-subsidized health benefits, employee-funded dental and vision benefits, employee-funded 403(b) retirement plan, Employee Assistance Program (EAP), a healthcare concierge service, flexible work scheduling, telecommuting, PTO, Short-Term Disability, and parental leave offerings.

TO APPLY

To apply, please fill out the application by November 4, 2026, where you can also upload your thoughtful cover letter and resume:

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION STATEMENT

Kesem’s mission of supporting children through and beyond a parent’s cancer, and our vision of ensuring that every child impacted by a parent’s cancer is never alone, can only be realized through an ongoing, steadfast commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in every part of our organization. To that end, Kesem makes the following commitments:

• To continually expand the communities we support and work with - our camper families, volunteers, staff, alumni, partners, donors, and boards - with attention to engaging communities we are not currently reaching.
• To strive for equity in delivering a transformative, fun, and empowering community that recognizes and embraces our differences.
• To aspire to create shared spaces that are safe for every member of the Kesem community to feel valued and respected.
• Kesem will engage in continued meaningful learning in order to better support our mission and our growing Kesem community.

Kesem is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

WORK EXPECTATIONS

• The Philanthropy & Prospect Development Coordinator role is a full-time position, with responsibilities that require approximately 40 hours of work per week, with some weeks requiring additional hours based on organizational needs.
• This is a fully remote position with no geographic preference, provided the employee is able to meet Kesem’s travel and work-hour expectations.
• It is expected that the Philanthropy & Prospect Development Coordinator will maintain a reliable internet connection and professional remote work environment and will be available and actively working from 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. in their local time zone, unless otherwise approved by their supervisor.
• It is expected that the Philanthropy & Prospect Development Coordinator will be available for staff calls, Board and committee meetings, donor and partner meetings, and other events that may occur outside of normal work hours.
• As a collaborative organization, employees are expected to demonstrate flexibility in supporting organizational priorities, including providing temporary coverage for colleagues during leaves of absence or other staffing needs, as assigned.
• Travel may include Board meetings, staff meetings, donor and partner meetings, fundraising events, camps, leadership gatherings, conferences, and other organizational priorities, approximately 10+ times per year.