Senior Manager, Foundation Relations

About Step Up Tutoring

Step Up Tutoring is on a mission to drive student success by providing free online tutoring and mentorship for elementary school students from under-resourced communities. Our unique value is in fostering the caring human relationship that forms between a student and their volunteer tutor during their 90 minutes of focused attention each week. We believe this connection is the key to unlocking learning gains, building confidence, and cultivating habits of success.

Since its founding in 2020 in partnership with Los Angeles Unified School District, Step Up has delivered over 300,000 hours of 1:1 tutoring to nearly 10,000 students, working with 25+ districts and 40+ colleges and universities. We are pioneering AI-powered tutor assistance tools, working with Stanford University and Ai2/Allen Institute for AI. Step Up is backed by leading education funders including NewSchools Venture Fund, Overdeck Family Foundation, Arrow Impact, The Eli & Edythe Broad Foundation, Karsh Family Foundation and more.

The Opportunity

Step Up is scaling from 5,000 students today to 50,000 within five years, expanding into new regions, and building a business model that ties revenue to student outcomes. Philanthropy is what makes that growth possible and foundations are the backbone of our funding base.

We are looking for a Development Manager, Foundation Relations to own the craft and the throughput of our foundation fundraising: writing the proposals and reports that win and renew six- and seven-figure grants, building a research-driven prospect pipeline, and managing the relationships that turn a first grant into a multi-year partner.

This is a hands-on writing and relationship role on a small, senior team. You will work directly with the CEO and alongside a growing Development team, with real visibility into how a growing education nonprofit makes strategy, program, and funding decisions. 

What You’ll Do

Write the Proposals, Reports, and Updates That Win and Renew Funding

• Draft LOIs, proposals, grant reports, and interim updates for foundation funders. Collaborate with internal teams to gather timely information about Step Up’s program, progress and outcomes and organize detailed information into clear communication relevant to each audience 
• Develop a detailed understanding of Step Up’s data and evaluation outcomes and own the process of articulating outcomes and impact into rigorous and resonant story of impact 
• Create compelling visual presentations of information (graphs, charts, etc) to accompany written narratives, and present content in clean, professional, well-designed formats. 
• Develop and report on grant budgets and communicate key financial metrics, working in collaboration with the Finance Director 
• Manage the full grants calendar: deadlines, requirements, submission portals, and internal review cycles 
• Maintain a library of core language and current, approved data points so that every writer at Step Up is working from accurate material.

Research Prospects and Move Them Through the Pipeline

• Identify and qualify new foundation prospects (across regional and national funders spanning multiple focus areas overlapping with Step Up’s mission) through systematic research, peer-funder analysis, and network mapping across our board, staff, and existing funders.
• Build prospect briefs that prepare executive leaders for funder meetings. 
• Track and drive movement through the pipeline stages, from research to cultivation to ask to renewal

Manage and Deepen Foundation Relationships

• Own the coordination and tracking of all foundation communications across a portfolio of 20+ funders.
• Proactively manage ongoing funder stewardship, organizing periodic check-in meetings, sharing relevant updates &,milestones, and ensuring timely meeting follow-up.
• Serve as primary contact for some foundation partners and manage executive communication, providing direct assistance for CEO in ensuring smooth and effective communication 

Strengthen Our Development Systems

• Maintain accurate, current records of funder activity, moves, and documentation in our development tracking systems.
• Improve how we track commitments, deliverables, and reporting requirements so obligations are visible well before they are due.
• Use AI tools (Claude and others), with careful judgement, to accelerate research, drafting, data synthesis, and reporting.

What Success Looks Like (First 12 Months)

• All foundation proposals and reports submitted on time, accurate, and requiring minimal revisions
• Program results and student outcomes are translated clearly and accurately for audiences with different backgrounds and levels of expertise.
• A steady flow of new qualified foundation prospects identified, researched, and moved into active cultivation.
• Existing foundation partners renewed and, where appropriate, upgraded.
• Our highest-priority foundation partners hear from us regularly between reporting cycles and report feeling well-informed and well-stewarded.
• A current, reliable library of approved language and outcomes data that the whole team uses.

Who You Are: The Ideal Candidate Profile

• An Exceptional Writer: You write with clarity, structure, and precision. You can hold a complex program model in your head and explain it in three sentences or three pages, depending on what the funder asked for. You understand that a grant narrative is an argument, not a description, and you know how to build one.
• An Experienced Grant Professional: You have 4+ years in nonprofit development, including at least 2 years personally owning grant writing. You have written and won foundation grants at the five- and six-figure level, and you know your way around institutional funder requirements, portals, and reporting formats.
• Fluent in Education and Student Outcomes: You have worked in education nonprofit fundraising, at an education foundation, or in a closely adjacent context. You are comfortable with student outcomes data, able to read an evaluation report, understand what it does and does not say, and turn it into a compelling funder-facing narrative without overstating it.
• A Relationship Builder: You are responsive, reliable, and genuinely curious about what funders care about. You build trust with program officers and know how to keep a relationship active in the long stretches between formal asks.
• Detail-Oriented: You catch the mismatched number, the outdated statistic, the missing attachment, the requirement buried on page four of the guidelines. You treat accuracy as a form of respect for the funder and the students behind the numbers.
• An AI-Native Operator: You use AI tools, where appropriate, to do the work of a larger team, including for research, synthesis, data analysis, workflow management, while keeping a firm hand on accuracy, voice, and judgment.
• A Self-Directed Builder: You operate well in a lean environment with real ambiguity. You manage your own deadlines, raise problems early, and improve the process while you are running it.
• Mission-Driven: You are motivated by the opportunity to expand educational opportunity for students in under-resourced communities, and you believe in the human relationship at the heart of our work.

Bonus Points If You Have:

• Experience with CRM or development tracking systems and comfort building and maintaining pipeline reporting.
• Experience with government or public-sector grant applications.
• Experience supporting a CEO or executive in funder-facing settings. 

Why You’ll Love Working at Step Up Tutoring

• Real ownership: You will own the writing and the relationships, not just support someone else's. Your work directly determines whether students get tutors next year.
• Proximity to strategy: You will work in close proximity to the CEO and alongside an excellent Development team, with a clear view into how the organization sets priorities and makes decisions.
• A growing organization: Step Up is scaling from 5,000 to 50,000 students and expanding into new regions. You will help build the fundraising engine that makes that possible.
• Collaboration with leading education organizations: We partner with organizations at the forefront of innovation in education, including Stanford SCALE Institute, National Tutoring Observatory at Cornell, Anthropic, leading national foundations, and school districts & universities across the country 
• Critical mission: You'll go to work every day knowing your expertise is directly creating educational opportunities for students in under-resourced communities.
• Passionate & experienced team: Join a dedicated group of staff, Board members, and volunteers committed to the mission, working alongside team members with experience at leading EdTech organizations including Khan Academy and Kyron Learning.

Salary & Benefits

• Compensation: $115,000-$150,000, depending on experience. 
• Benefits for Full-Time Employees: Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage (company covers 80% of base plan for individuals, 50% for dependents); 401k retirement plan, Flexible PTO; Professional Development; work-from-home stipend. 

Please apply here: https://www.stepuptutoring.org/jobs#application