Development Communications Manager

About Asphalt Green 

Asphalt Green is a nonprofit organization that transforms lives and builds community through sports, fitness, and play for all. 

Each year, Asphalt Green serves thousands of New Yorkers through sports, aquatics, fitness, camps, and community programs that promote health, personal growth, and lifelong participation in physical activity. Across three campuses and numerous community partnerships, Asphalt Green is committed to providing high-quality programs that are inclusive, accessible, and rooted in excellence. 

Asphalt Green believes that access to movement, sport, and wellness can change lives. Our work helps young people develop confidence, resilience, leadership skills, and healthy habits that extend far beyond the playing field. 

About the Role 

The Development Communications Manager serves as the primary writer for Asphalt Green’s Development team, creating clear, compelling donor-facing communications that support fundraising strategy, deepen donor engagement, and tell the story of Asphalt Green’s mission, impact, programs, and funding priorities. 

In this role, you will write and coordinate fundraising content, donor updates, stewardship materials, campaign messaging, impact stories, event communications, donor briefings, and other Development-related materials. You will work closely with Development, Marketing, Communications, Programs, Community Programs, Finance, and other teams to ensure donor communications are accurate, mission-aligned, and connected to Asphalt Green’s broader voice. 

This position is a good fit for someone who is a strong writer, highly organized, collaborative, and comfortable turning program information, donor strategy, and organizational priorities into clear, engaging communications for donors, funders, and supporters in a mission-driven organization. 

Why This Role Matters 

Strong Development communications help donors, funders, partners, and supporters understand Asphalt Green’s impact and the importance of investing in its mission. This role helps connect people to the work behind the programs, including sports, fitness, aquatics, camps, and community-centered programming that serve New Yorkers of different ages, backgrounds, and abilities. 

The Development Communications Manager helps Asphalt Green strengthen donor engagement, support fundraising efforts, improve stewardship, and tell a consistent story about the organization’s mission, community impact, and future priorities. By creating thoughtful, donor-centered communications, this role helps frontline fundraisers and Development leadership build stronger relationships and inspire philanthropic support. 

What You’ll Do 

Donor-Facing Writing and Content Development

• Serve as the primary writer for Development communications, creating materials that support frontline fundraising, donor engagement, stewardship, and campaign goals. 

• Write, edit, and coordinate donor-facing communications, including appeals, newsletters, stewardship updates, impact stories, campaign materials, donor emails, acknowledgement language, recognition copy, event-related messaging, and donor reports. 

• Translate program work, participant stories, funding priorities, campaign goals, and organizational impact into clear and compelling written materials. 

• Support Development leadership and frontline fundraisers with talking points, donor briefs, presentation content, proposal language, follow-up materials, and other donor-facing communications. 

• Help maintain consistent language around Asphalt Green’s mission, impact, community programs, funding priorities, and case for support. 

• Adjust tone and content for different audiences, including individual donors, institutional funders, board members, partners, and community supporters. 

• Proofread and edit materials to ensure accuracy, clarity, grammar, consistency, and alignment with Asphalt Green’s voice. 

Fundraising Campaign, Stewardship, and Event Support

• Support communications connected to annual giving, leadership giving, principal giving, institutional giving, special campaigns, events, and donor stewardship. 

• Help create materials that support donor cultivation, solicitation, renewal, recognition, retention, and reporting. 

• Draft donor updates, impact summaries, stewardship reports, solicitation language, acknowledgement letters, and other materials that show the value and impact of giving to Asphalt Green. 

• Support Development events by drafting invitations, program copy, talking points, signage copy, run-of-show language, remarks, follow-up messages, and donor-facing materials. 

• Help prepare communications that support donor meetings, site visits, cultivation events, funder visits, and stewardship moments. 

• Coordinate with Marketing, Events, and Development colleagues to ensure event messaging is clear, polished, accurate, and mission-aligned. 

• Help capture, organize, or develop event highlights, impact stories, photos, and follow-up content when needed. 

Communications Planning, Donor Briefings, and Project Coordination

• Maintain Development communications calendars, project timelines, content drafts, review cycles, approval processes, and recurring communications assets. 

• Track deadlines for appeals, newsletters, donor updates, campaign materials, event communications, stewardship reports, and donor briefings. 

• Support donor briefing preparation and prospect research coordination for cultivation meetings, events, and donor engagement opportunities. 

• Compile and synthesize donor information into clear, useful materials that help Development leadership and frontline fundraisers prepare for cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship conversations. 

• Manage multiple writing and communications projects at the same time while keeping materials, timelines, and review processes organized. 

• Help organize files, templates, language banks, story banks, donor materials, and other Development communications resources. 

• Identify opportunities to improve Development communications processes, consistency, efficiency, and coordination across the department. 

Cross-Department Collaboration and Impact Storytelling

• Work closely with Development, Marketing, Communications, Community Programs, Sports, Aquatics, Fitness, Camps, Finance, Operations, and program leaders. 

• Gather program updates, participant stories, impact data, photos, outcomes, and other information needed for Development communications. 

• Partner with Development and program teams to incorporate outcomes, participation numbers, stories, and impact examples into donor-facing materials. 

• Partner with Marketing and Communications to ensure Development materials align with Asphalt Green’s brand voice, messaging, and communications standards. 

• Coordinate with program teams to ensure donor-facing materials accurately reflect the work, goals, and impact of programs. 

• Help ensure statistics, names, program details, donor information, and funding information are accurate before materials are shared externally. 

• Maintain confidentiality and care when working with donor information, participant stories, internal data, and sensitive materials. 

• Help build strong internal systems for collecting stories, data, and updates that support fundraising communications. 

What Success Looks Like 

Success in this role means Development communications are clear, timely, accurate, donor-centered, and connected to Asphalt Green’s mission. A successful Development Communications Manager will:

• Produce polished donor-facing materials that support fundraising, stewardship, donor engagement, and campaign goals. 

• Communicate Asphalt Green’s mission, programs, funding priorities, and impact in a clear and compelling way. 

• Keep communications timelines, drafts, reviews, approvals, and donor briefing materials organized. 

• Build trust with Development, Marketing, Communications, Finance, and program teams. 

• Gather accurate program information, stories, data, and updates from internal partners. 

• Help create consistent messaging across donor communications, campaigns, events, proposals, reports, and stewardship materials. 

• Support stronger donor engagement, retention, and understanding of Asphalt Green’s impact. 

• Manage multiple projects and deadlines with strong attention to detail. 

Who You’ll Work With

• Development leadership 

• Annual Giving, Individual Giving, Institutional Giving, and Events colleagues 

• Marketing and Communications 

• Community Programs and program leaders across Sports, Aquatics, Fitness, and Camps 

• Finance and Operations 

• Executive leadership as needed 

• Donors, board members, funders, consultants, and external partners as appropriate 

Required Qualifications 

You’ll need:

• At least 3 to 5 years of experience in communications, development communications, fundraising communications, nonprofit development, donor communications, marketing communications, content writing, or a related field. 

• Experience writing donor-facing, fundraising, campaign, stewardship, nonprofit, or mission-driven communications. 

• Strong writing, editing, proofreading, and storytelling skills. 

• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple communications projects, deadlines, reviews, and stakeholders. 

• Experience gathering information from internal teams and turning it into clear written materials. 

• Ability to write for different audiences, including donors, funders, partners, board members, staff, and community supporters. 

• Strong attention to detail and ability to maintain accuracy in names, data, program details, donor information, and donor-facing materials. 

• Ability to collaborate with Development, Marketing, Communications, program teams, consultants, and leadership. 

• Ability to work with confidential donor, prospect, participant, and organizational information with care and discretion. 

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, CRM databases, email platforms, content management tools, project management tools, or similar systems. 

Preferred Qualifications 

It would be helpful if you also have:

• Bachelor’s degree in communications, nonprofit management, philanthropy, public relations, marketing, journalism, English, public administration, social impact, or a related field; equivalent professional experience will be considered. 

• Experience working in a nonprofit, community-based, sports, fitness, youth development, education, recreation, public health, or human services organization. 

• Experience supporting annual giving, major gifts, institutional giving, donor stewardship, fundraising campaigns, or Development events. 

• Experience with donor databases, CRM systems, email marketing tools, project management tools, or content management systems. 

• Experience preparing donor briefings, prospect research summaries, or donor engagement materials. 

• Experience using program data, impact metrics, participant stories, or evaluation results in communications materials. 

• Experience partnering with Marketing or Communications teams on brand voice, messaging, design, or campaign materials. 

• Grant writing, fundraising communications, nonprofit communications, prospect research, or project management training or certification. 

• Bilingual or multilingual skills.