Development Assistant

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

About the ELCA

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with nearly 3.3 million members in more than 8,900 worshiping communities across the 50 states, Caribbean, and U.S. Virgin Islands. With a vision to live in a world experiencing the difference God’s grace and love in Christ makes for all people and creation, the ELCA strives to be a welcoming, thriving, and connected church that introduces people to Jesus so they can discover community, justice, and love.

The Lutheran Center (national office) is located in Chicago, Illinois. A staff of 400, under the leadership of the Presiding Bishop, serve as administrators, advisors, conveners, partners, and resource people for the ELCA and its ministries. Staff lead the work of national, domestic, and global ministries and programs including Lutheran Disaster Response, ELCA World Hunger, Service & Justice, Christian Community and Leadership, and Innovation. We are also home to five of our separately incorporated ministries: The Mission Investment Fund of the ELCA, Women of the ELCA, Lutheran Men in Mission, the ELCA Foundation and the ELCA Federal Credit Union.

https://www.elca.org/


Position Details

Development Assistant
Job
Full-time
Office/WFH
100% remote
5/19/2025
Chicago Illinois
Chicago, IL

About the position

The Development team within the Office of the Presiding Bishop of the ELCA Churchwide Organization is responsible for engaging donor members from across the ELCA ecology. Through Mission Support and Stewardship, Annual Giving, Institutional Giving, Transformational Giving, and the Development Services team, the Development team seeks to identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward donors of all kinds as they support the variety of ministries the ELCA does as church together. 

The Development Assistant position performs a broad range of routine administrative tasks and executive support for the Senior Director, Annual Giving. This role is responsible for providing reports for individual programs within the Annual Giving team and coordinating/supporting team meetings and reports. 

This is a full-time, non-exempt, Chicago-based Hybrid position. 

Candidates for this position must reside within the fifty United States or the District of Columbia and be authorized to work lawfully in the United States. In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification document form upon hire.

Job Responsibilities:

  1. Administrative support to Senior Director, Annual Giving, including calendar management, travel logistics and support, expense reports.
  2. Supporting and facilitating team reporting including coordinating quarterly team reports, monthly activity and budget reporting.
  3. Providing regular CRM-based reports on giving areas to team leadership and creating reports on fundraising priorities for distribution to program colleagues specifically for giving to missionaries and young adults in global mission. Coordinate creation of designations for mission personnel as needed.
  4. Coordinate and track stewardship activities and engagements for unmanaged donors including special stewardship for milestone giving and planned giving society events and communications.
  5. Provide support to users of peer-to-peer giving platforms.
  6. Regular review of CRM-related tasks across the team including review of pending activities and supporting team in completing timely and consistent data entry.
  7. Coordinating distribution of relevant fundraising materials to the fundraising team.
  8. Other duties as assigned.
  1. 2+ years’ experience in an administrative support role with experience related to development coordination and reporting.
  2. Bachelor’s degree in a related field is preferred; or any combination of education, training and experience that demonstrates the ability to perform the duties of the position.
  3. Exceptional written and oral communication skills.
  4. Demonstrated competency with Microsoft Office suite (Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, etc.), CRM or other donor management systems.
  5. Understanding of and commitment to the mission, vision, values, and goals of the ELCA.
  6. Commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism.
  7. Demonstrated understanding of and commitment to Christian stewardship.

Benefits

The ELCA offers a competitive benefits package for eligible employees, including employer paid health premiums for employees, health and dependent care FSA’s, a health savings account (HSA) with an employer contribution, life insurance, and a substantial employer contribution to 403b retirement plan (no match required). We also offer a generous paid time-off policy including 16 paid holidays. All benefits commence on your start date.

Salary 

  • Commensurate with qualifications and experience.  
  • Salary Description: $23.30 - $29.12 per hour




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