Development Operations Coordinator at GiveWell

, , United States -

Full Time

Start Date

Immediate

Expiry Date

03 Mar, 26

Salary

96100.0

Posted On

03 Dec, 25

Experience

2 year(s) or above

Remote Job

Yes

Telecommute

Yes

Sponsor Visa

Skills

Operational Coordination, Customer Service, Logistical Execution, Stakeholder Management, Communication, Judgment, Collaboration, Curiosity About AI, Salesforce, Asana

Industry

Research Services

Description

GiveWell is a research organization that identifies and funds cost-effective giving opportunities, focusing on global health and well-being. Our work is funded by tens of thousands of donors who rely on our research to inform their giving. We’ve grown from directing $1.5 million in 2010 to directing nearly $400 million in 2024. The Role We’re hiring a Development Coordinator to serve as the operational backbone of GiveWell’s Philanthropy team. This person will be the engine that keeps our logistics running smoothly — ensuring donors receive timely, accurate, and warm responses, and operating the systems that allow fundraisers to spend more time in front of donors. You’ll be the “front door” to GiveWell for donors and prospects, managing inbound communications across our main inboxes. In this role, you’ll coordinate administrative needs across the Philanthropy team and maintain the systems and processes that support our donor relationships. You’ll work closely with fundraisers, operations partners, and other internal teams to keep workflows organized, ensure logistical needs are handled reliably, and resolve inquiries with clarity and professionalism. You’ll also help us evolve our team operations as we grow — proactively spotting bottlenecks and implementing improvements that strengthen our ability to scale high-quality donor stewardship. This role is ideal for someone who loves bringing order to complexity, thrives on enabling the success of others, and is energized by serving as a steady operational anchor in a fast-moving, evolving environment. Why we're hiring this role right now: As our fundraising team expands, the volume and complexity of donor interactions have outpaced the operational support we currently have in place. We’ve been bridging this gap through temporary contracting, but we now need a full-time team member to provide consistent, integrated support and help build durable systems for the future. This role will allow our team to maintain high-quality donor interactions, reduce operational friction for fundraisers, and strengthen the infrastructure required to scale our donor engagement in a thoughtful, sustainable way. About You The strongest candidates will have at least one to three years of experience in administrative support, operations coordination, customer service, or roles involving logistical execution and stakeholder management. You don’t need to have worked in philanthropy before, but you should be motivated by GiveWell’s mission and excited to support donor-facing work behind the scenes. In addition to relevant experience, we’re looking for someone with the following qualities: You excel at operational coordination. You enjoy keeping multiple workstreams moving, tracking details meticulously, and creating structure that helps teams function smoothly. You’re reliable, organized, and able to juggle many tasks without dropping balls. You thrive in environments with ambiguity. This role will evolve as our team grows. You should be comfortable with shifting scopes, changing systems, and learning new tools. You see change as an opportunity to improve processes, not a source of stress. You communicate clearly and professionally. You can write crisp, context-appropriate responses to donors and internal partners. You should be able to communicate clearly, confidently, and without errors. You make good judgment calls. You know when to answer something yourself and when to ask for input. You’re attentive to nuance. You collaborate well. You can easily track work with multiple stakeholders across teams, understand what you need from people, and follow up reliably. You keep others informed and close loops diligently. You’re curious about AI and operational tools. You may not have technical expertise, but you’re open to experimenting with new tools and thinking about how technology may shape this work over time. Experience with Salesforce, Asana, and customer service environments are preferred but not required. Details Team: You'll report to the Senior Manager, Philanthropy. Compensation: NYC or the San Francisco Bay Area: $96,100 All other U.S. locations: $87,100 Location: GiveWell’s staff work primarily remotely within the U.S. with a small number of staff in Canada and the UK. This position is eligible to work fully remotely in the U.S. Offices: You are welcome but not required to work from our offices in Oakland, California or Brooklyn, NYC. We'll cover relocation expenses for candidates who wish to move to these physical office locations. Flexibility: We support and encourage flexible working, including flexible hours, working remotely, and working from the office when you choose. The majority of our staff, including senior management, work flexibly in one way or another. Benefits: Our benefits include: Fully funded health, dental, vision, and life insurance (we cover 100% of premiums within the U.S. for you and any dependents) Four weeks of paid time off per year 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave Ergonomic home workstations or co-working space memberships 403(b) retirement plan Travel: We strongly encourage staff members to attend quarterly whole-org and department retreats to bond with other team members and complete in-person work. We’ll discuss travel obligations in more detail during late stages of the hiring process, and we’ll give reasonable consideration to staff who have family or other obligations. Start date: We’d like a candidate to start as soon as possible after receiving an offer, but we’ll offer flexibility for candidates whose personal or professional circumstances require them to moderately delay their start date. Key Questions & Information What does success in this role look like? Success means serving as a dependable operational anchor for the Philanthropy team. Donors who reach out to our inboxes receive timely, clear, and accurate responses that reflect GiveWell’s values. Fundraisers experience minimal friction because administrative details—scheduling, meetings, notes, project tracking, trip coordination—are handled reliably. You’ll also contribute to systems improvements, spotting bottlenecks and helping the team operate more efficiently as we scale. What does the current team look like? You’ll join GiveWell’s Philanthropy team, which sits within our broader Outreach function. The Philanthropy team includes frontline fundraisers responsible for donor relationships and a small operations subteam that supports those donor-facing efforts. You’ll report directly to the Senior Manager, Philanthropy, and work closely with fundraisers, communications staff, and operations partners across the organization. This role does not manage others. How is this role different from typical administrative or customer service positions? You’ll be the first line of communication for many donors reaching out to GiveWell—many of whom are thoughtful, analytical, and deeply invested in our mission. This means your work requires sound judgment, clarity, and the ability to recognize when a complex question needs to be escalated. You’ll also play a central role in maintaining the operational systems that allow fundraisers to focus on high-value donor work. It’s a mix of inbox triage, operational coordination, project management, process improvement, and cross-team collaboration. What are some reasons this role might not be a good fit? This role requires a high level of reliability and comfort with juggling many tasks at once. If you prefer predictable routines, fixed scopes, or work that rarely changes, this might feel challenging—our team is evolving quickly, and the role will evolve alongside it. If you’re drawn to GiveWell primarily for research or donor-facing advising opportunities, this role won’t meet those interests. If you find you’re more energized by analytical or strategic projects this role may not be sustainable, as we’ll need you to focus more on administrative and operational work. Why are we hiring now? We’re scaling our donor outreach efforts, and as our fundraising team grows, so does the volume and complexity of donor engagement. A full-time operations-focused hire will allow us to maintain high-quality donor stewardship, reduce operational friction for fundraisers, and build durable infrastructure as our team continues to expand. We’ve been filling this gap temporarily with contracting support, but we’re now investing in a full-time team member to create consistency, integration, and long-term continuity. What is the hiring process like? Our basic plan for the hiring process is listed below. If you move to step 2, you’ll be in touch with a member of our recruiting team who will quickly answer any questions about logistics and timelines. Submit your application below. You don’t need to write a cover letter—we deliberately turned off the cover letter upload field; we only need you to answer our application questions. 30-minute interview with our Talent Acquisition Team 30-minute interview with members of Philanthropy Team Short Work Trial, followed by 60-minute live interview with Senior Manager of Philanthropy 75-minute Values Interview 60-minute final conversation with Head of Philanthropy Reference checks Offer Please note that we could choose not to move forward at any stage of the process described above, and we do not share individualized evaluative feedback with applicants. We plan to devote substantial time to reviewing applications, and we will respond to everyone who applies. We’ll review applications on a rolling basis, so it’s better to apply sooner. If we decide to close the application by a specific deadline, we’ll update this page at least one week in advance. About GiveWell GiveWell is dedicated to finding and funding outstanding giving opportunities in global health and development, sharing the full details of our analysis with everyone for free. Our giving funds enable donors to contribute to the most impactful and cost-effective programs our researchers identify. Since 2007, we’ve directed over $2.6 billion to cost-effective programs and interventions. In the last two years, we’ve made more than $500 million in grants. GiveWell is one of the world’s largest private funders of global development efforts, and we estimate that the funding we’ve directed will save more than 340,000 lives. GiveWell is most well-known for recommending a small number of Top Charities, which currently support seasonal malaria chemoprevention, antimalarial nets, vaccine incentivization, and vitamin A supplementation. However, most of our research capacity is devoted to finding cost-effective opportunities outside of those programs. GiveWell grants have: Helped governments to implement high-impact health programs, like in-line chlorination of drinking water in India and HIV/syphilis screening and treatment for pregnant people in Zambia and Cameroon. Funded program delivery alongside strengthened monitoring and evaluation, as in our grants to support treatment of clubfoot and to evaluate the program. Sought to scope and scale promising interventions that don’t have clear existing implementers. We are supporting the Clinton Health Access Initiative’s Incubator and Evidence Action’s Accelerator to identify potentially cost-effective interventions and create programs that we would be excited to support in the future. For example, we funded a program to provide diarrhea treatment to children in Nigeria that we co-designed with CHAI through the Incubator program. Tested our assumptions through further research, including studies on the effect of water chlorination on mortality, the impact of a tree-planting program on farmers’ income, and the effects of combining the RTS,S malaria vaccine and perennial malaria chemoprevention. We never take for granted that GiveWell’s work is good for the world. We make our reasoning public and transparent so others can challenge it (sometimes we even pay people to point out our errors). We go to unusual lengths to check our assumptions and assess our impact, including funding research and external analysis to address our uncertainties and insisting that our grantees conduct rigorous monitoring and evaluation. We change our minds when the evidence demands it. Additional information We don’t want to miss candidates that could do great things at GiveWell. Practically, that means a GiveWell staff member reviews every application carefully, considering the whole picture of your background and potential. If you’re on the fence about applying because you meet some but not 100% of our preferred qualifications (some studies suggest this hesitation is especially common for women and people of color), we encourage you to apply anyway. GiveWell is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer by choice. At minimum, this means that we comply with all federal, state, and local EEO and employment laws. Beyond the requirements of those laws, we value our team’s diversity in all respects, and we desire to maintain a work environment free of harassment or discrimination—we want our team members to thrive at GiveWell. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, contact us at careers@givewell.org. We will consider employment for qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. By submitting an application, you acknowledge that you have read and consent to GiveWell’s Privacy Statement for Applicants. By completing an application exercise, you acknowledge and assent to GiveWell’s Work Trial Policy.

Responsibilities

The Development Operations Coordinator will serve as the operational backbone of GiveWell’s Philanthropy team, ensuring smooth logistics and timely responses to donors. This role involves coordinating administrative needs and maintaining systems that support donor relationships.