Job Details
Job Location
Esperson – Houston, TX
Position Type
Full Time
Education Level
4 Year Degree
Job Category
Nonprofit – Social Services
Description
Job Title: Development Officer
Department: Development
Reports to: Director of Individual Giving
Status: Full-time, Exempt
Salary Range: $60,000 – $65,000
Summary:
Reporting to the Director of Individual Giving, the Development Officer secures annual funding for the Houston Symphony by building and managing a portfolio to 150 donors and prospects to obtain their support and increase their giving and involvement year over year. The Development Officer is responsible for building their portfolio of individual major donor prospects with a focus on securing annual gifts of $5,000+and serves alongside a development team charged with raising more than $20 million annually.
Essential Job Functions:
- Serve as a front-line fundraiser with a consistent positive impact on the development departments annual contributed revenue goals.
- Execute the Symphonys acquisition strategy to cultivate, and solicit new prospects with the goal of building and managing a portfolio (150 households) of individuals with the capacity to give at the major gifts level.
- Craft a personalized, annual plan to cultivate, solicit, and steward each household in the portfolio.
- Participate in at least two face-to-face donor visits per week, as well as maintaining a high level of personal contact via phone, email, and mail
- Assist with special fundraising including prospect identification, proposal generation, and solicitation.
- Work with Director of Individual Giving to establish fundraising asks for each household in the managed portfolio working toward a goal of raising $250K+ in new gifts in year 1, $400K+ in year 2, $750K in year 3, and $1 million by the end of year 4.
- Establish meaningful relationships between the households in the portfolio and Symphony Trustees and Governing Directors, Symphony leadership, musicians, and fellow staff members.
- Work directly with volunteer leadership including community leaders.
- Establish a fluent understanding of the Symphony to successfully communicate and represent the organization both internally and externally.
- Be knowledgeable about the Houston Symphonys history, mission and vision, budget, fundraising goals, strategic priorities, leadership, budget, performances, and performers.
- In addition to cultivation, solicitation and stewardship activities that occur outside normal business hours, also attend concerts and private donor events on evenings and weekends. All activities share the goal of building relationships between the donor household and the institution.
- Perform additional duties as required by the Houston Symphony Society.
Qualifications
- Bachelors degree and a preferred two+ years of experience in fundraising with focus on major gifts
- Desire to continue fundraising education and achieve CFRE within 5 years.
- Experience in an arts organization preferred. Passion for performing arts and music is required.
- Computer literacy, word processing, database, and spreadsheet proficiency. Experience in Tessitura a plus.
- Professional demeanor, detail oriented. Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Ability to work successfully in a busy environment while managing multiple tasks.
- Ability to work evenings and weekends, including some holidays.