Associate Director of Individual Giving

SUMMARY

The Associate Director of Individual Giving is a key member of the Opera Philadelphia (OP) Philanthropy team, responsible for managing donor retention and acquisition efforts, renewal processes, and the Individual Giving end-of-calendar year and end-of-fiscal year campaigns. The Associate Director of Individual Giving manages an active portfolio of 100+ individual donors, with annual gifts ranging from $100 to $5,000.  

This position is responsible for the creation and execution of a year-long, data-driven, and multi-channel Annual Giving strategy designed to engage and acquire entry-level donors across a wide variety of meaningful touchpoints. This includes the identification of potential new donors from inside and outside OP’s current database along with existing entry-level donors, their effective solicitation, acknowledgement, reporting, and tailored stewardship toward growing contributed income.    

Further, this position will execute copy and design of donor collateral, website language updates, letter writing and editing, and manage relationships with vendors including print and mail houses.   

The Associate Director of Individual Giving will support OP’s 5-year Opera, But Different campaign.

This position will work collaboratively with colleagues across the entire company to ensure the successful implementation of this significant effort, including occasional outside consultants, as needed, to ensure current trends, technologies, and best practices are adopted. The development and maintenance of logical, easy-to-read reports, that track the success of the Annual Giving program will be essential to the success of this position.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Actively manage a portfolio of approximately 100+ annual donors to Opera Philadelphia, qualifying and upgrading donors where appropriate within a renewal portfolio

Manage end-of-fiscal year and end-of-calendar year renewal and acquisition processes

Manage the donor retention process for all donors less than Patron including data review, phone calls, direct mail, and email correspondence related to giving; create new, donor-centric strategies to implement within the retention process

Manage monthly renewal letter creation and distribution

Provide regular updates on donor retention and acquisition

Identify prospects in the retention and renewal process that are candidates for upgraded financial support

Participate as a part of the daily thank you call team for recently received contributions

Design and execute a detailed and highly strategic Annual Giving plan, with emphasis on end-of-calendar year, and end-of-fiscal year campaigns. The plan will include detailed timelines, budget, and campaign performance metrics. This plan will be comprised of dynamic direct mail, e-mail, web-based, social media, and potentially tele-funding components, across acquisition, lapsed, renewal and upgrade segments. 

Maintain detailed and up-to-date records of all donor activity in Tessitura, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), using Plans and Donor Information Reports.

Staff special events, performances, and committee meetings as required.

Preferred Related Experience
 

5-7 years working on a nonprofit fundraising team (performing arts preferred)

Excellent project management capability

Excellent written and oral communication skills

Experience with Tessitura and Wordfly a plus

Strong interpersonal skills including active listening and an empathic approach to the specific interests of varied audiences

Knowledge of fundraising techniques, strategies, research, stewardship, and related best practices

Ability to work evening and weekend hours