Philanthropy Officer

HOUSTON GRAND OPERA ASSOCIATION INC • Houston, TX

2d

About The Position

The Philanthropy Officer, Acquisitions serves as a key front-line fundraiser and relationship builder for Houston Grand Opera. This role is often among the first faces or voices that a new or prospective donor hears or sees when engaging with HGO – a crucial part in promoting a positive, authentic, grateful presence in service to expanding HGO’s local and national community of supporters.
The work of this role includes identifying and qualifying new prospective donors, building relationship and connection to HGO with these individuals, and soliciting their financial support of Houston Grand Opera. Driven by a learner’s mindset and growth goals, the successful Philanthropy Officer, Acquisitions takes decisive action, daily and weekly, to grow both Houston area-based and national Patron-level donors who contribute $2,500 or more to HGO’s impactful mission and programs.
Working collaboratively as part of the newly reconstituted Individual Giving team – led by the Director of Individual Giving – this role calls for an at-cause player who thinks and acts with purpose and intent to manage prospect identification and donor qualification processes (including an articulated screening process), donor acknowledgment/thank you calls, and leveraging CRM (Tessitura) and project management (Trello) tools to capture donor information/visits and efficiently move prospects and suspects through the donor cycle. The top candidates for this role will be competitive, hungry, eager to learn and grow, and on fire for HGO’s mission.
Join Us!
We are looking for talented, passionate, and dedicated people who are eager to make contributions to our community and our mission. If you are excited about this position but your experience does not align perfectly, we encourage you to apply! You may be just the right candidate for this position or another role at HGO.
About the Houston Grand Opera
The mission of HGO is to enrich our diverse community through the art of opera. We do so by creating, curating, exploring, and producing outstanding experiences centered around the human voice. HGO has received a Tony Award, two Grammy Awards, and three Emmy Awards – we are the only opera company in the world to win all three honors.
Our strategic focus is two-fold: creating profoundly enriching experiences for our diverse audiences and clearly defining and positively promoting the HGO brand. We believe every team member enriches our organization by exposing a broad range of ways to understand and engage our community and discover, design, and deliver enriching experiences.
Compensation and Benefits
We offer robust benefits to full-time employees, including:
Comprehensive and affordable health benefits.
Generous paid time.
403b retirement plan with employer match.
Flexible work schedule.
Professional development fund and opportunities.
Discounted parking in the Theater District garage and nearby lots, plus easy access to Metro transportation.
Free tickets to our mainstage and community productions and events.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in any field
• 2+ years of prior relevant experience working on a high-performing team in account management, sales, customer success/service, or development/fundraising – preferably with sophisticated, highly educated clients
• Experience working in a CRM database, especially Tessitura, is a plus
• Must be able to work nights and weekends for scheduled performances and events
• A bachelor's degree and some amount of demonstrated professional experience in nonprofit fundraising or for-profit sales/customer service is required.
• CRM platform (basic/standard) and Microsoft Suite (basic/standard) acumen and/or skill in learning new technologies and work tools, including project management (Trello) and CRM (Tessitura)
• High level of self-awareness and self-knowledge
• Extraordinary human relationship building skills (including but not limited to appreciative inquiry and listening to understand)
• Experience in a customer-centered environment
• Tactful, professional, persuasive writing, speaking, presence, and dress/attire
• Keen attention to detail and a fierce commitment to the importance of data health and data integrity
• Highly organized and an ability to constantly prioritize
• Learning mindset/coachability
• Flexible, malleable, and at the same time: deadline and goal driven
• Works "at cause" - anticipates problems and works proactively to address them; a self-starting individual
• Constantly prioritizes and thrives in a high volatility/high uncertainty environment
• Willing to go the extra mile and also knows how to take care of oneself in an environment of high, ever-changing expectations
• Ability to manage confidential information.
• Evening and weekend work hours are required.

Nice To Haves

• Music/opera knowledge helpful but not required (an interest in learning about it IS required)
• A sincere belief in the mission of Houston Grand Opera and familiarity with opera is a plus, but active curiosity and willingness to learn about the organization and art form may be sufficient.

Responsibilities

• Secure face-to-face visits with HGO subscribers and single-ticket buyers to ascertain their relationship with the company and obtain biographic, demographic, and psychographic details to identify those with greater interest and capacity for deeper HGO involvement and to build and execute a cultivation plan with the goal of soliciting financial support.
• Manage a portfolio of 100-150 suspects. Fully qualify, cultivate, and solicit these households to bring them into the HGO donor pipeline at the Patron level.
• Manage one of HGO’s key stakeholder groups for donor engagement: either the YPC/Young Patron’s Circle or the NPC/National Patron’s Circle. Each of our new Philanthropy Officers will manage one of these affinity groups.
• Work with current HGO Patrons, Trustees, and Board members to identify and leverage their relationships with potential new donors.
• Assign and make daily thank-you calls to new-to-file donors to determine their impetus for giving and to screen their potential for greater levels of support.
• Provide oversight of HGOs' weekly suspect screening process to identify new donor prospects.
• Maintain detailed and up-to-date records of all donor activity in Tessitura, as well as maintaining donor cycle progress for all assigned relationships in Trello.
• Assist the acquisitions team in evaluating all suspect and renewal portfolios in Tessitura annually to acquire new donor prospects.
• Support the success of the broader Individual Giving team as needed and directed, including but not limited to handing off high-value relationships to the major gifts team, leveraging insights from the operations, foundations, corporate, or signature events arms of philanthropy to drive individual giving/acquisitions results, staffing events to increase face-to-face time with prospects and suspects, etc.
• Assist the Philanthropy team with staffing special events and performances as needed.

Benefits

• Comprehensive and affordable health benefits.
• Generous paid time.
• 403b retirement plan with employer match.
• Flexible work schedule.
• Professional development fund and opportunities.
• Discounted parking in the Theater District garage and nearby lots, plus easy access to Metro transportation.
• Free tickets to our mainstage and community productions and events.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees