Advancement Officer

INTRODUCTION

The Dubuque Museum of Art (DuMA) seeks a talented fundraising professional to join our staff during an exciting period of momentum and growth in our programs, community engagement, and operations.

DuMA’s mission is to create engaging art experiences that excite, inspire, and connect our community.

Established in 1874, DuMA is among Iowa’s oldest cultural organizations. Since opening an award‑winning, remodeled facility in downtown Dubuque in 1999, DuMA has expanded its permanent collections to include over 2,600 objects, including internationally‑recognized works by Grant Wood and Edward S. Curtis. In addition, DuMA regularly hosts and presents juried, curated, and traveling exhibitions, featuring locally, regionally, and nationally‑recognized artists, and offers a diverse array of youth and adult art education programs, outreach activities, and special events.

Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums since 2004, DuMA is a Smithsonian Affiliate and a member of the Midwest and Iowa Museums Associations.

The Advancement Officer is responsible for the planning and execution of a comprehensive annual giving program. This position will focus on strategically building and maintaining a robust pipeline of annual programs with the goal of retaining and expanding philanthropic support. The Advancement Officer will oversee all annual giving appeals, including membership, and will be responsible for developing and implementing tactical communication plans.

This position will report to the Director of Advancement and work to optimize philanthropic support for the Dubuque Museum of Art.

Working closely with the Director of Advancement, volunteers and appropriate committees, the Advancement Officer will assume the following responsibilities:

• Execute annual giving plan that prioritizes streamlined donor and member communications, employs targeted annual appeals and drives, and identifies opportunities for strategic events
• Actively identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward individual members and donors and corporate entities to build a robust prospect pipeline in the $1-$20,000 range
• Develop and process gift solicitation and fulfillment materials, including annual appeals, membership solicitation and renewals, and gift acknowledgment letters
• Build and maintain positive working relationships with staff, members, and donors

• Serve as a front‑line fundraiser able to ascertain donor priorities and pivot between cultivating annual operating support and campaign contributions
• Facilitate cross‑departmental capital campaign activations including communications and messaging to external stakeholders in partnership with the Marketing Manager
• Complete focused donor research and prospect cultivation for the capital campaign
• Track capital campaign pledges, pledge reminders, and invoices

• Continually monitor and update constituent records to ensure accuracy and proper recording of gifts; collaborate with finance staff to reconcile database on a quarterly basis
• Provide timely and accurate data from the database for reports, mailings, and projects
• Collaborate with the Director of Advancement to establish benchmarks and regular reporting processes to measure results of all annual giving activities
• Provide administrative support for the Director of Advancement

• Plan and execute development events
• Serve as liaison between departments to ensure all Museum programming is appropriately utilized for cultivation and stewardship
• Lead in the production of the museum’s annual Gala
• Assist with execution of capital campaign related fundraising events

• A minimum of three years of experience successfully increasing annual giving
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to write and speak clearly and persuasively
• Working knowledge of volunteer management, fundraising, donor relations and public relations concepts, principles, procedures and techniques
• Ability to collect, organize and analyze data related to donor giving
• Strong interpersonal…