Philanthropy Officer

Overview

Job Highlights 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 Philanthropy Officer, Acquisitions works to identify and qualify new prospective donors, build relationships with these individuals, and solicit 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 mission and programs.

Working collaboratively as part of the newly reconstituted Individual Giving team — led by the Director of Individual Giving — this role manages 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 move prospects through the donor cycle. The top candidates are competitive, hungry, eager to learn and grow, and passionate about HGO’s mission.

Join Us! We are looking for talented, passionate, and dedicated people who are eager to contribute 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.

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.

• 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.

• 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 new Philanthropy Officer 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 HGO’s 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.
• As…