Job Details
The Folger Shakespeare Library knows that an exceptional staff is the backbone of any great organization. We hire exceptionally qualified individuals who are committed to the mission, vision, and values of our organization. Our recruitment process strives to be interactive, accessible, and responsive. Once employed, the Folger provides a generous compensation, leave, and benefits package, as well as many opportunities for personal and professional growth.
Job Description:
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC is seeking an experienced development operation professional to join our team as the Director of Development Operations. This role, reporting to the Director of Development, will be responsible for meeting the reporting, technology, stewardship, gift processing, and data acquisition/integrity needs of the team. This role will be to manage the staff responsible for research, technology, and reporting; gifts and records; donor relations; and membership and events.
The ideal candidate will be a strategic leader with the ability to envision, implement, and steward a thoughtful approach to information management, prospect development, and process improvement to support the growth of the Development team at the Folger. They will have a proven record as an experienced fundraising and organizational development specialist and must be an initiative-taker with superior written and oral communication skills, the ability to solve complex problems, and have a passion for philanthropy. This individual will be a part of the Development department's senior team supporting other leaders by fostering a culture of philanthropy to ensure that fund development is executed in keeping with the values, mission, and strategic directions of the Folger Shakespeare Library, working with the Director of Development to establish a balanced mix of donor sources and fundraising programs to attract and retain donors and fundraising volunteers.
The standard schedule for this role is Monday-Friday, 8:45am-4:45pm, which is a 35-hour workweek. Occasional evening and weekend hours may be required for special programs. This position is currently hybrid with ~3 days on-site per week. The selected candidate will need to be within a commutable distance to the D.C. office (DC, MD, VA) by their start date.
Health & safety: The health and well-being of all staff, contractors, and visitors is our top priority. While the Folger no longer requires masks or vaccinations (except for AEA spaces), we support and encourage individuals to take the safety precautions they are most comfortable with, and we ask that individual choices are respected. Folger offers organization-funded healthcare plans for full-time staff and extensive leave options to all staff in case of any health issues that arise. As we wrap up construction and move to work more consistently on-site this summer, Folger will continue to review and update policies, in conversation with our staff.
Compensation:
- This is a monthly-paid salary position, with an annual rate of $105,000-115,000.
- Total compensation includes an extensive benefits plan, including a generous 403(b) contribution and match, outlined at
Supervisory Duties: The Director of Development Operations will supervise a growing team of operations and special events staff members, including a Development Associate of Operations and a Development Specialist of Membership and Individual Giving.
Duties: The Director of Development Operations will play a key role in the execution of Folger's short and long-range strategic plans for financial sustainability. As a member of the department's senior management, this individual will lead a team of advancing development professionals and will interface with both internal and external constituents with a focus on providing leadership and training in best practices.
Operations and Management - Administer all financial operations of the Development department, including creation and maintenance of Department's budget, in consultation with Director of Development. Oversees the department's business and finance operations to include creating financial reports for the Board, Department, and Folger leadership.
- Develops and streamlines processes to increase the efficiency and accuracy of development workflows, including gift processing, prospect management, revenue/cash forecasting, and report development in alignment with fundraising strategy. Also, manage major initiatives including expense budget analysis and custom report rollout.
- Guide on-going fundraising strategy using data collection and analysis to provide crucial insights.
- In collaboration with the Director of Development, develops and executes policies, guidelines and procedures including, but not limited to, gift acceptance, counting and reporting standards, prospect management, naming and recognition, donor recognition and acknowledgement, and department-wide Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
- Works with the Development Operations team to ensure all donors are appropriately recognized in donor lists for the Annual Report, Folger Theatre playbills, Folger Consort programs, O.B. Hardison event program, and other publications as needed; establishes and tracks guidelines for listings.
- Oversees the Development operation team's work, including but not limited to providing support for the team by entering gifts, pulling acknowledgements, creating, and executing extractions and lists, pulling reports, and helping manage donor records.
- Supervises staff; assigns a portfolio of responsibilities to each member; oversees and reviews work as necessary; in conjunction with the Director of Development, establishes annual goals and performance expectations.
- Collaborates with senior department staff on strategic initiatives.
- Oversees Tessitura management and support for the entire department in collaboration with other relevant Tessitura managers across the institution.
- Serves as the designated departmental primary liaison to internal teams including Finance, IT, Operations, Visitor Experience, and Marketing and Communications. Cultivates strong working relationships with all programmatic departments.
Membership and Annual Giving - Oversees and supervises the Development Specialist, Membership & Annual Giving to achieve increasing annual revenue goals and build a pipeline to donors who will become major, and principal gifts candidates. With the Development Specialist Membership and Annual Giving, take shared responsibility for the implementation of the membership and annual giving programs, including all innovative segmentation strategies, renewals and acquisitions, and coordination with major gift efforts and robust stewardship activities. Serves as a senior member of the development team who will set and achieve revenue and strategic plan goals for membership and annual giving to meet overall institutional revenue objectives and to build a broad pipeline of donors to Folger. Will collaborate with the Director of Marketing and Communications, Director of Visitor Services, Director of Development, Senior Director leadership, to lead efforts to reframe and execute a new membership model as a part of the Folger reopening in 2024.
- Implement effective ways to acquire new, renew lapsed, and upgrade current members including Renaissance Circle members - working closely with Associate Director of Development -Planned and Major Gifts, using a variety of direct marketing strategies, onsite sales, direct response, digital marketing tactics, and other promotions (including considering categories, benefits and offers). Manage a modeling and segmentation program to achieve maximum giving and engagement to build the donor pipeline.
- Integrate data insights and creative storytelling to drive strategy and collateral for large, multi-channel, segmented fundraising and advocacy campaigns.
- Collaborate with the Marketing and Communications and Visitor Experience departments on the development of membership marketing campaigns.
- Develop annual and long-term revenue and cost projections for annual giving and provide senior management with analysis and reports based on department's progress towards meeting predetermined goals.
- Conduct performance benchmarking with peer organizations and best-in-class benchmarking across industries to identify practices that may be employed by the Folger Shakespeare Library.
- Responsibility for growing Folger's annual fund, membership, while working collaboratively with the Associate Director of Planned Giving and Major Gifts, and Director of Development to support the growth of the Renaissance Circle programs and stewarding those donors for engagement and development towards major and principal gift opportunities.
Events - Manages Board of Directors-led special events in collaboration with department colleagues; works with donors and board interest committees to oversee major gift fundraising event initiatives.
- With the Director of Development and development team, is responsible for the planning, design, implementation, coordination and overall management of the annual Folger Gala, Folger's annual Acquisitions Night event, and other events; coordinates with internal staff and consultants to ensure successful events.
- With the Director of Development and other Development staff, coordinates formation of the Gala Committee. Works with the Development staff to solicit new, renewed, and increased sponsorship gifts; coordinates Gala program with Programming staff, invitation, and other event printed and digital collateral with Marketing Team. Working with consultant and internal events team, executes day of logistics with development team.
- Liases with internal staff, including Operations and Visitor Services, to manage successful events onsite at Folger properties.
- Manage event production, including budgeting, vendor bidding, and artist handling, in collaboration with Programming for Gala events, and other meet-and-greet opportunities at the Folger.
Education and Experience: - Bachelor's degree in business, Nonprofit Administration or similar field required; Master's preferred.
- 10+ years of successful experience in Development and Advancement Services with progressively more responsibility, preferably within a complex organization.
- 5+ years of management experience required.
- Demonstrated success in annual fund/or membership fundraising.
- Market research, analytics, and data modeling experience is essential.
- Demonstrated experience hosting cultivation and stewardship events, as well as creating sophisticated blended gift proposals, and writing and executing complex gift agreements.
- Prior experience working at an art, academic or cultural institution strongly desired.
- Experience in the areas of structured giving, including outright current, blended, and deferred giving as it relates to comprehensive charitable estate planning.
Skills and Knowledge: - Expert knowledge of Tessitura.
- Ability to interpret data for financial reporting and analysis while liaising with the CFO.
- Excellent verbal and written communications skills required.
- Interest in multiple aspects of education, performing arts, humanities, and early music.
- Ability to motivate and nurture growth and foster independence and collaboration as a staff supervisor and mentor.
- Has a customer service-oriented mindset with a propensity to work with the public and relate effectively with a diverse donor population.
- Ability to identify challenges ahead of time to ensure proactive problem-solving.
- Ability to work under pressure managing multiple priorities and to meet multiple deadlines
- A commitment to, and ability to effectively convey the Folger's mission with genuine passion, and the willingness to continually learn about the programs and mission.
- Demonstrated organizational skills, attention to detail and excellent follow-through after the event process.
Working Conditions/Physical Requirements: This job operates in a professional office environment. The employee may be exposed to various components of an office environment such as florescent lighting, pollen, dust, recycled air, cooling fans, semi-enclosed areas, central heating, seasonal warmer temperatures, and office noise. The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
- The normal work week is Monday-Friday, 8:45 am to 4:45 pm. Ability to work varying and additional hours as project demands arise (including evenings and weekends as necessary).
- Ability to work at a computer for an extended period of time, with accuracy.
- Willingness and capacity to work in an office environment at a workstation, and to come and go repeatedly throughout the day as is necessary, to perform various responsibilities.
- Capacity to communicate, in person, or using video, phone, or electronic communication methods, in a manner which can be understood.
Interested individuals should submit their cover letter and resume. Incomplete applications cannot be accepted. No phone calls please.
The Folger is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
To learn more about our benefits, please click here.