Development Manager/Associate

Synetic Theater is seeking a Development Manager to support the contributed revenue pipeline necessary to maintain its artistic, educational, and professional artist development programs. The Development Manager supports and is supported by the Managing Director in tactical execution of the development strategy. We recognize that fundraising in the arts includes a broad sweep of backgrounds and experience, and will adjust this position according to the strengths and interests of the eventual hire. The right person will come in at the level of Associate or Manager dependent upon prior skills and experience. The right person will come in at the level of Associate or Manager dependent upon prior skills and experience.

The position focuses on growing and fulfilling the donor programs, ensuring an active contact pipeline for all funders within our CRM, assisting in donor cultivation and stewardship events, and contributing to the institutional giving caseload via grant writing. 

There is room for growth in this position. This is an opportunity to be involved across all aspects of development, to work with a small, committed team, learn and develop language for an evolving, innovative form of theater, and provide essential support to a wide community of artists, technicians, educators, and creative personnel. The successful candidate will have ownership over projects and goals, and will be an integral part of a team.

This role is connected to other roles: it supports and is supported by them. Connection is the cornerstone of this job. Management of relationships through excellent data upkeep, planning and quality communications is a must.

This job is hybrid/remote, but the candidate needs to be local to the Greater DC Metro Area and able to attend events and meetings in the area.

Key Responsibilities:

Individual Giving (40%)

• Assist in maintaining a portfolio of major gift prospects capable of making four to six-figure gifts and stewarding donors who are already engaged at the major gift level. 
• Depending on skill set, may be responsible for their own caseload of mid-to-major donors - stewardship, communication, and engagement plan.
• Manage a pipeline of contacts with our CRM in order to solicit new annual fund donors, re-engage lapsed donors, upgrade existing donors, and renew existing gifts of all levels through a combination of mail, phone and in-person engagements.
• Execute direct mail, phone, web and on-site solicitation campaigns.
• Coordinate with staff to ensure that donor benefits are fulfilled to donors in a timely fashion.
• Staff leadership on calls and meetings with major supporters and potential funders.
• Gift entry, filing, and disbursement of gracious acknowledgments. Thanking our donors is a crucial component of this company’s work. This job stays on top of it and makes sure the leadership stays on top of it as well. 
• Managing the donor service phone line and email.

Institutional Giving (40%)

• Manage a caseload of grant proposals and reports and provide oversight on the overall grants calendar. The caseload will be shared with other team members. The caseload size and responsibility will depend on the skillset of the Associate/Manager coming in. 
• Research new funding sources and evaluate them with the team.
• Ensure that institutional funders are represented in our CRM and that we maintain appropriate contact with them.
• Support stewardship of corporate partners, including recognition, benefit fulfillment, and reporting/analysis.

Operational Oversight (10%)

• Liaise with designers and printers to create, maintain, and stock all development collateral materials.
• Support the Managing Director in collecting monthly Development Reports that help us stay on track towards our goals.
• Manage donor data hygiene in our CRM.

Special Events (10%)

• Manage/support cultivation and stewardship events, with the assistance of the Audience Services Manager, Managing Director, and General Manager (e.g. Behind-the-Scenes and Opening Nights).
• Prep the Artistic Director and Managing Director for cultivation and stewardship events by updating them on guest lists and donor history of guests. 
• Become familiar and knowledgeable with the donor base at events. 

Qualifications:

A good candidate might: be interested in how people come together to create a community of art-makers and audience, have strong interpersonal skills, like making people feel special, appreciate bringing order to situations, be enthusiastic about the power of data and practiced in its use, be interested in the stage and screen, be an advocate for arts education and training, be eager to learn, and be happy working with a small team.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience required.
• At least two years of work experience or equivalent graduate school experience in nonprofit management with a focus on contributed revenue, ideally in the performing arts field. 
• Proficiency with Patron Manager / other CRM programs for fundraising.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills and a feeling of ease and confidence in customer service situations. Sales experience is a plus but empathy is equally important.
• Attention to detail and comfort navigating complicated processes.
• Sound judgment and discretion in handling sensitive and confidential information.
• Capable of problem-solving independently, while leveraging appropriate channels and willing to say, “I’m not sure, what do you think?” when needed.
• Proficiency with productivity applications, such as Google Suite and Microsoft Office Suite, required.