Development Manager

Job Summary and Key Priorities:

The Development Manager is a new position responsible for creating and managing a
comprehensive program to identify, cultivate, and solicit individual donors who will deeply
engage with and invest in Definition’s artistic and community building initiatives. Through a
combination of data-driven strategies, mission-focused content, and creative direct
marketing campaigns, this person will be responsible for growing support from our
community of individual donors who give for general operation support in addition to
individual campaign gifts. The Development Manager will report to the Artistic Director and
Executive Director, in addition to collaborating with the board and other staff and ensemble
members to support the entire Definition community.

Campaign Management (50%)

• Cultivate, renew, upgrade, and steward Definition annual fund and campaign donors
  through a one-to-many approach to meet contributed income goals for annual
  operations and capital campaigns.
• Manage a portfolio of major donors and prospects.
• Create robust segmentation strategies for each campaign.
• Write content for mail/email appeals that reflect current best-practices and
  organizational insight.
• Build and send fundraising emails through our marketing platforms
  (Mailchimp/Squarespace/Social Media).
• Grow the number of monthly donors to Definition through strategies to convert
  one-time donors to recurring donors.
• Support strategies for new donor acquisition
• Regularly monitor and analyze key performance metrics to assess effectiveness of
  campaigns and strategies.
• Create detailed timelines for campaign development and execution for tracking in
  our project management and CRM software.
• Create annual revenue and expense budgets for individual fund campaigns.

Donor Experience (40%)

• Regularly update our suite of acknowledgements for annual fund donors.
• Create, monitor, and review online donations forms for each campaign to ensure
  efficiency.
• Identify opportunities for stewardship-only communications for individual donors.
• Support moves management strategies that encourage annual fund donors to move
  up the donor pipeline.
• Enhance opportunities for individual donors to give feedback on their experience
  and preferences (i.e., online forms, post-donation surveys, phone-a-thons).

Other Responsibilities (10%)

• Maintain a keen-eye on best-practices and trends in broad-based fundraising
•  Assist in collecting stories from our community to use in various fundraising pieces.
• Regularly meet with the full leadership team, campaign consultant, fundraising
  associate and ensemble for campaign brainstorming and high-level collaboration.
• Supervision of Interns and Volunteers (as needed).
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Passionate about connecting donors to Definition’s mission and providing a
  welcoming, inviting experience to supporters at any level.
• Belief that equity and social justice are important and driven to hear, reflect, and act
  on this belief.
• Creative individuals who can think “outside the box.”
• Strong attention to detail and organization, especially when it comes to data
  management and reporting.
• Able to prioritize tasks, organize time effectively, and respond to changing
  deadlines; must have ability to manage multiple tasks at a given time.

You need to have:

• 3+ years related experience in nonprofit development, or a high level of transferable
  experience.
• Ability to write compelling fundraising communications about the role of the arts in
  the community and have a knowledge of theatre in Chicago
• Strong knowledge of current industry standards and a familiarity with Chicago
  philanthropy.
• Fully digital literate, including Microsoft & Google products, and online meeting
  tools.
•  Experience with CRM systems and other databases is a plus.