Discovery Gift Officer

Discovery Gift Officer

Development Department

Individual Giving

THE ORGANIZATION

The San Francisco Symphony is among the most adventurous and innovative arts institutions in the United States celebrated for its artistic excellence creative performance concepts award-winning recordings and standard-setting education and community engagement programs. Since it was established in 1911 the Symphony has grown in acclaim under a succession of distinguished music directors: Henry Hadley Alfred Hertz Basil Cameron Issay Dobrowen Pierre Monteux Enrique Jordá Josef Krips Seiji Ozawa Edo de Waart Herbert Blomstedt Michael Tilson Thomas and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

The San Francisco Symphony presents more than 200 concerts and presentations annually for an audience of nearly 350000 in its home of Davies Symphony Hall and around the Bay Area. A cornerstone of its mission the San Francisco Symphony provides some of the most extensive education and community programs offered by any American orchestra. The Symphonys free music education experiences engage students in grades 112 throughout the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) serving more than 25000 students annually.

In 2001 the SF Symphony became the first American orchestra to launch its own in-house record label SFS Media. Recorded live in concert and engineered at Davies Symphony Hall SFS Media recordings showcase music by contemporary composers as well as core classical masterworks. San Francisco Symphony radio broadcasts the first in the nation to feature symphonic music when they began in 1926 today carry the Orchestras concerts across the 2004 the SF Symphony launched the groundbreaking multimedia Keeping Score series on PBS-TV and the web; the series was made available for unlimited free streaming on the Symphonys YouTube channel in 2020. In 2014 the San Francisco Symphony inaugurated SoundBox an experimental and eclectic live music series which takes place in an alternative performance space located backstage at Davies Symphony 2023 the San Francisco Symphony partnered with Apple for the launch of a new classical music streaming app Apple Music Classical and has since released 15 spatial audio recordings of live concert performances through the app. For its adventurous programming the Symphony has been honored 19 times by the American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers and the Symphonys recordings have garnered Frances Grand Prix du Disque and Britains Gramophone Award as well as 17 Grammy Awards.

JOB SUMMARY

The Discovery Gift Officer (DGO) reports to the Senior Giving OfficerNew Philanthropy (SGONP) and is a member of the Frontline Fundraising Team. The Officer will engage prospects donors and other members of the community to help develop new major gift donors and support for the institution. The DGO will actively manage a donor portfolio qualify new donors make discovery calls and build a pool comprised of new prospects and past donors to develop support at the $2500 - $25000 level. They work closely with the other Gift Officers to move prospects from their identification and qualification work into full-time portfolios to deepen donors engagement and investment in the institution.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS & RESPONSIBILITIES

• Work with the SGONP to establishannual goalsforgiftrevenue as wellasother performanceandproductivity measures.
• Develop and implement strategies to solicit mid-level donors subscriber non-donors and community members through in-person visitsemail phone and direct mail contact.
• Manage a living prospect portfolio of 70-80 households to bring forward new major gift donors and gifts for the institution throughout the year.
• Develop strategies to cultivate and identifykey individuals tobe moved into a portfolio while at the same time disqualifyingprospects who do notneedportfolio management.
• Work collaboratively with the Annual Giving and Major Gift teams to coordinate management of donors who have the potential to make leadership gifts.
• Co-lead Preludea youngprofessional$2500 annualdonorgroupincollaboration withthe Annual Giving Officer Baton Circle.
• Collaborate with the Legacy Giving team on identification cultivation solicitation and stewardship for Legacy Giving prospects in the Discovery portfolio.
• Author and/oredit funding proposalsconsistent with Symphonyprotocolsto facilitateeffective gift solicitations.
• Conductjob functionsand activitiesinalignment withthe principlesof the SFSs Diversity Equity andInclusion(DEI) work and supporttheorganizations DEI workthrough participation inworking groups andother initiativesaspossible.
• Performadditionaldutiesasrequiredbythe SFS.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• 5-7 years of individualfundraisingexperience with a track record of successpreferably intheperformingarts.
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal.
• Ability to professionally anddiplomaticallycommunicate andinteractwithawide variety ofinternaland externalstakeholders.
• Strong organizational skills with ability to work independently and manage highly detailed tasks.
• Ability tohandlemultiple tasks andpriorities andmeetdeadlinesinahigh-volumefast-paced environment.
• Committed to successofthe symphonic artform and able to communicate thoughtfully and enthusiastically about the work of the San Francisco Symphony.
• Familiaritywith and/orpassionfor orchestralmusicaplus.
• Proficient in MicrosoftOffice anddonordatabase software.Tessiturapreferred.
• Willing toattendconcerts and events regularly on nights and weekends.
• Able totravel aroundtheBayAreaand Northern Californiaasneeded.

WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

Theinternalandexternalconstituents with whom thisposition most frequently interactsinclude:

• IndividualGiving team andbroaderDevelopment team
• OrchestraPersonnel Community Engagement & Volunteer Services Artistic and Education
• Board Leadership
• Donors and prospects

EEO STATEMENT

In alignment with the values statement above the San Francisco Symphony is committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and employees without regard to race color religion sex pregnancy (including childbirth lactation and related medical conditions) national origin age physical and mental disability marital status sexual orientation gender identity gender expression genetic information (including characteristics and testing) military and veteran status and any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Pursuant tothe San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance the San Francisco Symphony will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.