Manager, Prospect Research and Development

Development Department

Development Operations

Work Status:             

Full Time

FLSA Status

Exempt

Location of Job:

Davies Symphony Hall

San Francisco, CA 

Salary:

Pay Grade J

$72,001 - $76,057

Schedule:

Hybrid (2-3 days in- office required / Willing to consider remote working for the right candidate)

Regular Hours:

9 am-5 pm

Reports To:             

Director, Development Operations

Supervisory:

No

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 350,000 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 Symphony’s free music education experiences engage students in grades 1–12 throughout the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), serving more than 25,000 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 Orchestra’s concerts across the country. In 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 Symphony’s 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 Hall. In 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 Symphony’s recordings have garnered France’s Grand Prix du Disque and Britain’s Gramophone Award, as well as 17 Grammy® Awards.

JOB SUMMARY

The Manager, Prospect Research and Development, is a key member of the Development Department who reports to the Director, Development Operations. The Manager contributes to the success of the San Francisco Symphony’s fundraising efforts by providing research and data supports to front-line gift officers, the administrative leadership team, the CEO and the board members. The Manager helps gift officers maximize the fundraising effectiveness by strategically planning and assigning donors to their portfolios. The Manager provides individual research of donors and prospects as requested by the board members, the CEO, the Fundraising Events team and Development staff, while conducting regular wealth screening projects to identify prospect donors. The Manager ensures that appropriate information is added to and maintained in the database and manages the creation of reports to promote their use among gift officers.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS & RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Supports the Board of Governors, the CEO, and CPO by identifying and researching potential members of the Board of Governors and Advisory Council, providing research profiles for candidates being presented and attending board committee meetings as requested.
2. Conducts periodic database wealth & philanthropy screenings, analyzes the results, identifies viable new prospects, and recommends gift officer assignments to the appropriate Development leadership.
3. Helps gift officers maximize the value of their portfolios of donors by routinely analyzing their donors’ giving propensity and evaluating unassigned donors. Build portfolios for new gift officers with top prospects and regularly review all portfolios and prospects with the gift officers. 
4. Provides individual research of donors and prospects as requested by the board members, the CEO, the Fundraising Events team and Development staff and present individual research profiles
5. Meets regularly with gift officers to enhance their solicitation plans. Leads Portfolio Management Meetings, driving the agenda and the conversations to support movement towards obtaining gifts by the frontline fundraising team.
6. Prepares reports for board members and leadership before their meetings with donors or prospects, and about event guests before elevated and major Development events. 
7. Develop and maintain automated reports from the Tessitura database for briefing documents and track
8. Maintains a library of reports and briefing documents that is shared with Development and selected administrative staff.
9. Develops and maintains relationships in Tessitura for the Symphony’s board and top donors; collaborates with the Board Liaison to maintain information about board member’s organizational affiliations and contact information.
10. Learns more about research tools and techniques and manages and procures research resources within the approved budget.
11. Provides periodic training for development staff in portfolio and moves management, basic research techniques, and appropriate data entry protocols for Tessitura.
12. Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Required:

1. 3-5 years’ experience in research supporting individual, foundation, and corporate giving
2. Demonstrated commitment to protecting the confidentiality of SFS information
3. Demonstrated curiosity about people’s philanthropic behavior, motivations, and methods
4. 2-3 years’ experience working with individual gift officers on their portfolios
5. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
6. Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal
7. Strong organizational skills, with ability to work independently and manage highly detailed tasks
8. Ability to professionally and diplomatically communicate and interact with a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders
9. Ability to handle multiple tasks and often-changing priorities, and meet deadlines in a high-volume, fast-paced environment
10. Demonstrated proficiency in Windows operating systems, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and a constituent relationship management (CRM) system (e.g., Tessitura or similar), and experience with Asana project management software,
11. Familiarity with and/or passion for orchestral music a plus.
12. The successful candidate is strategic, optimistic, and must possess a can-do attitude. 

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

None

WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

The internal and external constituents with whom this position most frequently interacts include:

• • Individual Giving team, Development Operations & Services team
  • CPO, Development Leadership Team, Board Relations Manager
  • CEO Office

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.