Career Center

Jacob’s Pillow seeks a Philanthropy Operations Manager as a key team member to oversee day-to-day processes, operations, and systems that help drive the overall strategic direction of fundraising. The Philanthropy Operations Manager will also have a strong working knowledge of financial systems and broader issues that relate to and impact fundraising governance. The post- holder is required to use creativity, initiative, and analytical skills to independently address and resolve fundraising matters related to information and financial systems, day-to-day processes, and operations. They are expected to put forward recommendations in order to contribute to the management of more complex situations and longer-term strategies. The work of the Philanthropy Operations Manager underpins the success of the team and helps drive the Pillow’s work in delivering its mission with ambitious targets.

The successful post holder will advance the organization’s fundraising program through oversight of the department’s operations pipeline management, as well as maintenance and analysis of development data to identify trends, progress to goal, and be informed by emerging strategies.

The Philanthropy Operations Manager will provide expertise and daily, hands-on work over a wide spectrum of workflows, which enable a data-informed Philanthropy team. This position is a vital member of the Philanthropy team and oversees the Philanthropy Associate’s work as well. The Manager will ensure proper data entry, record-keeping, pledge, and donation coding, report and list generation, prospect planning, Tessitura analytics and dashboard management, and other facets of pipeline management. The position will collaborate with frontline fundraising and Philanthropy team members, serving as a conduit for the full team as well as a collaborator with other Pillow departments, including Operations & systems, Marketing, and Finance.

The Philanthropy Operations Manager role is an exciting opportunity for an individual who enjoys working collaboratively within a high-performing team and across an organization.

Operations:

• Ensure the use of and adherence to the Pillow’s CRM in Tessitura by the Philanthropy team.
• Ensure compliance with relevant policies and processes for fundraising, including data protection, financial administration, and grant management, where applicable.
• Supervise the Philanthropy Associate in managing gift entries as well as their timely and accurate stewardship and gift acknowledgments, including generating receipts and managing thank you letter personalization.
• Coordinate, in partnership with colleagues, effective donor relations efforts, including tracking multi-year gift agreements and coordinating pledge payments, as well as ensuring reports on the use of funds are submitted in a timely manner by the relevant relationship manager.
• Work collaboratively with finance department colleagues to complete regular reconciliations to ensure all donations are accurately accounted for, allocated, and reported; gather required donor information for 990 tax filings and annual financial audit.
• In a growing area at the Pillow, collaborate with the Marketing team to manage website platform engagement, including event invitations, email newsletters, direct mailings, renewal solicitations, acknowledgments, and website/database integrations for donor payment systems.
• Work collaboratively with advancement and communications colleagues and outside vendors to manage and execute annual fund and other fundraising appeals, including direct mail and online campaigns; oversee accurate list segmentation/exporting and personalization.
• Manage the work of the Philanthropy Associate (and support when needed) to enter all gifts, grants and pledges into the database, including appropriate coding, copying, and filing.

Fundraising Data Analytics: 

• Develop and implement metrics and reporting to analyze fundraising and agreed-upon KPIs.
• Manage a suite of reports and develop a robust fundraising dashboard that provides insights on fundraising performance and forecasting in order to assist and inform fundraisers and senior leadership.
• Extract and interpret prospect and donor information from the CRM and prepare/present reports for internal and external audiences.

Pipeline Management: 

• Lead reviews of Plans and moves management with fundraisers to support timely progress of opportunities through the pipeline across all income sources, including individuals, major donors, corporate sponsors, and foundations.
• Oversee and systematize the research and prospect development pipeline efforts of the Philanthropy Associate.
• Plan and lead the agenda for regular Prospect Management Meetings held by the Philanthropy team.
• Assist fundraisers, with the support of the Philanthropy Associate, to ensure good data hygiene in the database for proposals and Plans.

Leadership: 

• Support the Chief Philanthropy Officer to develop the department’s annual budget and contributed income forecasting.
• Oversee the training and onboarding of Philanthropy staff to Tessitura.
• Support operations staff in the development of skills and competencies related to Operations and Pipeline Management activities.
• Lead and/or participate in cross-departmental collaboration on special initiatives with the aim of developing, streamlining, and aligning systems and processes in order to achieve shared goals.
• Represent Philanthropy for the internal Tessitura user group and frequently liaise with Patron Services and Marketing where there is a frequent overlap of constituents and systems.
• Perform other related duties as assigned or requested.

Qualifications: 

• At least 3-5 years of related experience with demonstrated success in non-profit fundraising, including exposure to the development of complex, multi-million-dollar funding opportunities.
• Superb writing, oral communication, and interpersonal Ability to cultivate positive relationships with donors, staff, board members, and volunteers.
• Excellent listening and motivational Comfort working with a variety of personal styles. Ability to keep situations from escalating into larger issues and to mitigate/resolve conflicts that do arise.
• Experience in the preparation and analysis of complex data Ability to translate organizational needs into legible charts and analysis.
• Ability to work independently with limited supervision and as part of a team.
• Demonstrated skills in strategic analysis and project planning.
• Strong time management, organizational, planning, and administrative skills, including comfort with various information systems and fluency with word processing and spreadsheet applications on MS Office and databases, with a preference for advanced knowledge of Tessitura CRM.
• Impeccable discretion and ability to manage confidential information.
• This position requires the ability to work a flexible schedule, with availability on weekends and holidays and for events, programs, and the summer festival, including after hours, as needed on-site in Becket, MA.

About Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival

Jacob’s Pillow is a National Historic Landmark, recipient of the National Medal of Arts, and home to America's longest-running international dance festival, currently in the midst of its transition to becoming a year-round center for dance through a five-year strategic plan titled Vision ‘22. Each Festival includes more than 50 national and international dance companies and over 500 free and ticketed performances, talks, tours, classes, exhibits, events, and community programs. The School at Jacob’s Pillow is one of the field’s most prestigious professional dance training centers. The Pillow provides professional advancement opportunities across disciplines of arts administration, design, video, and production through seasonal internships and a year-round Administrative Fellows program. With growing community engagement programs, the Pillow serves as a partner and active citizen in its local community. The Pillow’s extensive Archives, open year-round to the public and online chronicle more than a century of dance in photographs, programs, books, costumes, audiotapes, and videos. Jacob’s Pillow is committed to providing an inclusive, diverse, accessible, and equitable environmen...t that cultivates the celebration of the art of dance and its positive impact on communities. Jacob’s Pillow’s mission is to support dance creation, presentation, education, and preservation; and to engage and deepen public appreciation and support for dance. Organization-wide values include inclusion, leadership, integrity, flexibility, partnership, and sustainability. Jacob’s Pillow is a registered 501(c)(3) not for profit organization that provides equal opportunity for all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, marital status, mental or physical disability, pregnancy, military or veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by state or federal law. This policy also prohibits employees from harassing any other employee for any reason including, but not limited to, race, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disabled status.

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Connections working at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival