Information & Responsibilities

Reporting to the Assistant Vice President of Development, the Development Manager will be a dependable and highly motivated professional and will work collaboratively as a member of the Advancement team to provide administrative, strategic and project support for the Directors of Development for Major Gifts and the AVP, Development. The Major Gifts team builds strong, lifelong philanthropic relationships with high-capacity alumnx, parents, and friends to the Institute with the purpose of generating significant gifts that support the mission.

The Development Manager will be responsible for providing comprehensive support to serve, foster, and strengthen major giving for CalArts. Key responsibilities include planning and managing the administrative workflow of the team, producing written communications and reports, basic prospect research including RelSci, LexisNexis or other tools, interfacing with peer managers across other campus departments, facilitating calendaring for the AVP and major gifts team, and supporting and collaborating on the stewardship and cultivation of Leadership, Major and Principal Gift prospects, among other activities. In addition, the manager will serve as a first point of contact
for many high-level prospects and must represent the Advancement Division and Institute with poise and professionalism, including a broad knowledge of the arts, higher education, and the strategic vision of CalArts.

The successful candidate will be a digital native with facility in learning and implementing new technologies and productivity tools; have excellent writing skills related to spelling, grammar, punctuation and sentence structure; and the ability to professionally manage communications and relationships with internal and external constituents. Flexibility, creativity, timeliness, organizational skills, strategic thinking, relationship building, and keen attention to detail are essential to this position.

Requirements
Essential Job Functions – Major Gifts Support

Draft, print, and mail formal correspondence including acknowledgement letters, planned giving materials, acquisition mailings, and marketing materials.
Provide copy editing support for proposals, reports, and other front-facing and internal documents
Prepare prospect collateral packets
Draft and update gift agreements and route approved gift agreements for internal signatures
For Major Gifts-related events, provide event support including tracking RSVPs, circulating guest list to team, following up, and conducting confirmation calls when appropriate
Maintain database-related projects, develop analytical systems, and generate associated reports
Collaborate closely with Advancement Services to understand and execute all data related projects and maintain and distribute metrics-related reports
Coordinate with AVP to facilitate research requests in a timely manner
Oversee data and reporting of team metrics for AVP, keeping the team appraised of successes and challenges in monthly meetings
Assist AVP, Development with the timely and appropriate stewardship and cultivation of major and principal gift prospects and portfolio
Required to maintain confidentiality of all information entrusted to this position

CRM Support

Enter contact reports for acknowledgement letters and other formal communication
Ensure accurate records in CRM database including contact information, account ownership, and tracking details
Partner with Advancement Services to query prospect and donor lists as needed for review for invitations, outreach, etc.
Create and update CRM campaigns for Major Gift-led meetings and events
Pull reports from CRM for strategy meetings and as needed
Work with Directors of Development to save files in CRM

Administrative

Manage Major Gift files on server and Google drive
Own and circulate major gifts strategy meeting agenda and takes notes as needed
Schedule meetings when appropriate and distribute agendas and meeting materials prior to meeting
Coordinate travel arrangements as needed
Answer development phone line and general development emails and direct messages to the assigned Director of Development or another appropriate staff member
Assist MGOs and AVP in all administrative functions
Collaborate with all managers across the Advancement division as needed. Build strong collaboration and open communication to help ensure shared accountability among colleagues and teams

Education and/or Experience

A bachelor’s degree is required
2-3 years of experience in administrative or operational roles, preferably in a development, customer relations, marketing, or PR setting, with a proven track record of success. May be supplemented by experience as an employee or volunteer for a not-for-profit institution
1-2 years of experience in non-profit fundraising setting, including confidence in communication with high net-worth prospects, principal and major donors, board members and a variety of diverse internal and external stakeholders
Experience and/or interest in the arts and arts education required; knowledge of the Los Angeles artist and funder communities, including CalArts highly preferred

Emotional intelligence to interpret and act on emotions in themselves and others
Commitment to serving diverse constituents. Ability to effectively convey messages to different audiences in a variety of different formats
Ability to collaborate with a large team and attend to competing needs
Works effectively with coworkers to promote and maintain a positive work environment while supporting strategic partnerships and collaborative relationships across the CalArts campus 
Grit to maintain composure when things go wrong and a sense of humor to stay sane and keep a positive attitude no matter what happens
Employ best practices in customer and constituent relations
Strong organizational skills, written and oral communication skills, perseverance, optimism, and the ability to think strategically and creatively toward the advancement of CalArts
Strong attention to detail and ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously
High level of self-motivation to proactively move multiple tasks forward while documenting and sharing progress, and meeting strict deadlines
Tech savviness to be able to use best practices to improve and reinforce processes
Experience and confidence in donor database management and ease functioning in CRM systems
Strong computer skills: MS Word, Excel, databases, mail merges, Adobe Acrobat, Prezi and/or PowerPoint, event registration systems (Eventbrite), project management tools (Asana), and survey software (Qualtrics)

Further Information
Must be available to work additional hours during evenings or weekends, and at peak periods of the
year. Accept that on rare occasions during certain times of the year, there will be restrictions to
vacation approvals.