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Job Highlights 

The Assistant Director of Foundation Giving manages a portfolio of key foundation donors while expanding Houston Grand Opera’s institutional giving program through leveraging key introductions, cultivating new relationships, and collaborating internally to customize powerful major gift opportunities for foundations.

Join Us!

We are looking for talented, passionate, and dedicated people who are eager to make contributions to ourcommunity and our mission. If you are excited about this position but your experience does not align perfectly, we encourage you to apply!You may bejustthe right candidate for this position or another role at HGO.

About the Houston Grand Opera

The mission of HGO is to enrich our diverse community through the art of opera. We do so by creating, curating, exploring, and producing outstanding experiences centered around the human voice. HGO has received a Tony Award, three Grammy Awards, and three Emmy Awards – we are the only opera company in the world to win all three honors.

Our strategic focus is two-fold: creating profoundly enriching experiences for our diverse audiences and clearly defining and positively promoting the HGO brand. We believeevery team member enriches our organization by exposing a broad range of ways to understand and engage our community and discover, design, and deliver enriching experiences.

Compensation and Benefits

We offer robust benefits to full-time employees, including:

• Comprehensive and affordable health benefits.
• Generous paid time off.
• 403b retirement plan with employer match.
• Flexible work schedule.
• Professional development fund and opportunities.
• Discounted parking in the Theater District garage and nearby lots, pluseasy access to Metro transportation.
• Free tickets to our mainstage and community productions and events.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage a portfolio of foundation donors and prospects (including associated individuals, as appropriate), soliciting new, renewed, and increased support.

• Develop creative and personalized stewardship touchpoints to deepen relationships and report on the impact of their gifts. 

• In collaboration with Philanthropy leadership and partners across HGO, design and promote compelling grant opportunities and funding proposals that align foundation priorities with HGO's mission, supporting an aggressive acquisition strategy for new foundation support. 

• Collaborate with colleagues across the Philanthropy and Marketing teams to ensure timely, persuasive proposal submissions, impactful reporting, and appropriate, agreed upon recognition. 

• Partner with the Institutional Giving Coordinator and Finance to ensure foundation grants are tracked and allocated in accordance with gift agreements and funder restrictions, and that all reporting obligations are met and documented in a timely manner. 

• Lead prospect research strategy (in collaboration with the Senior Director, prospect researcher, and HGO leadership) to identify, qualify, and prioritize new foundation prospects, assessing their capacity and alignment with HGO's mission. 

• Represent HGO at networking and community events, serving as an ambassador for the organization and cultivating new and existing foundation relationships. Lead the development and management of HGO's foundation relationships with Board members and Trustees, engaging them as connectors and champions to strengthen and expand HGO's foundation network. 

• Ensure that records for foundation donors and prospects are accurate and up-to-date with all interactions, proposals, and gift activity in Tessitura, ensuring data integrity and supporting accurate pipeline management, revenue tracking, and financial forecasting. Host portfolio donors and prospects to HGO events and performances, as appropriate.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree with 5 or more years of experience in foundation grants, fundraising, sales, relationship management/customer/client service, or a related field. Must have demonstrated ability to implement and manage projects involving multiple departments. Requires proven excellent written and verbal communication skills. Requires some night and weekend work around performances and events.

Special Job Characteristics

We seek a resourceful, proactive, self-starter who can independently solve problems and prioritize key tasks in a fast-paced environment. Successful candidates will be natural motivators, who encourage and empower others to meet ambitious goals. Must be highly organized with strong attention to detail. Knowledge of opera is not necessary, but passion for the arts is a must. 

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those we consider important for an employee to successfully perform essential functions of this job: extended periods of sitting and performing tasks such as typing and using a computer mouse, with strong visual and auditory focus, occasional lifting (not exceeding 20 pounds), reaching for items, effective communication skills, and fine motor abilities, being mobile within the office for activities like attending performances, events, and meetings. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

Equal Opportunity

Houston Grand Opera is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at HGO are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, national, social or ethnic origin, sex (including pregnancy), age, physical, mental or sensory disability, HIV Status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, past or present military service, family medical history or genetic information, family or parental status, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local laws or regulations. HGO will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. HGO encourages applicants of all ages.