Gala Fresh Jobs (NOW HIRING)

A pillar in the Phoenix community for 30 years, Fresh Start’s mission is to provide access and resources that help women achieve self-sufficiency and use their strength to thrive. We envision and work towards establishing a future of unlimited opportunities for women.

Fresh Start empowers women to succeed by providing a wide range of comprehensive, wrap-around services. Our work—centered around helping women achieve economic self-sufficiency and personal empowerment— focuses on five key areas of service provision: family stability; health and well-being; financial management; education and training; and careers. Fresh Start has served thousands of women aged 18 and older, supporting them as they transform their lives and, in turn, transform the lives of their children, families, and the broader community.

Job Summary:

As an integral member of the Development Team, the Events Manager is tasked with organizing, managing, coordinating, and supervising all aspects of Fresh Start’s three (3) major fundraising events. Events include, but are not limited to: Fresh Start Gala, Fresh Start’s Sip & Soirée, and the Fresh Start Charity Golf Classic. This position will work collaboratively with a second Events Manager, sharing responsibilities and event leadership to ensure the successful planning and execution of exceptional events that support Fresh Start’s mission. The Events Manager not only supports the Development Team through these events, but also through stewarding event donors and maintaining donor information in the event records of the Raiser’s Edge database.

Essential Functions & Accountabilities:
The Events Managers will work collaboratively to oversee all fundraising events, strategically dividing responsibilities and event leadership to maximize efficiency, foster creativity, and ensure execution excellence. Primary responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Responsible for the planning, development, and execution of all aspects of the three fundraising events including event correspondence (corporate and donor letters and agreements, advertising information, thank you letters); mailings (save the date, invitations); event program development (collect advertising, coordinate with production and printers, create and edit articles, board lists, and donors), creating the event budget, managing registration details, overseeing the décor, the auctions, the raffles, the paddle raises, etc.
• Coordinate with the Fresh Start Boards for each of the events.
• Attend Auxiliary Board and Men’s Board monthly meetings, as well as Executive Board meetings as requested.
• Maintain and cultivate relationships with volunteers, corporate sponsors, board members and vendors.
• Plan and schedule timelines for event production.
• Coordinate sub-contract requirements for events, including, but not limited to, production companies, rentals, décor and catering. Ensure all necessary sub-contracting arrangements are properly planned and in place.
• Manage budgets for all three fundraising events.
• Responsible for the development of the yearly event budget, financial management and tracking of events including maintenance of financial databases, preparation and tracking of invoicing and payments, follow-up communication via email and phone.
• Assist with development, coordination and correspondence for all applicable event committee meetings.
• Responsible for updating donor databases, ensuring accuracy and confidentiality of information, when necessary, and managing sponsor and donor lists, registration lists, table, team and hole assignments, tracking percentage to goal, and maintaining clean and accurate records.
• Plan event PR and collateral in coordination with the Development Content Creator.
• Develop a calendar of events and timelines in coordination with staff and event chairs.
• Plan and implement sponsorship solicitation requests.
• Work with Volunteer and Outreach Manager to secure volunteers.
• Work with event database company, currently AES for auctions, registration, etc.

Qualifications

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• At least three years of experience in event planning/management
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to multi-task.
• Ability to work as part of a team.
• Ability to maintain accurate records and pay close attention to detail.
• Ability to develop a budget and monitor costs of events.
• Ability to utilize databases to track fundraising outcomes.
• Ability to represent the organization effectively in a variety of settings and communities.
• Ability to work evening and weekend hours as the position may require.
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines.
• Excellent time-management and organization skills.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and Excel.
• Board and donor relations experience is a plus.
• Use of donor database platform. Currently using Raiser’s Edge.

Education:

• A bachelor’s degree is required

Notice: This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only tasks to be performed by the team member occupying this position. The team members will be required to follow any other instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by their manager. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change, or new ones may be assigned at any time with or without notice. If other duties become long term, significantly increase the workload of the team member, or require skills that supersede those listed above, the team member should discuss with their manager. The job description may need to be modified. Fresh Start reserves the right to change this job description at any time. Employment with Fresh Start is at-will. This job description supersedes prior job descriptions. Reasonable accommodation can be provided for a disability that is affected by the above-stated job responsibilities and/or qualifications.