Associate Director for Institutional Giving

Job Location:

Chicago, IL 60611. Position Type:
Full Time. Salary Range: $85,000 - $90,000 per year.

The Associate Director for Institutional Giving manages the theater’s portfolio of corporate, foundation, and government partners. As a key member of Development, the role leads efforts in identifying new prospects, creating compelling cases for support, writing grant requests, driving cultivation strategies, managing a significant pipeline of existing grants and sponsor ships, and preparing leadership for cultivation and stewardship meetings with institutional funders.

The position requires strong writing, the ability to prioritize multiple deadline-driven projects, adaptability in high-pressure situations, a collaborative approach, and knowledge of researching institutional prospects.

• Grant Writing and Portfolio Management:
  • Create compelling cases for institutional support
  • Manage portfolio of all current institutional funders, and create strategy for increasing support across corporate, foundation and government (CFG) revenue streams, including multi-year institutional gifts
  • Create and manage a grants calendar
  • Manage research on CFG funders and overall trends to deepen existing relationships and uncover new opportunities
  • Oversee maintenance of detailed, accurate systems and files in Tessitura and Asana to track contacts, submissions, and reporting deadlines
  • Brief CST staff and board leadership for meetings and site-visits
  • Support CST leadership in soliciting six-figure institutional donors and prospects
• Stewardship and Events:
  • Develop a sponsorship strategy to maximize production sponsorship opportunities
  • Ensure the portfolio of corporate, foundation and government donors are well stewarded, creating ways to demonstrate impact
  • Track and fulfill benefits including discounted tickets, complimentary tickets, recognition, signage, and special events
  • Work with others in Development to plan special events for CFG partners as part of benefit fulfillment or to cultivate new partners
  • Partner with the Chief Development Officer to coordinate peer-to-peer events with board members and their CFG colleagues and prospects
• ADDITIONAL DUTIES:
  • Drive the IDEA to Action platform by engaging in committees, events, training, and other initiatives as needed
  • Model CST’s core values of service, ingenuity, and collaboration and the customer service ethos
  • Champion the organization’s commitment to a respectful, inclusive, and equitable workplace
  • Possess an in-depth knowledge of all streams of Chicago Shakespeare programming and serve as an articulate, passionate representative
  • Seek out general operating and programmatic shifts and communicate updates with key donors
  • Perform other duties as assigned

• Strong grant writing skills
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, good business sense, and computer literacy
• Well-organized, able to plan and manage strategically, set priorities, focus on details, embrace change, and work collaboratively in a fast-paced theater environment
• Personable, positive, and diplomatic, displaying integrity, an exceptional work ethic, and effective collaboration with trustees, donors, volunteers, and staff
• Passion for the performing arts, understanding and support of CST’s mission, and ability to articulate this mission and role to others

Work hours are generally 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Evening and weekend hours will be necessary. Worksite is primarily at the CST facilities on Navy Pier in Chicago, IL.

N/A

• Baccalaureate degree and 7-10 years progressive experience as a fundraising professional
• Five or more years of grant writing experience
• Exposure cultivating and soliciting corporate, foundation, and government funders
• Direct experience managing relationships with lead institutional donors
• Experience with both large and small-scale grant/proposal submission
• Experience with relational database management systems;
  Tessitura experience preferred

• Expertise in recent funding trends and motivations in the giving arena
• Working knowledge of the current national arts funder…