Manager of Donor Experience

Job Highlights  

The Manager of Donor Experience is responsible for cultivating and deepening relationships with Houston Grand Opera’s donor community through strategic stewardship, impactful communication plans, and meaningful recognition programs. This role serves as a key connector between donors and the organization’s artistic mission, ensuring that philanthropic partners feel valued, informed, and inspired to maintain and grow their support. 

Join Us! 

We are looking for talented, passionate, and dedicated people who are eager to make contributions to our community and our mission. If you are excited about this position but your experience does not align perfectly, we encourage you to apply! You may be just the 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 believe every 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, plus easy access to Metro transportation. 

• Free tickets to our mainstage and community productions and events. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Develop and execute a comprehensive donor engagement strategy that deepens relationships, drives retention, and cultivates long-term philanthropic connections with Houston Grand Opera and its supporters.  

• Create and implement a comprehensive gift acknowledgment system, ensuring donor recognition is accurate, timely, and thoughtfully tailored to honor the significance of each contribution. 

• Serve as the organizational lead for donor recognition across all print and digital platforms, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and full adherence to institutional policies.  

• Manage all donor giving societies (including the Butler Studio Committee, Laureate Society, National Patrons Circle, and Young Patrons Committee), ensuring meaningful recognition and engagement for all constituencies. 

• Collaborate with front line fundraising colleagues to develop and execute personalized stewardship plans that deliver meaningful recognition and engagement across all donor segments.  

• Track and analyze donor engagement and retention trends to surface opportunities for improvement and recommend data-informed strategies that advance philanthropic outcomes. 

• Partner with the Donor Events Manager to support stewardship event execution, including donor invitations, attendance tracking, and strategic post-event follow-up. 

• Oversee gift agreement documentation and monitor recognition deliverables to ensure all donor commitments are timely and accurately fulfilled.  

• In collaboration with colleagues in Audiences and Marketing, craft compelling, donor-centered content for stewardship communications (including Opera Cues features, impact reports, and email updates) that deepens our donors’ emotional investment in the organization's mission.

Qualifications 

Bachelor’s degree with 2 or more years of experience in stewardship, philanthropy operations, 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.