Organization Overview
The School of American Ballet (SAB) at Lincoln Center, founded by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein, is the preeminent ballet school in the country. Our mission is to train professional dancers for careers in classical ballet. We provide the resources for a diverse pool of students to train at the highest level – with 15-25 a year going on to dance for New York City Ballet, our official but independent company, and other major ballet companies worldwide. SAB has a far-reaching impact on the art form and enriches the lives of each student who comes through our doors, over 800 annually, ages 6 to 18. SAB has approximately 85 part- and full-time employees and an operating budget of $17 million.
Position Overview
The Director of Development and Marketing leads SAB’s fundraising and marketing strategy and operations in support of SAB’s mission and long-term financial vitality. The Director of Development and Marketing reports to the Executive Director and is a member of the senior leadership team. The position oversees a 10-person Development team (Individual Giving, Institutional Giving, Special Events, Planned Giving, Capital Campaign) and a 3-person Marketing team, with 5 direct reports. The Director, in collaboration with the Executive Director, works closely with the School’s 40-member Board of Directors to fulfill the School’s annual, capital and endowment fundraising, and school-wide brand and marketing goals. Annual fundraising goals are approximately $6 million; a capital/endowment campaign in the quiet phase has a working goal of $20 million.
Key Responsibilities
Strategy/Leadership
- With the Executive Director, develop and execute a comprehensive and compelling strategy to expand philanthropic support and public brand awareness in support of SAB’s ongoing programs and strategic priorities.
- Partner with Board leadership to achieve development and brand/marketing goals.
- Prepare budgets and effectively manage financial and staff resources to achieve these goals and objectives.
- Develop strategic partnerships and strong relationships at all levels, internally and externally.
- Serve as an active contributing member of the management team to help steward the institution’s resources.
Development
- Provide leadership for the development department, creating short-term and long-range plans to meet revenue goals for fundraising areas and as a whole.
- Oversee Development staff in the implementation of SAB’s development activities across areas.
- Lead and motivate a team toward significantly increasing all fundraising streams over time.
- Employ strategic and innovative approaches to identify new donors and tailored engagement plans to cultivate and solicit their financial support.
- Support the Executive Director’s and Board members’ major gift fundraising activities.
- Identify, manage, cultivate and solicit a portfolio of major gift prospects.
- Train, encourage, support and lead other development team members in managing prospect portfolios.
- Ensure that software and other tools are in place for prospect tracking, research, acknowledgement and stewardship.
Marketing
- With the Director of Marketing, develop an integrated strategy to enhance SAB’s marketing capabilities school-wide, in support of mission and revenue goals (students, donors) and overall brand awareness; establish short and long-term plans to meet goals.
- Oversee the 3-person marketing team to execute all ongoing print and digital advertising and marketing (website, social media, audition and outreach advertising and promotional materials).
- With the team, develop a brand strategy and implementation plan school-wide; create unified messaging school-wide; utilize pro-bono and paid marketing services from outside firms to bolster brand marketing capabilities.
Board Relations
- Work with the Executive Director and Board Chair on board development and maintain positive and proactive relationships with the Board of Directors.
- Serve as the staff liaison for the Development Committee to engage board members in fundraising strategy and cultivation activities; help activate the entire Board to support SAB’s fundraising goals.
- Serve as the staff liaison for the Nominating Committee to identify, cultivate and onboard new board members.
- Support the work of the Board Brand Marketing Task Force (staff liaison is Director of Marketing).
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree
- 7+ years’ experience in non-profit development and marketing
- Strong track record of hands-on execution to meet goals
- Exceptional interpersonal, spoken and written communication skills
- Ability to utilize data to inform results and enable decision making
- Strong collaboration skills to achieve results
- Excellent organization skills and an ability to coordinate multiple tasks and activities
- Ability to exercise independent, sound judgement
- Ability to handle confidential matters with discretion
- Commitment to SAB’s mission and core values
Benefits
The salary range is $180,000 – $220,000 commensurate with experience. This is a full-time, exempt position.
SAB offers a hybrid work schedule and a superior benefits including:
- Health Care Plan (Medical and Dental); dental is company sponsored)
- Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
- Retirement Plan (403b) with company contributions after one year
- Paid Time Off (20 vacation days, 10 sick days, plus public and religious holidays)
- Paid two-week winter break in December
- Commuter benefits pre-tax
- FSA and DCFSA benefits pre-tax
- Hybrid work schedule