Job Highlights
The Philanthropy Writer supports HGO’s strategic priorities and fundraising initiatives by writing a high volume of persuasive fundraising copy for proposals and reports as well as collaborating across the organization to analyze data critical to successful storytelling, reporting, and fundraising.
Join Us!
We are looking for talented, passionate, dedicated people who are eager to make contributions to our
community and our mission.
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, two 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 are passionate about building and sustaining an inclusive and equitable working environment for all company members. We believe every team member enriches our diversity by exposing a broad range of ways to understand and engage our community and discover, design, and deliver enriching experiences.
Compensation and Benefits
The starting salary for a candidate who meets the minimum requirements of the position is $70,000.00. We offer robust benefits to full-time employees, including:
- Comprehensive and affordable health benefits, including medical, dental, and vision insurance; a high-deductible healthcare plan with an employer-funded health savings account; a flexible savings account; an employee assistance program; and employer-paid life, short term disability, and long-term disability insurance
- Generous paid time off including vacation, wellness, parental leave, and scheduled and flexible holidays
- 403b retirement plan with employer match
- Flexible work schedule
- Hybrid work environment
- 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
- Draft high volume of fundraising proposals and grant reports for institutional giving and other philanthropic efforts.
- Conduct research on topics including arts education, peer opera companies, trends in philanthropy, and other topics as necessary to support proposals.
- Work with Assistant Director of Institutional Giving to align proposal budgets and narratives.
- Liaise with other departments to gather program information, key messaging, compelling stories, demographic data, and other statistics and data points to support fundraising requests.
- Collaborate with Communications team to develop language about major artistic projects.
- In collaboration with Associate Director, manage Philanthropy department language/data bank and proactively share key messages, data points, talking points, and stories with Philanthropy colleagues.
- Assist Office of the General Director with language and data needs Board, Committee, and All-Staff presentations as needed.
- Work with Associate Director to support Chief Financial Officer and Business Intelligence (BI) team in the execution of the organization’s data strategy.
- Collaborate with BI to develop self-service reporting and analytics that support the Institutional Giving team; review Philanthropy requests to BI to ensure requests are clear, thoughtful, and responsive to strategic and fundraising priorities.
- Proofread and edit materials for Philanthropy colleagues.
- Draft other Philanthropy materials as needed, including end of season report, donor profiles, nominations, talking points for events, guarantor letters, and other publications, and more.
- Accompany Philanthropy colleagues on visits with donors to listen and draft follow-up materials.
- Staff Philanthropy events as needed.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree
- 3–5 years of experience in any writing-focused position
Other Skills and Abilities
Resourceful, proactive, self-starter who can independently solve problems and prioritize key tasks in a fast-paced environment. Natural motivator who encourages and empowers others to meet goals in a professional and courteous manner. Knowledge of opera 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 25 pounds), reaching for items, proficiency in keyboarding, effective communication skills, and fine motor abilities, being mobile within the office for activities like attending 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.
