Assistant Director of Individual Giving

Summary 

Reports to: Senior Director of Development 

Status: Full-Time; Exempt 

 

The Assistant Director of Individual Giving plays a vital role in building and sustaining the Nashville Symphony’s base of leadership annual giving donors. This position manages a high-volume portfolio and is responsible for identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding donors, while building a strong pipeline for future major and planned giving. 

Primary Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Manages a portfolio of approximately 250-300 leadership annual giving donors and prospects (generally $3,000-$5,000 annual giving capacity)

• Conducts a minimum of 75+ face-to-face visits annually to cultivate, solicit, and steward donors

• Executes broad-based, personalized engagement strategies to grow donor retention and identify leadership annual giving prospects to upgrade giving

• Identifies and refers major gift, endowment, and planned giving prospects to senior development staff 

• Initiates outreach to renewal, lapsed, and new donors 

• Develops and implements donor-centric cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship plans

• Serves as a primary contact for assigned patrons, providing excellent relationship management and customer service

• Participates in concerts, events, and stewardship activities to deepen donor engagement

• Collaborates with the development team to build a robust pipeline of future major donors

• Partners with senior staff, development colleagues and musicians to support strategic donor engagement and solicitations

• Maintains deep knowledge of the Symphony’s mission, funding priorities, and strategic initiatives 

• Assumes responsibility for special projects or other activities as directed by the Sr. Director of Development and Chief Development Officer 

 

The duties listed above are not all inclusive. The person in this position is expected to perform other work-related duties as assigned even though they may not be considered primary duties. 

 

Supervisory Responsibilities

There are no direct supervisory responsibilities. 

 

Work Requirements and Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree 

• 1-3 years previous development experience or equivalent combination of inside sales/customer service experience required 

• Excellent written and verbal communications skills 

• Possess an understanding of individual donor needs and perceptions 

• Knowledge of donor databases and prospect tracking systems 

• Outstanding capacities for personal presentation, organization, self-motivation, accuracy, follow-through, timeliness, consistency, great attention to detail, and the ability to handle a multitude of tasks under deadline pressure 

• Ability to conceptualize and facilitate cultivation strategies 

• Ability to work independently and use independent judgment while keeping supervisor informed of work activity and issues

• Ability to work as a team member with a positive, helpful attitude in developing creative response and solutions to needs and issues 

• Ability to effectively interact with all levels of staff, volunteers, donors and prospects 

• Ability to handle confidential information with appreciation for the importance of protection of the privacy of donors and prospects is vital 

• Ability to work flexible hours depending on operational needs of the organization