OVERVIEW
The Fisher Center is seeking a detail-oriented Development Operations Manager to oversee and contribute to efficient and evolving systems that enhance the Development department's fundraising efforts. This position will carry out tasks related to data management + hygiene, internal reporting, general fundraising operations and administration, financial reconciliation, and will provide on-site event support as needed. The Manager will possess a high level of proficiency in navigating technology and CRM software, specifically Tessitura; curiosity about learning and improving systems; commitment to maintaining high-quality data integrity; in addition to strong analytic, organizational, and collaboration skills to ensure data-driven, efficient fundraising strategies and functional reporting.

The Development Operations Manager will integrate information between the Development, Finance + Administration, and Audience + Member Services departments of the Fisher Center, as well as Bard College's Office of Development and Alumni/ae Affairs, to ensure clarity, consistency, and efficiency in planning, communicating, and executing gift recording, record keeping, and data analysis to ensure future success. The role requires excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including discretion and respect for confidentiality, as well as the ability to translate detailed and technical data into an effective narrative for the department's use.

This is a full-time, exempt position, paid at a salary range of $64,000 to $68,000, depending on experience. Hours will average 35 hours/week, with longer hours required during busy seasonal activities to support the SummerScape festival.


RESPONSIBILITIES
Development Database Management
Oversee the development department's use of Tessitura, the organization's customer relationship management software, inclusive of gift processing, donor and prospect list management, data hygiene, campaign configuration, and reporting functions below.
Serve as the primary user of Tessitura list management tools for campaign and prospect data analysis, special event and appeal mailings, and other development purposes
Manage all data imports and exports. Generate data sets for timely and accurate donor recognition efforts (program listings, wall listings, and boilerplate funder credits).
Provide data analysis and work in collaboration with other departments to define queries, manipulate, merge, and mine large and complex data sets
Enforce and encourage data entry standards and best practices to promote optimal data integrity. Manage annual campaign configuration. Lead routine data audits as needed, including audits on duplicate entries, salutations, contributions, relationships and households, constituencies, and constituent Interests. Train and oversee other employees on correct data entry within Tessitura.
Be up to date on all current and future Tessitura database functionality, including periodic software upgrades, and implement solutions to software limitations
Initiate and manage data integration projects between Tessitura and Bard College's database of record
Gift Processing and Recording
Handle the receiving, backup, and notification of all donations, cross-check gift entry reports to ensure consistency between Tessitura and the database of record at Bard College.
Oversee and refine the acknowledgement process of all gifts across all revenue lines to guarantee regular and prompt recognition of all donations.
Refine and manage the pledge payment process.
Track monthly contributed revenue, reconcile quarterly contributed income, and provide regular reports to internal stakeholders, in accordance with the annual Development plan and in coordination with the Fisher Center's Finance + Administration team
Partner with Finance team members to create new project codes, manage monthly reconciliation, facilitate wire transfers, and provide documentation and reporting during the annual audit.
Serve as the organization's primary liaison with Bard College's Gift Recording Team
Donor + Prospect Management:
Strategize with the Associate Director of Development on annual fund and membership solicitations, supporting growth in contributions/memberships and the number of donors/members, and in using data to inform fundraising operations
Deploy custom reports about attendance, contributions, research, moves management, and finance as needed to guide development strategy and practices
Maintain moves management plans in Tessitura and ensure the development staff's portfolios of donors and prospects remain up to date
Handle outgoing research requests and input incoming data sets in collaboration with Bard's Office of Prospect Research
Provide ad hoc research on event guests and potential prospects
Administrative Support
Prepare and distribute meeting agendas and materials for development prospecting meetings, including for Bi-Weekly Prospects and Plans Meetings, Monthly Gift Recorder Check-Ins, and Quarterly Institutional Prospects Meetings
Maintain budget records for the development department, and process invoices and check requests
Participate in institutional fundraising efforts by overseeing grant-making calendars, assisting with the compilation of materials for grant applications, scheduling meetings between the development department and Bard's Office of Institutional Support, and collecting data from other departments as needed
Identify and implement opportunities for process automation and workflow improvements, develop strategies for improving and expanding the use of new technologies in development operations, and take an analytical, creative, and innovative approach to solving problems
Maintain, fulfill, and store office inventories, including supplies, archival materials, and merchandise, and membership premiums
Staff select performances and special events
Perform other roles as needed


REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
EXPERIENCE
Experience with database software and/or customer relationship management (CRM) programs preferred; experience with Tessitura strongly preferred
Proficiency with Google Suite (Sheets, Docs, shared Drives) and Microsoft Office (specifically, Word and Excel), plus collaborative task management platforms and software, such as Trello, AirTable, and Confluence
Experience in fundraising work; experience and/or familiarity with fundraising in the arts is a plus


KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES
Excellent organization skills, communication skills, and superior attention to detail
Collaborative with other team members, while also being able to work independently on particular projects and tasks
Ability to remain flexible in planning, particularly as logistics and plans develop
Creative thinker and solution finder, particularly in helping solve logistical problems
Ability to collect, sort, analyze, and interpret data points to inform fundraising initiatives


WORKING CONDITIONS
While some duties may be performed remotely, this position will require on-site and physical presence at the Fisher Center
Some evenings and weekends for special events, as discussed and planned
Ability to sit and stand for long periods
Ability to move and lift objects up to 30 lbs
Applications for this position will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

TO APPLY: https://airtable.com/appR57NFMXrS8Q9Cx/pagyx9EjsfC02Hbuk/form

For any access-related requests, questions, or issues with the application form, please contact us via email.

Bard College is an equal opportunity employer and we welcome applications from those who contribute to our diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, mental or physical disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, familial status, veteran status, or genetic information. Bard is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation for all individuals in employment practices, services, programs, and activities.

LOCATION
Bard's beautiful 1,000-acre campus is situated on the east bank of the Hudson River in Annandale-on Hudson, New York. Community life is defined by numerous cultural and recreational opportunities in the surrounding historic Hudson River Valley and by proximity to New York City. Nearby towns and villages include Rhinebeck, Tivoli, and Red Hook, New York.

ABOUT THE FISHER CENTER
The Fisher Center is a premier professional performing arts center and a hub for research and education that demonstrates Bard College's commitment to the performing arts as a cultural and educational necessity. To support artists, students, and audiences in the examination of artistic ideas, the Fisher Center develops, produces, and presents performing arts across disciplines through new productions and context-rich programs that challenge and inspire.
Home is the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, designed by Frank Gehry and located on the campus of Bard College in New York's Hudson Valley. This world-class theater building will be complemented by a new studio building designed by Maya Lin, scheduled to open in 2026. More than 200 events and 50,000 visitors are hosted at the Fisher Center each year, and over 300 professional artists are employed annually. As a powerful catalyst of art-making regionally, nationally, and worldwide, the Fisher Center produces 8 to 10 major new works in various disciplines every year. The Fisher Center offers outstanding programs to many communities, including the students and faculty of Bard College, and audiences in the Hudson Valley, New York City, across the country, and around the world. Building on a 165-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow's thought leaders.
The Fisher Center was born from the Bard Music Festival, founded in 1990, which, for the first 13 years of its existence, occupied several spaces on campus, including a large tent. Each summer, the Music Festival focuses on the life, work, and influences of one composer, promoting new ways of understanding and presenting the history of music to a contemporary audience. When the Fisher Center and its two theaters opened in 2003, the summer festival expanded to include a fully staged opera, as well as theater and dance performances. The highly acclaimed opera program brings unjustly neglected works to the stage in major productions+mdash;often making their US debuts.
Through Fisher Center LAB, the Center's acclaimed residency and commissioning program, artists are provided with custom-made support toward their innovative projects and their work has been seen in over 100 communities around the world. Resident choreographer Pam Tanowitz's 2018 Four Quartets was recognized as +ldquo;the greatest creation of dance theater so far this century+rdquo; by The New York Times. In 2019, the Fisher Center won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical for Daniel Fish's production of Oklahoma!, which began life in 2007 as an undergraduate production at Bard and was produced professionally by the Fisher Center in 2015 before transferring to New York City. Illinoise, a 2023 Fisher Center world premiere from artists Sufjan Stevens, Justin Peck, and Jackie Sibblies Drury, was recognized with a Tony Award for Best Choreography following its tour and transfer to Broadway.
The Fisher Center is home to several of Bard's academic programs in the performing arts. Year-round, it hosts performances by the undergraduate Dance Program and Theater and Performance Program; the US-China Music Institute of the Bard College Conservatory of Music; The Orchestra Now (TŌN), a Bard graduate program that is training the next generation of classical-music ambassadors; and students at the Bard Conservatory, the first (and so far only) conservatory to require all its students to pursue a bachelor of arts degree in a field other than music in addition to their specialized music studies. As a hybrid institution, the Fisher Center brings together professional and academic art-making of the highest caliber, where student and professional artists work side by side, learning from each other and informing one another's practices.

ABOUT BARD COLLEGE
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place estate, Bard's campus consists of nearly 1,000 park-like acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in nearly 40 academic programs, graduate degrees in 11 programs, nine early colleges, and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 165-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal education. The undergraduate program at our main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow's thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.