Senior Manager – Philanthropy & Membership, Scottish Opera

Scottish Opera is Scotland’s national opera company and the country’s largest performing arts organisation. Founded in 1962 to make opera accessible to all, the company presents productions of international acclaim, from early works to world premieres. Performances are designed to be inclusive, with supertitles, audio-described and dementia-friendly shows, free and discounted tickets for under-26s, refugees, asylum seekers and schools, and touring productions reaching communities across Scotland. The charity is looking for an experienced fundraiser to lead the team who look after donors across philanthropy, corporate, members and legators whilst the substantiative post holder is on maternity leave.  

Internally this role is called Head of Individual Giving, the job title has been reframed for this recruitment process to reflect the broader remit of the role beyond solely regular donors.

The post holder will, in conjunction with the Director of Development, set Scottish Operas Individual Giving strategy and will personally solicit gifts and steward key donors, whilst supporting and overseeing the work of the Individual Giving team. 

There are some fantastic projects in the works that Scottish Opera can use to engage donors, and there is brilliant internal buy in and understanding of fundraising. Income performance is strong, so there are solid foundations from which to test and trial new ideas.  

This role has wide ranging appeal. Scottish Opera are happy to consider candidates for whom this role might be an exciting step up to managing multiple income streams beyond one specialist area, but equally this would be an engaging role for an experienced Head of looking to work in an exciting arts charity, taking their income success to the next level.  

Working within an arts and culture charity would be helpful for the candidate to have but isn’t essential.