ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION
The Parthenon and Centennial Park have been essential parts of Nashville’s fabric for more than a century. Over 3 million people visit the Park and Parthenon annually, and as a nonprofit support organization working in partnership with Metro Parks, Centennial Park Conservancy is committed to our mission of preserving, enhancing, and sharing these Nashville treasures to serve current and future generations. The organization is responsible for a variety of initiatives focused on caring for the Park and maintaining its vibrancy. Centennial Park Conservancy has several areas of focus, including:
Centennial Park Revitalization – a public and private partnership with Metro Parks to revitalize Nashville’s central park to serve our residents and visitors; achieved through capital improvements projects, the Centennial Park Beautification Fund, Sylvia Rapoport Future Fund, and Parthenon Preservation Fund
The Parthenon – a full-scale replica of the Grecian monument that operates as an engaging museum, presenting humanities exhibitions and educational programming for over 300K visitors annually
Musicians Corner – an outdoor music series attended by 80K people annually that presents free, diverse, and accessible live music for all
Kidsville – an educational program that serves over 70K children (ages 2-12) annually and provides free activities in the Parthenon, and Metro Parks Community Centers across the city
Nashville Earth Day – the city’s official event attended by 12K people to celebrate and protect our environment. The program also providing grants for 10+ environmental project annually
ABOUT THE POSITION
Centennial Park Conservancy is 3 years into a 7-year strategic plan to significantly expand our support of the Park and Parthenon. We are hiring a Director of Donor Engagement (Major Gifts) to work collaboratively with the VP of Development & Park Partnerships and President to lead the organization’s major gifts program. Reporting to the VP of Development & Park Partnerships, the Director of Donor Engagement (Major Gifts) is responsible for implementing Centennial Park Conservancy’s individual major giving strategy, including donor identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.
The Director of Donor Engagement (Major Gifts) serves as the front-line fundraising professional responsible for meeting with donors to secure major gifts, legacy gifts, and capital project contributions, and is responsible for leading our individual donor fundraising activities. Since 2022, CPC has sunset a major fundraising Gala and launched two donor affinity groups: Centennial Circle and Leadership Circle. The Director of Donor Engagement (Major Gifts) will oversee the growth of individual donor income from our Leadership Circle, Centennial Circle, memberships to significantly increase annual revenue over the next several years and expand our financial support of the Park and Parthenon. The position is based in Nashville, Tennessee. We are currently working in a hybrid remote and in-office schedule.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Director of Donor Engagement (Major Gifts) will have the following primary responsibilities:
- Implement CPC’s comprehensive multi-year individual giving fundraising strategy focused on long-term growth and including generating income from donors, members, major gifts, planned giving, and capital project giving
- Help the organization continue to transition from away from an events-based fundraising strategy to a more personalized major gifts approach, and ensure existing donor retention while focusing on growing our base of major supporters
- Create and implement a donor identification and engagement strategy to identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward donors in an effort to grow our donor base, increase donor retention, and strengthen our relationships with donors
- Make major donor asks and take donor meetings regularly to successfully secure contributions to CPC
- Create and implement an annual individual giving calendar for the organization, including donor engagement events and campaigns.
- Assist in overseeing CPC membership program strategy that retains and grows our member base and revenue. The Development Manager at CPC implements and fulfills the membership program, while this position works hand in hand to determine portfolios designations and strategy.
- Assist with event planning and management of key donor engagement events including Centennial Circle Dinner, the Leadership Circle Reception, Donor & Member Appreciation Day, Arbor Day Walk, and other events as needed.
- Participate in the annual partner thank you reception (Gratitude Gathering) and assist with ECHO Chamber Music events as needed.
- Maintain portfolio activity and key donor data in the organization’s CRM database SalesForce, including ongoing communicating progress on KPIs.
- Work with the VP of Development to create and implement a Board giving strategy and engage Board Members in fundraising
- Serve as a member of the Development Committee and collaborate with volunteers on donor solicitations.
- Collaborate with the VP of Development, Directors of Institutional Giving, and Corporate Partnerships Manager on the identification and engagement of potential corporate and foundation partners; assist in solicitation of foundation and corporate partnership asks as needed
- Collaborate with Programing department to engage event attendees, generate donations at events, and help to convert event visitors into donors
- Collaborate with Parthenon colleagues to engage visitors, generate donations at the museum, and help to convert visitors into donors
- Collaborate with Marketing department on campaigns and donors communications
