Head of Development (Maternity Cover)

Glyndebourne is one of the world’s leading opera companies. We produce opera of the very highest quality in a state-of-the-art opera house situated within a landscape of outstanding natural beauty.

In 2024, our 90th year, we welcomed close to 100,000 people to our acclaimed summer Festival: more than in any year since 2007. A further 30,000 will attend our Autumn season, whose principles are to platform emerging talent and to provide audiences an accessible route into opera. Our year-round Learning and Engagement programme focuses on two priorities: national talent development and local engagement with children and young people. Committed to artistic excellence, audience development, and accessibility, Glyndebourne continues to expand the reach and appreciation of opera for all.

The Festival has remained financially independent since its inception and is a registered charity that relies on box office income, memberships, and donations to fund its operations. 

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Development professional to cover our Head of Development and work with the Development team to maximise revenue generated from individual fundraising towards our overall objective. 

The Head of Development is responsible for the strategic and operational leadership of the fundraising team, overseeing day-to-day activities to ensure the smooth running of development operations. This role involves managing the Development Manager, Development Officer, Development Coordinator and a new Prospect Researcher position to drive fundraising success. You will work closely with the Director of Development to create and implement strategies for individual giving, ensuring the team operates efficiently and maximises output.

Key Tasks and Responsibilities

• Lead, manage, and develop a team of four staff members.
• Oversee all fundraising operations, including database management, donor research, middle gift fundraising, appeals and donor stewardship. Glyndebourne uses Tessitura.
• Foster a collaborative, professional, and results-driven environment.

• Manage and enhance the fundraising database to maintain accurate donor records and ensure seamless tracking of donations and donor activity through Moves Management.
• Provide reports on donor pipelines, financials, and trends to support fundraising efforts.
• Serve as the in-house expert on the fundraising database, overseeing the training of staff across the department.
• Ensure compliance with GDPR, data protection laws, and internal privacy notices.

• Manage a new Donor Research function to improve donor pipeline quality.
• Ensure timely, GDPR-compliant research briefings are provided to fundraisers.
• Oversee the creation and growth of this function, working with a new dedicated staff member.

• Ensure the effective management of middle gift programmes and giving circles to engage donors effectively.
• Plan and execute targeted appeals to support the Annual Fund, working closely with the Head of Communications and Head of Membership. 
• Develop messaging and strategies for these appeals, delivering them to the Director of Development for approval and implementation.

• Work with the Director of Development and Events Manager to deliver high-quality donor stewardship to donors and prospects across all levels of giving  and operational support and facilitation of the stewardship programme.

• Working with the Director of Development, ensure comprehensive fundraising communications are delivered in a planned way and the impact is assessed. 

• Maintain an up-to-date understanding of fundraising policies (Gift Acceptance, GDPR, Donor Recognition).
• Advise the Director of Development on necessary policy amendments and draft new policies as needed.
• Ensure all relevant staff receive effective training on fundraising systems, procedures, and policies.

• Collaborate with the Director of Development on the overall individual giving strategy.
• Manage and steward a small number of current major donors as Maternity cover.  

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• An outstanding and self–motivated individual with a proven track record of soliciting major individual gifts of £10,000 and above 
• Excellent interpersonal skills, able to develop relationships to the highest professional level 
• Excellent communication skills, able to adapt complex ideas and convey them to prospects, donors and colleagues
• Confidence in face to face negotiations
• Significant experience of hosting cultivation events at the highest level 
• Excellent project management and organisation skills with strong attention to detail and demonstrated analytical skills, with strong comfort with technology including fundraising databases (we use Tessitura)

This position will involve frequent off site business meetings and some unsociable hours including weekends and evenings during the Glyndebourne Festival, Autumn season and at other times of the year. The department offers a Time Off in Lieu scheme. 

Hours of work

The contractual hours of work are 35 per week but will involve some unsociable hours weekends and evenings during the Glyndebourne Festival, Autumn season and at other times of the year. We are ideally looking for a candidate who can work full-time, but we are open to discussing part-time working.

Salary and Benefits

We can offer a competitive salary. Salaries are reviewed annually on 1st January.

We offer 33 days (6.6 weeks) holiday per annum, pro rata, including public holidays. We also give additional non-contractual closure dates at Christmas.

We can offer a beautiful working environment, and the chance to see world-class opera.  For those without their own transport we have a free minibus service to and from Lewes railway station.

We also offer :

• Free Pilates and Zumba classes, once a week
• Corporate Gym memberships
• An onsite Physiotherapist
• Cost-price electric car charging
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Subsidised dining at our onsite restaurants
• Free tea and coffee
• Discount at the Glyndebourne shop
• Free on-site parking
• Free minibus service to and from Lewes train station and Glyndebourne
• Discount at various highstreet retailers through the Glyndebourne benefits hub

How to Apply

Glyndebourne is an Equal Opportunities Employer and a Registered Charity. We promote equality, diversity and inclusion in our workplace and actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply for vacancies, including ethnically diverse and disabled candidates, who are currently under-represented in our workforce.

To help us monitor the effectiveness of our commitment to diversity and inclusion and our supporting policies and procedures, we ask all job applicants to complete our anonymized and confidential Equal Opportunities monitoring form.

Please then apply by e-mail, sending your CV and covering letter to recruitment@glyndebourne.com Please note, candidates must be able to provide evidence of their right to work in the UK.

The closing date for applications is Sunday 30 March 2025

As a Disability Confident Employer, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for our vacancies. If relevant to you, please inform us of this in your covering letter. If you have any questions in relation to this please contact a member of the HR team at recruitment@glyndebourne.com. 

Glyndebourne commits to protecting your privacy. We will only use information about you in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and other relevant legislation and regulations. Please see more information in our Company Privacy Notice on our website.