Title: Development Data Manager

The Opportunity

Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation (The Foundation) was founded in 1987 to support arts education programming at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, which serves more than 35,000 students and their families with enriching arts-based education opportunities and professional development for more than 400 teachers across five counties. The Foundation is leading the vision to build a new Sarasota Performing Arts Center as a public-private partnership with the city and in collaboration with the Bay Park Conservancy and Van Wezel Hall. 

In fulfillment of this ambitious vision, the Foundation seeks a Development Data Manager (DDM) to lead prospect identification and database management. The ideal DDM will have a demonstrated knowledge of Tessitura, the Foundation’s CRM, with responsibility for training and providing training resources, system applications, and user resources to support end users. The candidate will build and manage the infrastructure for prospect identification and research to strategically diversify and increase the Foundation’s donor base locally, regionally, and nationally. 

As the development team’s expert in Tessitura, the DDM will oversee day-to-day operations and management of Tessitura, including timely gift processing, reports and visualizations, forecasting, dashboards and analytics, data hygiene, list production, and wealth screening. The successful candidate will lead best practices in Tessitura with a demonstrated track record of performing advanced data analysis tasks, developing data modeling and mining, and synthesizing complex data into compelling reports. The DDM will report to the Chief Development Officer. 

Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation has retained Freeman Philanthropic Services, LLC to assist on this critical recruitment. 

About Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation

Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation (The Foundation)’s mission is to create and sustain a vibrant performing arts campus, advance education, and enrich communities by inspiring minds through the power of the arts. The Foundation has raised over $17 million to date for the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall since 1987 to support arts education throughout the Sarasota region, serving more than 35,000 students and their families annually with enriching arts-based education opportunities and professional development for more than 400 teachers across five counties. The Foundation is leading the vision to build a new Sarasota Performing Arts Center as a public-private partnership with the city and in collaboration with the Bay Park Conservancy and Van Wezel Hall. 

The Foundation has a deep-rooted connection to Sarasota’s rich cultural history. In 1987, the Foundation entered a cultural partnership with the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall (The Hall) through its owner, the City of Sarasota. The Hall has served as a beloved performing arts center for over half a century – a home to international creative experiences and a springboard for the Foundation’s educational collaborations. 

In 2015, the Foundation began exploring the future of the performing arts in Sarasota during the Bayfront Master Plan process, a community-led effort to transform a 53-acre city-owned site into a community waterfront destination. The Foundation retained a national theater research and planning consultant to conduct a seminal study which revealed the long-term environmental and financial risks that face The Hall, concluding that it should be replaced with a state-of-the-art facility. 

Looking forward, the Foundation is committed to leading an anticipated $300 million capital project to build and operate a new performing arts center in a public-private partnership with the City of Sarasota. Following a six-month architect selection process, the Foundation has selected Renzo Piano Building Workshop to create the design of the new performing arts center, which will serve as a magnet destination for generations with the potential to impact and enrich communities across the state and country. The project’s vision statement is: 

Sarasota Performing Arts Center (SPAC) will celebrate community, culture, and nature. Our goals are to surprise and delight audiences, empower learners of every age, nurture innovative artists, and create shared experiences. We aspire to break down barriers of access to the arts – to be a performing arts center for all. 

The Foundation’s core values are: 

• Passion: The Foundation are inventive catalysts for artistic exploration. 

• Inclusivity: The Foundation seeks out diverse perspectives and fosters cultural equity across its programs. 

• Collaboration. The Foundation builds forward-thinking partnerships to extend the impact of its mission. 

• Stewardship. The Foundation operates with integrity and transparency to expand its rich history of culture-building and philanthropy. 

Leadership

For over twenty years, Tania Castroverde Moskalenko has been leading complex performing arts institutions and guiding them through strategic, financial, and operational turnarounds. At this moment of deep transformation for the arts and cultural sector, she is energized to bring her knowledge and experience in organizational transformation, strategic planning, capacity building, facility operations and expansion, fund development, capital campaigns, and community development, to lead the vision for a new performing arts center in Sarasota, FL. 

Previously, Castroverde Moskalenko served as Executive Director of Miami City Ballet where she launched and successfully completed a $65MM campaign, created MCB’s first DEI strategic plan, and laid the foundation that secured permanent dormitory space for the MCB School. 

Prior to that, Castroverde Moskalenko served as the CEO of Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre, a 4,000 seat National Historic Landmark, revitalizing the organization’s financial health through innovative programming and community partnerships, increased earned revenue, and expanded philanthropic support. In 2017, she was named 'Chicagoan of the Year for Dance' by the Chicago Tribune. Before that, she was President/CEO of the Center for the Performing Arts and the Great American Songbook Foundation in Indiana and also spent seven years as the Executive Director of the Germantown Performing Arts Centre in TN. 

Fluent in English and Spanish, Castroverde Moskalenko was raised in Miami where she and her family arrived as political refugees from Cuba when she was six years old. She has served on numerous panels including the National Endowment for the Arts. She holds a BFA from the University of Memphis, an MA in Philanthropy from Indiana University, and Executive Certifications from Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She serves on the Board of Directors of Philanthropy Miami. 

Board of Directors 

Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation’s Board of Directors is comprised of dedicated and engaged leaders committed to the Foundation’s mission, vision, and continued growth. The Board is a diverse group of corporate and finance professionals, and community leaders. 

For a complete list of the Board of Directors, please click here. 

Reporting Relationships

The DDM will report to the Chief Development Officer and collaborate with the Foundation’s finance team. The successful candidate will collaborate and establish protocols for data management with internal and external stakeholders, including Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, The Bay Park Conservancy, and the City of Sarasota. 

Responsibilities

The DDM will contribute broadly to all aspects of the fulfillment of Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation’s mission. The successful candidate will have Tessitura experience and the capacity and demonstrated track record in the following areas: 

• Manage prospect identification and research to strategically diversify and grow the Foundation’s donor base locally, regionally, and nationally; 

• Serve as the development team’s expert in Tessitura with responsibility for training and supporting end users and providing training resources, system applications, and user resources to support members of the development team; 

• Build and lead the infrastructure for prospect identification using Tessitura to support the Foundation’s development team in achieving its revenue goals; 

• Oversee the timely and accurate processing of philanthropic gifts and grants and ensure all donors are acknowledged within 24 to 48 hours; 

• Oversee the creation and distribution of financial reports and data visualizations for the development team; 

• With Chief Development Officer, lead the process to forecast and prepare revenue budgets; 

• Manage the development department’s list pulling and data extraction needs for solicitation letters, invitations, newsletters, program listings, performance seating books, internal reports, and more;

• Collaborate with Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall on data management between Tessitura and the Hall’s ticketing software, which currently is ProVenue; 

• Create dashboards and maximize the use of Tessitura Analytics;

• Oversee wealth screenings and data appends and work to build the department’s data-mining capacity to ensure portfolio managers have additional prospects to cultivate; 

• Reconcile funds monthly with the Finance Department; 

• Lead data hygiene and ensure the development team is following best practices as it relates to gift entry, contact reports, constituent codes, and event attendance tracking; and ensure compliance with Internal Revenue Service regulations, federal and state laws, Donor Bill of Rights, and Association of Fundraising Professionals’ guidelines and standards for reporting and gift acceptance. 

Experience and Attributes

In addition to the demonstrated ability to meet and exceed the responsibilities listed in the preceding section, the successful DDM will possess the following experience and attributes: 

• Commitment to Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation’s vision, values, and mission; 

• Collaborative and transparent team player with a creative manner of approaching issues and devising sound solutions based on good judgment and collaboration; 

• Results-oriented professional with a demonstrated ability to manage and further build a complex donor database; 

• Must have demonstrated competence performing simple to advanced data analysis tasks; 

• Proven ability to develop and implement management information tools, data mining, and data modeling that produce actionable findings; 

• Ability to extract and synthesize development data to create compelling prospect and events lists, reports, and visualizations using SQL and Power BI; 

• Strategic, yet tactical, with the ability to understand and synthesize the Foundation’s database at both a macro and micro level; 

• Strong communication skills (writing, proofreading, speaking, presentation, and listening) and keen attention to detail, with the ability to effectively communicate with all levels of the organization; 

• Commitment to the highest standards of professionalism and best fundraising practices; 

• Knowledge of FASB rules and regulations helpful; and 

• Bachelor’s degree and Tessitura experience required. 

Compensation and Benefits

The compensation and benefits package will be competitive and commensurate with the selected candidate’s background and experience.

Confidential Inquiries and How to Apply 

Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation has retained Freeman Philanthropic Services, LLC to assist on this recruitment. FPS is a national leader in executive recruitment for the not-for-profit sector and brings a proven track record of recruiting top talent to diverse institutions. 

Please send all inquiries, applications, and nominations directly to FPS via email at SarasotaPerformingArtsDDM@glfreeman.com. 

All applications must include: (1) an up-to-date resume; and (2) a formal letter of interest (addressed to Gail L. Freeman, President of FPS) that specifically cites the experiences that best prepare the applicant for this role and why this particular opportunity at Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation is the logical and desired next step in their career. Additional materials and information will be requested during the search and interview process.