Jobs in Development/Fundraising for theatre

[the.hard.part]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 11:23am

I am kind of interested in this type of work and was just wondering if anyone is in the field that could offer some insight, or if anyone had any idea of what kind of money you make with that type of position.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 2:18pm

TCG (Theatre Communications Group) publishes a monthly job listing called Artsearch. It comes in an on-line edition as well. It is also not all that cheap. The good news is that often libraries or universities will subscribe and you can look at it for free.

Thre are all sorts of job openings at member theatres all across the country listed there including development. Salary ranges are often included.

Learn how to write foundation grant requests. That you can do if you intern somewhere. Call your nearby regional theatres and see if they will take on a part-time intern this coming academic year. Grant writing isn't all that hard although it is sometimes time-consuming and more often just dull.

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 2:26pm

You should also make an account with nyfa.org which has a large job listing section.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 2:27pm

some organizations might list openings on idealist.org. I know I've seen Playwright's Horizons there, and I'm sure there have been others.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 8/21/09 at 2:32pm

Insight: intern. Learn, get experience with as many different kinds of things under the "development" umbrella that you can -- from grant writing and donor outreach to event planning. You will probably need to do at least one solid internship before you'll find a job, though. Places to look that haven't already been mentioned: Idealist.org. You need to sign up for an account to view search results, but it's free.

ETA: looks like we posted at the same time. :)

Updated On: 8/21/09 at 02:32 PM

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 12:20am

You may also want to hit up Progressive Exchange just to see what they have to say.

http://www.progressiveexchange.org/welcome.htm

[Katecab99]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 10:43am

The best advice I got was to land an entry-level job or internship in fundraising/development anywhere you can, because the basics are generally the same. I've been working in development in a non-profit cancer organization for the past two years, but have done alot of volunteer work in the arts to try to gain experience in both areas.

Idealist is a great place to start - you might also want to scan playbill.com jobs as well as nyfa.org (if you're in ny).