The Bach Festival Society of Winter Park (Bach)

Established in 1935, Bach is considered a cultural gem in Central Florida and specifically Winter Park. Bach has produced high quality classical music with a focus on choral driven works with a 200-person choir and a full orchestra for over 90 years. Bach has also in recent years significantly expanded its mission scope. Bach now hosts the National Oratorio Competition, a competition for high school choirs, a professional chamber choir, as well as numerous other student/educational and senior engagement programs. Bach is also the choir of choice for world-famous orchestras touring Central Florida, most recently performing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The Bach Festival Society is now well positioned to capitalize on these many efforts, both longstanding and new, to grow its visibility, recognition, reputation and its donor base.

Position Overview

The Director of Development will spearhead institutional fundraising and individual giving strategies to support the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park’s mission to inspire the human spirit through the many activities listed above.

This role manages the end-to-end grant lifecycle and donor cultivation efforts that fund an expansive 8-month performance season of choral and orchestral masterworks, the annual Bach Festival, world-class visiting artists, and vital K-12 community education programs.

Working from our administrative offices in Winter Park, Florida, this position balances persuasive educational and historical storytelling about classical traditions and contemporary choral collaborations with meticulous database management.

• Job Type: Full-Time, Exempt
• Salary Range: $70,000 + (commensurate with experience)
• Quarterly Bonus Opportunity: Tied to meeting or exceeding fundraising goals
• Location: Winter Park, FL

Core Responsibilities

1. Grant Writing & Institutional Funding

• Prospect Research: Identify and cultivate new foundation, corporate, and government grant opportunities at local, state (e.g., Florida Division of Arts and Culture), and national levels.
• Proposal Development: Write and submit compelling grant funding proposals detailing our mainstage choral-orchestral programming, contemporary compositions, educational programs, and funding requests for outreach initiatives like the Fresh StARTs school program.
• Compliance & Reporting: Monitor grant execution and applicable grant-related spending, track operational metrics (ticket sales, demographic reach, student engagement), and submit thorough final reports to the institutional funders.

2. Individual Giving & Donor Stewardship

• Campaign Management: Execute individual donor-funding requests, including seasonal campaigns and specialized initiatives like the Continuo Society (multi-year giving).
• Donor Relations: Draft timely, personalized acknowledgment letters, tax receipts, and stewardship communications for a dedicated patron base.
• Major Gift Support: Prepare briefing materials and pipelines to assist leadership with major-donor cultivation and individual concert sponsorships.
• Board Engagement: Provide fundraising progress dashboards for the Board of Trustees’ demonstrating development activities.

3. Database Operations & Event Support

• CRM Management: Maintain database integrity by tracking all donations, donation pledges, the resulting campaign results, and names of personal institutional pipelines.
• Financial Reconciliation: Partner with the Bach finance team to ensure accurate reconciliation between the donor database and accounting records.
• Special Events: Support the planning and execution of donor-cultivation receptions and festival gatherings. Support the planning and execution of an inaugural annual gala/major fundraising event.

Qualifications & Skills

Required Education & Experience

• Professional Experience: Minimum 3 years of non-profit fundraising, grant-source development, or grant writing experience.
• Proven Track Record: Demonstrated success securing four-, five- and six- figure grants from institutional and/or government funders. Demonstrated success in individual and private foundation fundraising in the five-, six- and seven- figure range.
• Technical Skills: Experience managing non-profit CRM/donor databases (e.g., Salesforce, PatronManager, Neon CRM, or similar record-keeping tools).

Core Competencies

• Musical Affinity: Strong appreciation for classical music, and symphonic repertoire. Ability to articulately advocate for both historical masterworks and modern programming.
• Communication: Superior written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to tailor messages for corporate sponsors, private family foundations, and individual long-term patrons.
• Project Management: Highly organized self-starter capable of managing professional staff, overlapping grant deadlines, and multi-day festival events.