Development Manager

Bring your major gifts and sponsorship expertise to Central Florida’s flagship art museum as it begins its next century: an on-site, senior fundraising role in Orlando, reporting directly to the CEO.

Founded in 1924, the Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) is the region’s flagship independent art museum and an American Alliance of Museums–accredited institution, located in Orlando’s Loch Haven Park. Its collection of more than 3,300 works spans Contemporary Art, American Art, African Art, and the Art of the Ancient Americas. OMA welcomes more than 150,000 visitors each year and reaches thousands more through education, outreach, and community programs. Its mission is simple and ambitious: to stimulate creativity and intellectual curiosity by connecting people from all backgrounds and experiences with compelling art and new ideas.

OMA is seeking a Development Manager to help strengthen and grow the Museum’s fundraising program at an important point in its development. Reporting to the Executive Director and CEO and working closely with senior staff, you’ll take a hands‑on role in securing major gifts, corporate sponsorships, and planned gifts. You’ll manage a portfolio of major donors and prospects and help formalize the systems that support sustainable, long‑term fundraising growth. This is an opportunity for a development professional who brings both strong relationship‑building skills and the organisation, initiative, and follow‑through to turn relationships into lasting support.

What You’ll Do

• Develop and execute a comprehensive major gifts strategy to meet and exceed annual fundraising goals
• Build and actively manage a portfolio of major donor prospects and supporters
• Identify and qualify new prospects; cultivate, solicit, and steward individual donors with major gift capacity, with emphasis on increasing gift levels over time
• Partner with the Executive Director and CEO on donor strategies, prospect engagement, solicitation plans, and stewardship
• Schedule and coordinate donor visits, cultivation meetings, and solicitation activities for Museum leadership
• Conduct prospect research and maintain accurate donor records, cultivation plans, solicitation strategies, and call reports in the donor database

Corporate Sponsorships

• Develop and grow corporate sponsorship revenue for exhibitions, educational initiatives, community programs, and Museum operations
• Identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward corporate partners and sponsors regionally and nationally
• Create compelling sponsorship packages and benefits that align corporate objectives with Museum programs and strategic priorities

Donor Relations & Stewardship

• Oversee donor recognition, stewardship, and relationship management programs that ensure meaningful donor experiences and long‑term engagement
• Develop cultivation and recognition opportunities, including donor receptions and stewardship gatherings
• Prepare timely donor communications, acknowledgments, solicitation correspondence, and impact reporting
• Maintain regular personal engagement with donors to strengthen relationships and increase philanthropic support

Strategic Leadership & Operations

• Collaborate with the Executive Director and CEO to set annual and long‑range fundraising goals and strategies
• Develop and maintain development systems, procedures, calendars, and processes
• Prepare periodic fundraising reports for leadership and reconcile giving records with the Accounting Department
• Work with marketing and communications staff to represent development priorities in Museum communications
• Stay informed on best practices in museum fundraising, sponsorship development, and donor engagement
• Represent the Museum at community, philanthropic, and business functions

What You Bring

You’re professional, confident, and relationship-oriented: a self‑motivated, results‑driven strategic thinker who executes effectively. You’re highly organized with strong follow‑through, positive and adaptable, and you bring diplomacy, discretion, and sound judgment to every interaction. You communicate with excellence in writing, in conversation, and in front of a room, and you work collaboratively with donors, trustees, volunteers, community leaders, and staff.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of progressively responsible fundraising experience
• Demonstrated success securing and managing major gifts
• Demonstrated success securing and managing corporate sponsorships
• Experience developing and implementing donor cultivation and stewardship strategies that produce measurable fundraising results
• Experience working with executive leadership, boards, volunteers, and community stakeholders
• Experience with donor databases
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree
• Fundraising experience within a museum, arts, cultural, educational, or nonprofit organization
• Experience with Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge
• Location: Orlando Museum of Art, Loch Haven Park, Orlando, FL
• Workplace: On-site, full‑time
• Reports to: Executive Director and CEO
• Schedule: Occasional evening and weekend work for museum events and donor activities; some local travel
• Benefits: Group health insurance, plus access to a cafeteria plan and 401(k) after two months of employment; seven paid holidays per year; paid time off accrued weekly from the date of hire (see OMA Personnel Policies for details)

ThinkingAhead Executive Search is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to a work environment that supports, inspires and respects all individuals. Personnel processes are merit‑based and applied without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, age, disability, national or ethnic ancestry, military service status, citizenship, or other protected characteristic. This applies to every aspect of employment including hiring, training, advancement and termination. The firm is committed to creating a just culture of diversity, equity and inclusion by practicing, within the company and the marketplace we serve, intentional strategies that serve marginalized individuals and groups.