8/9/2019 Objective, Skills & Accomplishments
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OBJECTIVE, SKILLS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS
My travels this past year in Hawaii and France have solidified
my passion towork for change in the food industry. Changing both
our attitudes towardsour daily meals and the systems that put food
on our plates each day is a
cause that has grown nearer and dearer to my heart with each
farmer that Ilearn from and each lovingly-prepared meal that I eat
with conscious,intelligent purveyors of the daily harvest. With my
return to my beautifulhome state this summer, I am searching for an
opportunity to make adifference in this new field; to combine both
my experience in fundraisingand my passion for sustainable food and
education.
Below are my skills and accomplishments from serving as the
DevelopmentDirector of the San Luis Obispo Symphony for 3
years:
Designing and implementing a $600,000 development plan
eachseason (roughly half of the organization's operating budget)
and managingstaff and board members to reach the the set
fundraising and developmentgoals
Writing over 30 grant proposals each year; I also aggressively
soughtnew grant opportunities and was able to secure funding from
new grantmaking agencies such as the Irvine Foundation and the
California ArtsCouncil
Managing a portfolio of over 700 individual donors each
season;coordinating solicitations through mail, personal visits and
phone calls;successfully encouraging many donors to increase their
gifts from season
to season through strategic expansion of their involvement in
theorganization and its mission
Helping to create a relational (and later maintaining)
Access-baseddonor database, greatly increasing both the amount of
information wewere able to track for each of our donors and patrons
and our ability tosuccessfully utilize that information for better
and more meaningfulinteractions
Corporate sponsorships were a special area of success and during
mytime with the organization; I was able to grow many of our larger
sponsorsby increasing their visibility at events and in
publications
Managing four special fundraising events each season, including
ablack tie gala and auction, annually bringing in over $100,000 in
oneevening; co-ordinating board and committee member involvement
toguarantee the events' presence and success in the community
Coordinating donor stewardship through regular
acknowledgementletters to individuals, personalized corporate
sponsorship packages anddonor appreciation events
During the economically challenging 2008/2009 season, area
non-
8/9/2019 Objective, Skills & Accomplishments
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OBJECTIVE, SKILLS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS
profits were reporting 15-20% shortfalls against their
fundraising anddevelopment budgets and up to 40% losses on their
special events.Through the careful coordinating of staff and
community members, the
Symphony made its special event goals for the year and reported
only a5% shortfall in donations goal in relation to its budget for
the season
