Chautauqua Institution is seeking an innovative and collaborative development professional to serve as a
Major Gifts Officer. Reporting to the Associate Vice President of Advancement (AVP) and working closely
with the Advancement leadership team, Institution President, Foundation Executive Director, and program
partners, the incumbent is responsible for the discovery of new donors, cultivating current donors, and
reengaging lapsed constituents

The successful candidate will be a high-energy, intellectually curious, and broad thinker who has a proven history of closing five- and six-figure gifts. In addition, the candidate will be comfortable immersing themselves in the Chautauqua community and believe strongly in their mission, representing the Institution with great pride and growing their development team as the Institution celebrates its milestone anniversary.

Chautauqua Institution
In May 2019, Chautauqua Institution’s Board of Trustees approved an ambitious new strategic plan titled, 150 Forward. The plan is comprised of four key objectives: optimize the summer assembly season on the grounds; expand Chautauqua’s convening authority year-round to broaden impact beyond the summer assembly season; drive the implementation of a comprehensive, science-based approach to improving the health and sustainability of the lake; and grow and diversify revenue to fund Chautauqua’s future. These goals are further informed by cross-cutting imperatives including the development and growth of strategic partnerships, mobilization of technology, and viewing all work through the lens of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA). One major initiative currently underway to support this work is the hiring of the Institution’s first Chief Diversity Officer. This visionary plan will position the Institution to further its mission of exploring the best in human values and strengthen its origin as a national movement that convenes people for civil dialogue.

In 2020, facing a global pandemic, the Board unanimously voted to suspend all in-person programming on Chautauqua’s physical grounds. This catapulted the goals of Objective 2 of the strategic plan — broadening impact beyond the summer assembly season — to the forefront of the Institution’s work much sooner than anticipated. Over the course of only seven weeks, Chautauqua created CHQ Assembly, a collection of five digital properties that embody the online expression of its mission. This expansive online program offers year-round access to lectures, artistic experiences, master and enrichment courses, and conversations, and resulted in 2020 becoming the baseline from which Chautauqua’s presence outside the gates, and beyond the summer assembly season, is expanded and refined.

Education: Self-improvement through lifelong learning was at the heart of the impulse that motivated the Americans who founded Chautauqua in 1874. That tradition continues today with iconic morning and afternoon lecture platforms, continuing education courses, the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle international reading community, writers in residence, and public library. Chautauqua’s Special Studies program provides classes and other educational programs for the 10,000 lifelong learners who enroll in courses each summer. More than 300 teachers create a diverse assortment of courses for youth and adults, and those seeking inter-and multi-generational learning and enrichment experiences.

The Arts: As a community, Chautauqua celebrates, encourages, and studies the arts and treats them as integral to all learning. With symphony, opera, theater, dance, and visual arts programs, and pre-professional schools in voice, music, art, dance, and theater, Chautauqua produces an unparalleled range and depth of arts programming paired with opportunities for engagement with professional and pre-professional artists and performers.

Religion: At Chautauqua, religious faith is perceived, interpreted, and experienced as central to the understanding and expression of our social and cultural values. Chautauqua is a community that is open to individuals of all faiths and none, with a wide variety of services of worship and programs that express the Institution’s Christian heritage and its interfaith commitment.

Recreation: Chautauqua embraces recreation and a balanced, healthy lifestyle as essential to the Chautauqua experience. The beautiful lakeside setting amplifies nature’s many gifts with world-class recreational amenities, along with an eclectic array of quiet places to kick back and relax. Opportunities include sailing, boating, fishing, and swimming on Chautauqua Lake as well as a 36-hole golf course, fast-dry and hard-surface tennis courts, playing fields, playgrounds, and fitness centers.

The Major Gifts Officer
The Major Gifts is a front-line fundraising role primarily responsible for identifying, cultivating, and soliciting leadership donors and for building and strengthening philanthropic resources for Chautauqua Institution.

Major Responsibilities:

• Identify and manage a portfolio of qualified major donors and prospects; set and conduct solicitation strategies. Major gift defined as $50,000 and above.
• Maintain and build a portfolio of 100–120 major gift donors and prospects.
• Manage defined pipeline of new and retained donors through meaningful interactions and appropriate relationship-building steps to increase individual giving.
• Actively Identify top relationships within a portfolio to determine specific donor interests and deepen their connection to the organization.
• Collaborate with prospect research team to enhance relationships.
• Participate and strategize with MOVES management team for all major gift donors and prospects.
• Articulate the case for support through oral and written means to engage and encourage donor financial support.
• Engage in 10-15 meaningful contacts each week, including face-to-face or video visits, email, phone calls, etc.
• Develope written proposals and other donor communications as needed.

Administrative

• Work with AVP to coordinate activities among Advancement, Institution leadership, and program staff to ensure fundraising efforts are cooperative.
• Document donor contacts in Raiser’s Edge and provide regular reports on activity.
  Participate in donor events as needed.
  Stay up to date on current trends in philanthropy; engage in training as appropriate

Qualifications:

Qualities:

• Analytical – adept at using quantitative and qualitative assessments to draw conclusions.
• Articulate – strong oral and written communication skills.
• Collaborative – encourages a participative process and works well in teams.
• Goal-oriented – seeks to accomplish specific outcomes, begins with the end in mind.
• Self-confident – trusts own judgment, able to act decisively.
• Professional – appropriate demeanor, attention to detail, and maintenance of strict confidentiality.

Skills:

• Successful solicitation of major gifts of $100,000 or more.
• Experience developing and structuring major gifts.
• Capital/comprehensive campaign gift cultivation and solicitation experience.
• Ability to interact effectively with volunteers, leadership, and program partners.
• Ability to oversee multiple projects and quickly discern complex and competing interests.
• High degree of initiative and ability to motivate and engage high-level volunteers and donors.
• Demonstrated ability to work with high degree of autonomy and accountability and to be a team player.
• Excellent time management skills.
• Requires significant travel, adhering to current CDC/Institution pandemic restrictions and policies;
• presence on the grounds of Chautauqua Institution throughout nine-week summer assembly; and attendance at weekend/evening events.

Required Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• Five to eight years of experience in prospect management, donor cultivation, and solicitation.
• CFRE preferred but not required.
• Experience with Raiser’s Edge or other CRM software and Microsoft Office Suite.

Philanthropy Overview
Since its founding in 1874, the Institution has provided an unparalleled intergenerational experience that mixes artistic, intellectual, and spiritual energies. In 2016, the Institution successfully completed the single-largest campaign in its history. The Promise campaign, launched in 2011, exceeded its original goal of $98.2 million for a total of $103.5 million. The signature prize from this campaign is the $42 million Chautauqua Amphitheater.

Now, as Chautauquan’s prepare to celebrate the Institution’s 150th anniversary, they stand as deeply committed as ever to their founding roots and to preserving the treasure in their care. They look ahead more eagerly than ever to explore new ways of bringing their founding mission to life. To that end, Chautauqua will launch a significant comprehensive campaign. To view the 2020 Annual Report, click here.

In 2021, the Advancement team successfully raised more than $26 million in annual and major gifts and pledges to support Institution programs. Chautauqua Foundation confirmed planned gift commitments exceeding $18 million, and the endowment now stands at more than $132 million with 850 individual funds. To view the 2020 Report on Philanthropy, click here.

History of Chautauqua Institution
Chautauqua Institution is a National Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is a nonprofit, 750-acre educational and cultural center on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York State, where approximately 7,500 persons are in residence on any day during a nine-week summer season.

Approximately 300 students each summer enroll in the Institution’s Schools of Fine and Performing Arts (pre-professional training). An education program akin to adult education classes at the local community college called Special Studies enrolls approximately 5,000 unique individuals who take about 10,000 classes annually.

Chautauqua Institution, originally the Chautauqua Lake Sunday School Assembly, was founded in 1874 as an educational experiment in out-of-school, vacation learning. It was successful and broadened almost immediately beyond courses for Sunday school teachers to include academic subjects, music, art, and physical education.

While founders Lewis Miller and John Heyl Vincent were Methodists, other Protestant denominations participated from the first year onward, and today Chautauqua continues to be interfaith in spirit and practice. Chautauqua's Department of Religion presents distinguished religious leaders of all faiths from the United States and abroad as preachers and teachers, and the Institution’s future focus lays in interfaith work under the direction of the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, retired Bishop of New Hampshire.

The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC) was started in 1878 to provide those who could not afford the time or money to attend college to acquire the skills and essential knowledge of a college education. The four-year correspondence course was one of the first attempts at distance learning and soon was established throughout the country and, in time, around the world. It continues today as one of the oldest and strongest literary clubs in the nation; Chautauqua has added to its literary portfolio two national literary prizes, which are awarded annually.

By 1880 the Chautauqua platform had established itself as a national forum for open discussion of public issues, international relations, literature, and science. Approximately 100 lecturers appear at Chautauqua during a season, and those who have graced its iconic stage include U.S. Presidents, other heads of state, key legislative leaders, and those at the pinnacle of thought leadership in the arts, science, religion, medicine, and culture.

Music became increasingly important at Chautauqua as the Institution entered the 20th century. A symphony orchestra season became part of the regular program in 1920. The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1929, now performs thrice weekly with leading soloists in the 4,400-seat Amphitheater, Chautauqua's preeminent program center. Popular entertainers perform other evenings. Ballet companies, with representations of contemporary and classical ballet, also appear in the Amphitheater, sometimes with guest artists, while the Chautauqua Theater Company presents its season in Bratton Theater. The Chautauqua Opera Company, also founded in 1929, performs in Norton Hall.

Chautauqua plays a unique educational role today, offering studies on a vacation level, a more serious level, and a professional level. In addition, there are enhanced learning opportunities within Chautauqua's other programming. Music, the arts, religion, recreation, and the pursuit of knowledge are all available. Younger and older students often share learning experiences in an open, congenial atmosphere. Children and young people are also provided with their own special programs.
Chautauqua Institution is governed by a 24-member Board of Trustees that establishes the policies and direction of the Institution, electing the officers who are responsible for the operation of the Institution.

Other historic points of interest include:

• Chautauqua has been visited by United States presidents from Ulysses S. Grant to Bill Clinton and by other prominent Americans including Booker T. Washington, Helen Keller, Amelia Earhart, Margaret Mead, Karl Menninger, Kurt Vonnegut, Sandra Day O’Connor, and Ken Burns.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his “I Hate War” speech from the Amphitheater platform in 1936.
• Ronald Reagan addressed the Third General Chautauqua Conference on U.S.-Soviet Relations via satellite in 1987.
• Carlos Roberto Reina, president of Honduras, was the first foreign sitting head of state to visit Chautauqua. He spoke during the Second Chautauqua Conference on Central America in 1995.
• Thomas Edison was the son-in-law of Chautauqua co-founder Lewis Miller.
• George Gershwin completed his Concerto in F in a Chautauqua practice shack in 1925.
• Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, founded in 1878, is one of the oldest continuous book clubs in the United States.
• The 152-room Athenaeum Hotel, built in 1881, was one of the first hotels to be lit by electricity, thanks to Thomas Edison, who was married to the daughter of the Institution’s co-
  founder.
• Chautauqua’s Boys’ and Girls’ Club is the oldest day camp in the United States.
• The Chautauqua Opera Company, founded in 1929, is the oldest continuously performing summer opera company in the United States.

Leadership
Michael E. Hill
President

Selected as the 18th President of Chautauqua Institution on Nov. 4, 2016, Michael E. Hill began his work at Chautauqua on Jan. 1, 2017, and immediately set about ushering in a fresh, expanded vision for the 145-year-old Institution with an emphasis on building its brand and thought leadership, expanding civil dialogue in the nation, an evolution to year-round programming, and engagement beyond Chautauqua's physical grounds.

Prior to his appointment at Chautauqua, Hill served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Youth for Understanding USA, dramatically expanding and diversifying programs. He co-led a historic civil-rights trip to Cuba with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., at the invitation of Mariela Castro, two weeks before diplomatic relations were restored between the United States and the island nation. An international educator, he has served as a panelist and speaker on issues surrounding international education and exchange.

Prior to joining YFU, Hill served as Senior Vice President of External Affairs for United Cerebral Palsy. In that role, he led international public education, fundraising, communications, marketing, and branding efforts for one of the world’s largest healthcare charities. Hill led national development, communications, and volunteer efforts for Washington National Cathedral as Executive Director for External Relations and held a similar role at the Washington Ballet.

Hill holds a Bachelor’s in journalism from St. Bonaventure and a Master’s in arts and cultural management from Saint Mary's University of Minnesota. It was in his early life as a journalist, having graduated from journalism school in nearby Allegany, NY, where he first became a part of the Chautauqua community as an editor and reporter for the Institution’s daily newspaper.

George L. (“Geof”) Follansbee, Jr.
Senior Vice President and Chief Advancement Officer

Geof Follansbee is the Senior Vice President of Advancement and Chief Advancement Officer at Chautauqua Institution, a position he has held since 2004. Until 2019, he also served as the CEO of the Chautauqua Foundation. In 2016, Follansbee and the Chautauqua Foundation helped Chautauqua Institution successfully complete the single-largest campaign in its history, the Promise campaign.

Prior to joining the Chautauqua Foundation, Follansbee served as Assistant Dean for Development and Alumni Relations at University of Michigan Law School. There, he oversaw the development, alumni relations, and communications programs. He also managed the dean’s fundraising agenda and was responsible for a portfolio of major gift prospects.

Before he arrived at University of Michigan Law School, Follansbee was Assistant Head for Advancement at the Williston Northampton School, a boarding day school, and prior to that served as Assistant Dean for Development and Alumni Affairs, at Marshall-Wythe School of Law, the College of William and Mary — the very first full-time development officer in the history of the Law School.

Follansbee holds a juris doctorate from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University.

Jennifer Stitely
Associate Vice President of Advancement

Jennifer Stitely joined Chautauqua in 2019 as Director of Gift Planning and now, as Associate Vice President of Advancement, leads the individual fundraising and donor relations team to solicit and steward philanthropic support for Chautauqua’s “150 Forward” strategic plan and upcoming comprehensive campaign.

Prior to joining Chautauqua, Stitely was the Divisional Director of Planned Giving for the National Capital and Virginia Division of the Salvation Army, where she successfully led a remote team of associates responsible for securing more than $20 million in
planned gift commitments. Throughout her career, Stitely has held varying roles including leading annual and major giving programs and participating in multiple comprehensive campaigns.

Stitely attained her Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) designation in October 2010 and the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy (CAP) designation in 2021. She is a proud member of several professional associations, including the National Association of Charitable Gift Planners and Advisors in Philanthropy, and is on the board of National Capital Gift Planning Council, where she is chairing this year’s Planned Giving Days Conference. She received her Bachelor of Arts in music performance from Towson University. She lives in Maryland and works in Chautauqua’s Washington, D.C., office.

Chautauqua, New York

Chautauqua is a town and lake resort community in Chautauqua County, NY, with a population of about 4,500. It is located less than three hours from Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Niagara Falls, and Toronto, and an easy drive from Buffalo and Erie.
With four seasons, an elevation ranging from 500 to 2,000 feet above sea level, and five lakes including Chautauqua Lake, western New York’s largest inland lake, Chautauqua County offers plenty of outdoor recreation. Magnificent views and undisturbed landscapes can readily be found while hiking, cycling, birding, trail riding, snowmobiling, and cross-country skiing.