Roundabout Theatre Company is a nonprofit organization: it is a mission-driven organization that serves the public good, and while it pays employees, it does not generate a profit for shareholders. Like many nonprofits, Roundabout does not earn enough income to support the work it does, so it relies on its development department to find additional sources of support.
“The sole function of a development department is to build relationships with generous donors who basically will provide either short-term or long-term support for the continuing programming of the organization,” Spencer Moon, Roundabout’s Development Manager, explained. “For us at Roundabout, we have a huge education department. Most of the money that is needed for education is provided through fundraising. [The money we raise] goes a long way to supporting our education programs and our desire to produce new works that often come with great financial risk for us as an organization. The only way that we're able to do that is because of the work that development and fundraising does.”
What Does a Development Department Do?
There are three major parts of a development department: foundations and government, individual giving, and special events. The foundation and government team researches, applies for, and manages grants from the government and private foundations that support the arts. Those who work in this part of development must “understand what's happening in the Education Department and be able to communicate it in a very eloquent way that encourages organizations to continue to support us or support us for the first time,” Moon said.
The individual giving team manages relationships with individual donors, both those who support Roundabout at high levels, as well as those who donate small amounts. People “oftentimes purchase a ticket to one of our shows and like what we're doing and what our mission is and want to support us in whatever capacity that they're able to,” Moon explained. Those who work in individual giving focus on continuously building connections with these donors. They use Tessitura, a software program that helps track the relationship with donors, noting if a donor has received a certain email or call or attended a function, for example.
The special events team plans and executes both fundraising events like our annual gala or one-night play readings which are designed to raise money, as well as events that function as benefits for donors. "Our major donors like supporting Roundabout not only because of the mission but also because they get the benefit of being treated as VIPs. They get the benefit of coming to opening nights. They get the benefit of being invited to intimate dinners with artists,” Moon noted, showing the importance of staff who create these gatherings.
What does it take to work in Development?
For those interested in a career in development, Moon recommends focusing on developing communication and time management skills. “Retail is a great entry level type of a job to gain a lot of those soft skills needed. You just need to know how to work with people and a lot of different kinds of people,” Moon said. “Also, any type of event planning, being involved in any type of hospitality service that specializes in doing events.”
Above all, Moon stresses one universal skill to master. “It's so difficult for any independent artist to survive in today's day and age, and especially in New York City. Learning how to articulate your art to the world is extremely important. Much of what I do in development is articulate what we do to encourage people to support us. As an artist, if you learn how to communicate that and articulate that to the world, then you've really taken major steps into understanding how to advocate for yourself and how to advocate for art in general."
Challenges in Development
One of the challenges in development is that Roundabout’s donor base, like many New York nonprofits, is overwhelmingly older, affluent, and white. As the company evolves towards its mission of reducing barriers to theatregoing and collaborating with diverse artists to produce a wider canon of plays and musicals, those donors are being asked to support artists, work, and ways of producing that they may not be familiar or comfortable with. “How do we show the importance of diversifying what we do, and the importance of reaching communities that are not normally thought about by organizations like us? We do that at a risk. We do that at a risk because we could lose donors who do not believe in the importance of doing that,” Moon said. "How do we convince the donors who joined us because we did classic theatre to continue to support us as we transition towards doing more new work and doing classics that were overlooked? It's finding a way to keep the people that supported us for many years and convince them to stay with us in moving forward, as our work better represents society at large.”
Development plays a vital role in nonprofit theatre and arts. People who work in this field are actively working not just to sustain nonprofits, but to allow them to evolve and take risks. If you are a passionate arts advocate and thrive when connecting with people, you might want to consider a career in development.