Grants & Major Gifts Manager

About the role

Community Music Center of Boston seeks a Grants & Major Gifts Manager to join its high-performing advancement team at an exciting juncture in the organization’s trajectory. Now in the final year of the successful $20 million Valuing All Voices capital campaign, CMCB will build on the campaign’s momentum as it opens a flagship new facility in Roxbury’s Nubian Square in early 2027.

Reporting directly to the Chief Advancement Officer and joining a team of three full-time staff and several part-time youth employees, this new key position is responsible for identifying institutional grant opportunities, drafting proposals, and reporting on stewardship. The role also provides strategic prospect research, fundraising analysis, and operational support for major gift ($5K+) donors, with potential to expand into front-line fundraising over time.

Responsibilities

• Manage the writing and submission of 60+ funding proposals and grant applications and 30+ grant reports annually
• Maintain a comprehensive calendar of grant-related materials and deadlines; lists of foundation staff, program officers, and civic leaders; and a dashboard of funder requirements and reporting milestones
• Conduct prospect research, maintaining confidentiality, and prepare informational briefs
• Produce concise, informative materials on current fundraising totals, upcoming opportunities, and forecasts of future fundraising
• Support Chief Advancement Officer in identifying major gift prospects and/or Board and Corporation nominees
• Collaborate with the Programs team on metrics and reporting, following a mantra of “measure what we value so that funders value what we measure”
• Ensure clear and effective database entry, administration, and management
• Process, manage, and acknowledge incoming gifts
• Work with the team to support a warm, outgoing, and positive patron and donor experience

Qualifications

Essential

• Previous experience in grant-writing or institutional fundraising
• Understanding of current best practices in grantseeking and prospect research (for institutions and individuals)
• Prior experience and/or deep interest in community-based development
• Well-developed lens and writing style that lends itself to advocacy for learner-centered and culturally inclusive arts education
• Demonstrated ability to generate compelling written documents and presentation materials
• Ability to handle confidential materials with discretion
• Strong project management skills with the ability to work well against deadlines
• Ability to draw conclusions from evidence and gather information that can validate or inform decisions
• Adept at working and thriving in a culturally diverse environment with a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Ability to work independently and make educated recommendations about the best course of action, even when not every piece of information is readily available
• Strong interpersonal skills and an excitement to work across teams and departments to lead and/or participate in a variety of projects
• Fluency and confidence in Microsoft Office and Google Suite software
• Must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S.; CMCB is unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time

Preferred

• Previous experience with a donor database software (Raiser’s Edge, Bloomerang, etc.)
• Previous experience in graphic design software like Canva or Adobe Suite
• Supervisory experience and/or experience in youth development
• Fundraising experience in an arts education or community development setting
• Oral or written fluency in a second language commonly spoken by families in CMCB’s student body (Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Haitian, Vietnamese, etc.)

Physical Demands

• The duties of this position are performed indoors in a business/office setting
• The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate during active programming hours and minimal otherwise
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee must be able to remain in a stationary position 50–75% of the time
• They will need to constantly operate a computer and other office productivity machinery
• The person in this position frequently communicates verbally with internal and external constituents and must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and the ability to adjust focus