The Canadian Opera Company is now accepting applications for the position of Senior Development Officer, Major Gifts.
PURPOSE OF ROLE
Are you the fundraiser donors call before they've made their first gift? Someone who can walk into a room of strangers and leave with a relationship?
The COC is looking for a Senior Development Officer, Major Gifts: a fundraiser whose core skill is finding and closing donors who don't yet exist in our database. This is not a portfolio management role. It is a role for a natural relationship-starter, someone who builds a pipeline from zero, brings new believers to the opera, and turns first conversations into transformational commitments.
Reporting to the Director, Major Gifts, this new role will be one of the most senior individual contributor roles on the frontline fundraising team. The primary mandate is new donor acquisition: identifying, cultivating, and closing high-capacity individuals who are entirely new to the COC, expanding our donor base rather than simply deepening it. Alongside this acquisition focus, the role carries a smaller portfolio of existing high-capacity major gift donors and provides day to day management and mentorship to a Major Gift Officer, making it a hybrid of senior new business fundraiser and emerging people leader.
This is the right role for a fundraiser with deep enough industry experience and network fluency to open doors entirely on their own, no warm introduction required, and enough leadership maturity to develop another gift officer's craft while building their own new donor pipeline.
WHY JOIN THE COC
You will join a team that is building something: a more financially resilient, audience-engaged Canadian Opera Company, ambitious about its artistic future and serious about the culture we build along the way. Our values call for a workplace where diverse voices flourish, and this role sits at the center of that growth, expanding who calls the COC home.
ACCOUNTABILITIES
The accountabilities include, but are not limited to:
New Donor Acquisition and Pipeline Expansion
- Identify, cultivate, and solicit prospective donors who are new to the COC, drawing on independent networks, sector relationships, and prospect research to build a pipeline beyond the organization's existing base.
- Design cultivation strategies suited to donors unfamiliar with the COC, introducing them to the organization's artistic mission through site visits, performances, and meaningful early touchpoints.
- Represent the COC in philanthropic, corporate, and social circles to build the organization's visibility among prospective new major donors.
- Partner with the Discovery function to convert qualified prospects into active, personally managed relationships.
Major Gift Portfolio Management
- Manage a portfolio of major gift donors and prospects capable of significant contributions, leading the full donor cycle from cultivation through stewardship.
- Develop individualized cultivation and solicitation strategies for complex, multistage major gift relationships.
- Facilitate donor engagement through site visits, artistic introductions, and hosting at performances, connecting donors to the organization as a whole rather than to a single relationship holder.
- Prepare compelling proposals, briefing materials, and stewardship communications tailored to donor interests and giving capacity.
- Introduce blended giving conversations, combining cash with a bequest or other planned gift component, where appropriate within the portfolio, partnering with the Director, Major Gifts, who leads the Encore Legacy Society and owns the planned giving program.
Team Leadership and Mentorship
- Provide day to day management, coaching, and portfolio guidance to the Development Officer, supporting their growth as a frontline fundraiser.
- Demonstrate disciplined moves management and strong solicitation practice, and share donor strategy expertise across the team.
- Contribute to onboarding, goal setting, and performance conversations for the Development Officer in partnership with the Director.
Strategic and Organizational Collaboration
- Serve as a thought partner to the Director, Major Gifts on portfolio strategy, prospect assignment, and new donor pipeline planning.
- Collaborate with senior leadership, board members, and volunteer leaders on joint cultivation and solicitation of new and existing donors.
- Contribute to departmental planning and represent the Major Gifts team in cross functional initiatives.
QUALIFICATIONS
- Substantial progressive experience in major gifts fundraising, with a demonstrated track record of personally identifying and closing gifts from donors new to an organization, not solely stewarding an inherited portfolio.
- An established network and credibility within the philanthropic, cultural, or business community, sufficient to open new donor relationships independently.
- Experience mentoring, coaching, or supervising another fundraiser, or clear readiness to take on people leadership.
- Sophisticated relationship building and solicitation skills, with comfort managing complex, multi stage cultivation strategies.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including proposal and briefing development for senior stakeholders.
- Working familiarity with common planned giving vehicles, sufficient to introduce blended ask conversations and identify when to loop in the Director for complex gift structuring.
- Experience with donor CRM systems (Tessitura an asset).
- A genuine passion for the performing arts and the ability to speak credibly and enthusiastically about the COC's artistic mission.
WORK CONDITIONS
Hybrid work environment (in office and remote).
Flexible schedule required, including evenings and weekends for donor events and performances.
Regular travel between 227 Front Street East and the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.- Attendance at COC opera performance for donor cultivation is expected.
ABOUT THE CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY
Based in Toronto, the Canadian Opera Company is the largest producer of opera in Canada and one of the largest in North America. General Director Ian Derrer joined the company in 2026, forming a leadership team alongside Artistic Director Roberto Mauro and Music Director Johannes Debus. The COC enjoys a loyal audience, including a dedicated base of subscribers, and has an international reputation for artistic excellence and creative innovation. Its diverse repertoire includes new commissions and productions, local and international collaborations with leading opera companies and festivals, and attracts the world’s foremost Canadian and international artists. The company is an incubator for the future of the art form, nurturing Canada’s new wave of opera performers and creators with customized training and support. The COC’s purpose-built opera house, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, is hailed internationally as one of the finest in the world.
As Canada's largest opera company, the COC deeply values equity and diversity across all levels of the organization and believes in fostering an inclusive, discrimination-free environment that fully supports our team’s personal and collective success. We are committed to building a workforce that reflects our community, our city, and our country and, in turn, the COC welcomes applicants from all backgrounds and abilities who share and embrace these values of anti-racism and inclusion.
The COC is committed to providing accommodations for people with disabilities in accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) in all parts of the hiring process. If you require an accommodation, please let us know and we will work with you to meet your needs.
To be considered for this role, applications must be received by October 17, 2026
