Overview
Application deadline: Monday 9th February 2026 at 5pm
Position: Senior Philanthropy Manager for Individual Giving
Reports to: Development and Communications Director
Hours: 5 days a week (1 FTE)
Holiday: 25 days a year
Salary: competitive and commensurate with a role of this importance
This role is advertised as a permanent position with a hybrid schedule of 2-3 days a week in-office.
About Opera Rara
Opera Rara is an award-winning opera company whose mission is to restore, record, perform and promote the lost operatic heritage of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Established in 1970, Opera Rara is a charity which engages in musical archaeology, its unique purpose being to recreate neglected opera and to make them accessible world-wide via concert performance, broadcast, digital download and streaming platforms and CD recording. Opera Rara has worked and continues to work with singers, conductors and musicologists at the very top of their field internationally, and we partner with many of the UK’s leading orchestras. Under the expert guidance of our Artistic Director, Carlo Rizzi, we have an ambitious, multi-year plan to record and perform many more rare, unjustly neglected operatic masterpieces. Opera Rara’s headquarters are in attractive offices, next to Battersea Park, London.
Job Purpose
The Senior Philanthropy Manager for Individual Giving is a senior, strategic fundraising role with accountability for the development, delivery and performance of Opera Rara’s individual (Patron and Friend) giving strategy to 2030. Reporting to the Development and Communications Director, the postholder will own the planning, budgeting, forecasting and reporting of individual, annual giving income streams at the Patron and Friend level (£25-£10,000), ensuring sustainable growth in philanthropic support from individual donors.
The role has primary responsibility for generating and growing giving income from Opera Rara’s Patron and Friend programme to c.£300,000 per annum by 2030, through the effective management of major annual fundraising campaigns, syndicate giving and fundraising events. The Senior Philanthropy Manager will lead the design and delivery of high-quality donor experiences, oversee all individual giving communications and stewardship, and provide clear performance reporting to senior leadership, Trustees and the Development Committee.
As a senior member of the Development team, the postholder will exercise a high level of professional judgement, represent Opera Rara confidently with key supporters, and play an active role in shaping fundraising priorities, resourcing and strategy. The role includes line management responsibilities and ownership of individual giving budgets, with accountability for financial performance, cost control and return on investment across campaigns and events.
The position offers a rare opportunity for a senior fundraiser with a keen interest in international fundraising to shape and grow philanthropic support for an opera charity whose award-winning work commands respect and admiration around the world.
More information / apply
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