Chief Revenue Officer at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts job in San Francisco

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is one of the nation’s most innovative centers for the arts. Established in 1993 and housed in two landmark buildings in downtown San Francisco, YBCA hosts artists, convenes conversations, and presents visual and performing arts events that reach more than half a million people each year. YBCA’s programs span the realms of contemporary art, civic engagement, and public life. By focusing on artists as agents for social change, and the arts as their laboratory, YBCA is reimagining what an arts institution can be and do.

In 2019, YBCA completed a strategic review that resulted in the selection of three priority initiatives: 1) Health: Advancing the Case for Art, Health, and Well-Being; 2) Democracy: Calling Youth and Young Adults to Power; and 3) Abundant San Francisco: Reclaiming and supporting San Francisco’s Diverse, Creative, Progressive Soul. In the coming years, YBCA will organize its programs, set its goals, and design its model for impact around these three core focus areas.

YBCA is led by executive director Deborah Cullinan and a growing board of engaged directors. YBCA has a balanced annual budget of $22M, including revenue from rentals, admissions, management fees, a raffle, and philanthropic contributions.

About the Chief Revenue Officer Position

The Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) will serve as YBCA’s lead revenue and budget strategist, with responsibility for defining and stewarding YBCA’s overall value proposition, growing and managing revenue from all sources, and recommending and managing the allocation of YBCA’s financial assets. The CRO will supervise direct reports in development and finance, and will coördinate with the Chief Marketing Officer and other relevant colleagues in the design and implementation of both revenue and budget strategies. The CRO will advise and report to the Chief Executive Officer.

Following over a decade of declining support from traditional federal and foundation sources, arts and culture organizations nationwide are eager for new organizational and funding strategies. As chief business strategist of this highly visible community-based arts organization, the CRO will have the chance to develop a model for organizational sustainability and impact that both benefits YBCA and its communities, and makes a valuable contribution to the field.

This is an outstanding opportunity for an experienced and creative executive with a background in both fund raising and finance to help create the business model, forge the strategic direction, and realise the ambitions of this vibrant, forward-looking organization and its mission: to generate culture that catalyzes change.

The position is based at YBCA’s San Francisco campus.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

Revenue

• Lead the design and delivery of an innovative, holistic approach and enterprise-level strategy for revenue generation, encompassing strategic partnerships with, and philanthropic contributions from, corporations, foundations, and individuals; as well as membership, admissions, rentals, retail, grants and contracts, and other potential sources and channels;
• Supervise implementation of YBCA’s overall revenue strategy, in coöordination with relevant colleagues in marketing, admissions, and other departments that generate or support the generation of revenue;
• Lead the design and supervise implementation of annual and multi-year revenue development plans to achieve ambitious contact and revenue goals;
• Cultivate, solicit and steward a personal portfolio of high value donors and investors on behalf of YBCA’s mission, priority initiatives, and campaigns; secure and foster financial and non-financial partnerships that further YBCA’s mission and goals;
• Manage and develop a fund raising team focused on both philanthropic and non-philanthropic entities and channels, to a high level of individual and collective performance;
• Engage and support the meaningful participation of colleagues and volunteers, including executives and board members, in cultivation and fund raising activities
• Ensure compliance with all relevant non-profit fund raising regulations, and attention to industry best practices

Finance

• Lead annual and multi-year budgeting, auditing and financial reporting processes, consistent with organizational goals, priorities, and revenue projections
• Manage and develop a finance and budget team with responsibility for accounting, grants and contracts, reconciliations and reporting
• Maintain key relationships with, and seek counsel as indicated from, investment managers and other financial advisors and auditors
• Manage the departmental budget with prudence
• Ensure compliance with all relevant financial regulations, and attention to industry best practices

Other

• Serve as a member of YBCA’s executive cabinet
• Staff the Board Development and Finance Committees
• Convene and manage regular and ad hoc review and working groups as indicated to ensure effective collaboration on revenue strategy design and implementation
• Recommend and oversee development, documentation, and maintenance of institution-wide policies and procedures that support an effective enterprise-wide approach to revenue development and stewardship
• Represent YBCA with integrity and enthusiasm, and manifest its core values:

1. Abundance: We operate from a place of strength, with a spirit of empathy and generosity.
2. Authentic Collaboration: We are engaged and interconnected
3. Personal Agency: We are empowered and accountable.
4. Boldness: We create with courage and purpose.

Qualifications

• 12+ year record of success in highly responsible revenue generation and management positions, including in entrepreneurial and growth contexts;
• Significant expertise in two or more of the following areas: foundation and corporate fund raising and partnership development, financial management, membership and individual giving, 8+ figure capital, thematic and/or general campaigns, social enterprise business development/sales
• Talented and highly collaborative team builder and motivator
• Excellent manager and developer of junior and peer professionals, and of non-profit boards
• Sophisticated fund raiser, fluent in the principles and best practices of philanthropic development;
• Outstanding communicator across multiple platforms and populations;
• Working familiarity with the social justice funding landscape; and with the San Francisco Bay Area philanthropic and corporate communities;
• Experience in sales, marketing, or other non-philanthropic revenue generation contexts strongly preferred;
• Experience in membership organizations preferred;
• Social justice orientation and enthusiasm for the arts

Benefits
YBCA offers a generous benefits package including medical insurance and optional dental and vision insurance for employees and their dependents, a 403(b) plan, a commuter benefit, bereavement leave, nine designated holidays, and paid time off of up to 20 days during the first three years of employment.

To Apply
All qualified applicants will receive consideration without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, pregnancy, medical condition, disability, or sexual orientation. As an equal opportunity employer that values the organizational benefits of a diverse staff, YBCA is committed to identifying and developing the skills and leadership of people with a variety of backgrounds and attributes.

YBCA has retained Schaffer&Combs, a certified B Corporation, to support this search. In order to apply, please submit a current résumé and thoughtful cover letter that explains your interest and outlines your relevant skills and experience.

Please refrain from contacting YBCA directly; all inquiries should be directed to Schaffer&Combs at YBCACRO@schaffercombs.com. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled.