South Arts
Vice President of Advancement
South Arts (https://www.southarts.org/) invites nominations, expressions of interest, and applications to join their team as the organization’s next Vice President of Advancement (VPA).
Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, South Arts is one of six nonprofit, regional arts organizations (https://usregionalarts.org/) in the United States. The overall mission of these organizations is to empower artists, organizations, and communities while increasing access to arts and culture. In partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts (https://www.arts.gov/) and the nine State Arts Agencies in its nine-state region — as well as numerous private foundations — South Arts supports artists and organizations through a portfolio of grants, fellowships, and programs.
In the last five years, South Arts has transitioned from primarily serving the performing arts to more broadly serving arts, culture, and community. Recent examples of the organization’s programming initiatives are a multimillion-dollar national grant program related to jazz artists touring across the United States (https://www.southarts.org/artist-grants-fellowships/jazz-road) and Southern Cultural Treasures (https://www.southarts.org/programs-conferences/southern-cultural-treasures), a major investment in BIPOC led and serving organizations. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are key values of the organization.
In its next Vice President of Advancement, South Arts is seeking a dynamic executive with a proven track record who can continue the organization’s recent fundraising momentum, advance the South Arts brand and help to significantly increase the budget within the next several years. This position is part of the executive management team and will be expected to contribute vision and leadership to the organization, helping to accomplish the South Arts strategic plan and fulfill its extraordinary mission.
Major sources of funding have been government and foundations, including numerous national private foundations. Some of these relationships are ongoing and others have been formed in the last 1-2 years. These will continue to be important revenue sources, and South Arts will want to increase its foundation footprint, but the organization also wants to diversify its funding streams by building corporate and individual relationships. South Arts anticipates that advancement will be an effort in each state in its region as well as nationally. In addition to development, the VPA also supervises Marketing and Communications for South Arts. This department builds awareness for the South Arts brand through PR, social media, and other channels to continue to attract resources and promotes opportunities to the field to participate in South Arts programs.
The next VPA will be an engaged listener with a passion for the arts and fundraising experience across its various functions. The ideal candidate will also have experience developing major gift relationships with institutions and individuals, designing development strategies, closing significant gifts, creating and overseeing communications and marketing plans, partnering with communications professionals, and effectively managing high-performing teams.
WittKieffer is assisting South Arts in this search, which will remain open until an appointment is made.
The expected minimum salary for this role is $150,000. The position is based in Atlanta with the possibility of remote work from a location in the Southeast. Staff who live outside the Atlanta metro area are currently required to be in the office three days a month.
All applications, nominations, and inquiries are invited. Applications should include, as separate documents, a CV or resume, and a letter of interest addressing the themes in the leadership profile (available at https://www.wittkieffer.com/position/24705-vice-president-for-advancement/). Application materials should be submitted using WittKieffer’s candidate portal: https://apptrkr.com/4207546.
Nominations and inquiries can be directed to:
Greg Duyck and Alejandra Gillette-Teran
South Arts is an inclusive employer and adheres to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Standards. South Arts does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, disability, genetic information, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy, marital status, military status, economic status, or geographical location in any of its activities or operations.