Our client, The Cabaret, is growing again!
Founded in 2009, The Cabaret is a nationally acclaimed premier home for intimate cabaret where artists are uplifted, audiences belong, the next generation thrives, and our community is strengthened through world‑class artistry and radical hospitality. Reporting to the Chief Advancement Officer (CAO), the Audience & Donor Experience Manager is a seasoned, relationship‑driven professional who leads The Cabaret’s guest services function while also supporting donor engagement and stewardship across the Advancement team.
This is a current full-time role with some newly expanded responsibilities on The Cabaret’s growing staff. This role ensures that every audience member and donor experiences The Cabaret’s signature Radical Hospitality, transforming transactional encounters into meaningful relationships that deepen loyalty and philanthropic connection to the mission. The Manager plays an essential role in strengthening organizational systems, staff culture, and operational readiness, ensuring precision, excellence, and Radical Hospitality across every touchpoint. As the leader of box office and front‑of‑house operations, this role oversees ticketing, guest experience, volunteer coordination, sales reporting, and patron/donor stewardship and hospitality.
They work cross‑departmentally to ensure performance nights, donor touchpoints, and all audience communications consistently reflect The Cabaret’s commitment to excellence, belonging, and WOW‑level experiences. This is a high-impact role suited for an experienced manager with strong leadership skills and the ability to grow into broader strategic responsibilities. With demonstrated performance and alignment with organizational values, the position has the potential to progress into a future Director-level role, supported by its high visibility within an entrepreneurial team and opportunities for mentorship and career development at one of Indy’s most beloved cultural institutions and leading nonprofit theaters. All employees are expected to actively embody The Cabaret’s core Values:
We Deliver the WOW, We Practice Radical Hospitality, We Welcome
Everyone, We Lift Each Other Up, and We Do the Right Thing.
The ideal candidate pairs technical expertise and a passion for CRM excellence- combining accuracy, attention to detail, and a love of data- with positivity, initiative, curiosity, warmth, integrity, and a genuine commitment to serving and caring for others. A flexible schedule is essential, including the ability to work evenings and weekends during performances and events. The Cabaret presents 40–50 performance nights annually in its award‑winningtheatre, with show weekends typically occurring twice per month.
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES
Patron Services &
Front‑of‑House Leadership
- Lead, elevate, and refine all box office and
guest services operations to ensure every patron and donor experiences seamless
service, warm engagement, and The Cabaret’s signature Radical Hospitality.
- Serve as the organization’s primary
front‑facing guest services representative, modeling hospitality standards that
center empathy, responsiveness, professionalism, and belonging.
- Oversee comprehensive ticketing
operations—including website user experience, phone services, seating maps,
holds, sales, and performance‑night execution—ensuring accuracy, efficiency,
and a polished guest experience.
- Recruit, train, schedule, and supervise
volunteers and FOH support staff, cultivating a culture of teamwork, care,
accountability, and values‑driven excellence.
- Provide real‑time problem‑solving and conflict
resolution during performances, proactively anticipating and addressing guest
needs.
- Maintain welcoming, aesthetically aligned
lobby and reception spaces that reflect The Cabaret’s high‑touch, white‑glove
service standards.
- Lead ongoing Radical Hospitality and “surprise
and delight” initiatives by auditing guest, donor, and volunteer touchpoints
and identifying opportunities to elevate experiences across the patron journey.
- Collaborate with leadership to embed
hospitality standards into onboarding, training, evaluation tools, and FOH
volunteer protocols, aligning operational systems with organizational values.
- Support venue‑planning and operational
readiness by identifying environmental improvements, including signage,
accessibility, audience flow, and ambiance that enhance the guest experience.
Donor Experience &
Stewardship Support
- Support donor hospitality at performances by
coordinating seating, benefit fulfillment, special requests, and personalized,
donor‑centered communications.
- Partner with the CAO to strengthen donor
relationships through thoughtful stewardship touchpoints and meaningful,
individualized interactions.
- Ensure accuracy across donor ticketing,
acknowledgments, listings, and recognition, maintaining consistency with
advancement practices and stewardship expectations.
- Act as a key administrative partner in donor
engagement by recording interactions, tracking follow‑up, and supporting
acknowledgment and stewardship workflows.
- Apply a development‑minded lens to all
audience communication and service, supporting donor cultivation and retention.
- Use CRM data to personalize audience and donor
experiences, manage preferences, and contribute to long‑term
relationship‑building strategies.
Ticketing, Data Management
& CRM Integration
- Oversee all ticketing setup, maintenance,
reporting, and reconciliation, ensuring accuracy and timely delivery of
information to leadership for planning and analysis.
- Produce timely sales, attendance, and
performance‑level reports that support strategic decision‑making and
cross‑departmental insight.
- Manage donations processed through the
ticketing system and ensure accurate donor tracking.
- Play a leadership role in the organization’s
transition to an integrated CRM system, merging patron and donor data to
support a unified experience and enhanced organizational insight.
- Support implementation of new CRM, ticketing,
workflow, and reporting systems that increase operational efficiency,
strengthen data governance, and advance strategic‑plan objectives.
- Partner with the CAO to standardize processes,
documentation, and data protocols that reinforce accuracy, alignment, and
cross‑team collaboration.
- Utilize Monday.com and related tools to
support transparent workflows, timelines, and accountability.
Audience Development &
Outreach
- Lead the development and implementation of
audience surveys, collecting data that measures audience growth, satisfaction,
and alignment with The Cabaret’s commitment to Radical Hospitality, inclusion,
and belonging.
- Collaborate with Marketing to design and
execute outreach‑driven strategies and promotional campaigns to authentically
invite and engage new audiences in mutually meaningful ways.
- Develop, steward, and grow group sales
relationships with community partners, corporations, and affinity
organizations, supporting expanded reach and community connection.
- Analyze data dashboards, CRM insights, and
audience feedback to identify trends and inform audience development
strategies, service enhancements, and new opportunities.
Education & Community
Engagement Support
- Partner with the Artistic team to coordinate
ticketing and front of house support for educational programs, community
partnerships, student engagement opportunities, and outreach activities.
Administrative &
Cross‑Team Collaboration
- Serve as an active member of the Advancement
and cross‑departmental teams, contributing to planning conversations and
institutional alignment.
- Maintain organized, efficient, and welcoming
administrative and box office environments.
- Serve as the primary liaison with phone,
voicemail, and communication service providers.
- Support Advancement initiatives and
organization‑wide priorities as needed.
- Participate in biweekly donor moves‑management
meetings and biannual SMART‑goal evaluations as part of institutional rhythms
that support strategic accountability.
- Contribute to cross‑training efforts across
Advancement, FOH, and Box Office to increase organizational resilience and
operational flexibility.
- Support staff culture that nurtures internal
leadership, collaboration, and values‑driven excellence.
QUALIFICATIONS &
EXPERIENCE
Required
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of
education and experience.
- 7+ years of progressively responsible
experience in guest services, advancement, hospitality management, guest
experience, theatre administration, or related fields.
- Demonstrated success supervising staff or
volunteers, managing high‑density service environments, and coordinating
complex operational systems.
- Exceptional interpersonal and
relationship‑building skills, with the ability to warmly and effectively engage
audience members, donors, sponsors, and VIP guests.
- Ticketing software experience and expertise.
- Strong belief in The Cabaret’s mission,
vision, and values, with a passion for the performing arts.
- Excellent communication skills—clear,
empathetic, and aligned with The Cabaret’s values.
- Strong organizational habits with sharp
attention to detail, the ability to manage multiple priorities, and a
commitment to accuracy in a performance‑driven setting.
- Comfort working evenings and weekends during
performance periods.
- Commitment to cultural equity, inclusion, and
belonging.
Preferred
- Experience with Office 365/Outlook.
- Experience with CRM/database management (The
Cabaret currently uses Bloomerang).
- Understanding of philanthropic practices and
the donor stewardship cycle.
- Strong hospitality instincts and a desire to
genuinely “Deliver the WOW.”
PHYSICAL DEMANDS
- Ability to be physically engaged/active for
extended periods during shows (work host stand, etc.).
- Frequent use of computer, phone, and office
equipment.
- Occasional lifting (up to ~20 lbs.) for event
support.
- Moving through theatre spaces to greet donors
and sponsors as needed.
THE CABARET’S VALUES IN THIS
ROLE
This position exemplifies The Cabaret’s core values by:
- Delivering the WOW by
orchestrating flawless, detail‑obsessed audience and donor experiences that
surprise, delight, and raise the bar for what Radical Hospitality feels like at
every touchpoint.
- Practicing Radical Hospitality by
anticipating patron and donor needs, resolving concerns with warmth and
urgency, and ensuring every interaction feels personal, celebratory, generous,
and human.
- Welcoming Everyone by
creating inclusive and accessible experiences, stewarding processes that honor
differences, and ensuring all audiences and donors feel truly seen and valued.
- Lifting Each Other Up by
modeling empathetic leadership, supporting volunteers and staff with clarity
and kindness, and fostering a collaborative, communicative, ego‑free
front‑of‑house culture.
- Doing the Right Thing by
stewarding data, systems, and relationships with integrity, communicating
transparently, and making thoughtful, ethical decisions that strengthen
long‑term mission impact.
The Cabaret offers a competitive total compensation package and fosters a culture that supports flexibility, well‑being, and balance - including planned flex time during high‑intensity performance periods. We welcome everyone and are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. The salary range for this role is $65,000 to $71,500 plus benefits.