Manager, Partnerships

Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) – Toronto, ON | Permanent, Full-time

• Serve as day-to-day account lead for the full corporate partnerships portfolio – season, presenting, program, and series partners – managing the working relationship with partner marketing, sponsorship, and community investment contacts.
• Build and run an annual stewardship plan for each partner – touchpoint cadence, hosting, mid-season check-ins, and year-end reporting – calibrated to what that partner is trying to achieve.
• Prepare partner impact reports that document delivered benefits, audience and reach data, and program outcomes against agreed objectives, with every figure verified before it goes to a partner.
• Host partners and their guests at performances, activations, and TSO events, managing ticket allocations and hospitality within contracted entitlements and TSO ticket policy.
• Carry a personal annual revenue target, agreed with the Director, for renewals of assigned accounts and for new mid-tier partnerships – leading renewal negotiations for your accounts and preparing renewal cases for the accounts the Director leads.
• Identify growth opportunities within existing accounts – additional programs, series, touring, and campaign commitments – and build the case for them with the Director.
• Research and qualify prospects against TSO programming, category availability, and partner fit; draft proposals, decks, and program information tailored to each prospect's objectives; and support the Director on major solicitations with research, briefing notes, and follow-up.
• Build and maintain the partnership fulfillment tracker covering every contracted benefit, its internal owner, deadline, proof of delivery, and status, for every active agreement.
• Maintain a current record of the contract terms that govern the portfolio – exclusivity and category protection, rights of first refusal, renewal and opt-out windows, recognition entitlements, and approval rights – and flag deadlines and conflicts to the Director well in advance.
• Coordinate delivery and partner approval of recognition assets with Marketing & Communications, including logo placement, digital and social content, print, program content, and verbal acknowledgement.
• Own CRM records for the portfolio – contacts, agreements, activity, pipeline stage, and revenue schedule – and produce regular pipeline and fulfillment reports for the Director.
• Manage invoicing schedules with Finance, reconcile payments against agreements, and track partner revenue against budget; maintain the partnership asset inventory that informs pricing, valuation, and proposal design.
• Act as the partnerships point of contact for Marketing & Communications, Education & Community, Artistic and Orchestra Operations, Roy Thomson Hall, and Finance on activation delivery, and lead planning and on-site delivery for partner activations.
• Coordinate with Community Giving and Philanthropy colleagues to prevent duplicate approaches to shared prospects and to move relationships between portfolios where that serves the partner and the TSO.
• Maintain a regular presence at TSO performances, partner activations, and Development events.

• 5+ years of progressive experience in corporate partnerships, sponsorship, account management, or business development, including direct responsibility for managing six-figure, multi-year partner accounts from contract execution through renewal.
• Demonstrated experience delivering contracted partner benefits across multiple channels – brand recognition, hospitality and ticketing, digital and social, on-site activation, employee and community engagement – and documenting fulfillment against agreement terms.
• Strong business writing and presentation skills, with experience producing partner-facing proposals, decks, activation plans, mid-term and year-end impact reports, and renewal cases.
• Working knowledge of sponsorship valuation and asset inventory, with the ability to price and package assets under the direction of a senior lead.
• Experience building or maintaining pipeline and fulfillment records, with disciplined data hygiene, accurate forecasting, and regular reporting to a manager or director; experience with Tessitura or a comparable CRM is an asset.
• Ability to read and apply contract language – exclusivity and category protection, rights of first refusal, renewal and opt-out windows, recognition entitlements, approval rights – and to escalate conflicts before they become delivery failures.
• Project management experience coordinating cross-functional delivery with marketing, communications, artistic, production, education, and finance colleagues to bring activations to life on time and on budget.
• Financial literacy sufficient to manage partner budgets, invoicing schedules, revenue timing, and variance reporting.
• Interpersonal skills and professional credibility to work directly with marketing, sponsorship, and community investment managers at corporate partners, and to represent the TSO on-site at performances and activations.
• Experience in the performing arts, cultural, sport, or complex not-for-profit sector is an asset; agency-side or brand-side sponsorship experience is equally valued.
• High level of professionalism, discretion, and ethical judgment, including the management of confidential partner, donor, and organizational information.
• Post-secondary degree or equivalent professional experience.