The Phillips Collection Appoints Elizabeth Racheva as Chief Advancement Officer
Racheva brings 20 years of experience to the museum as a leader in integrating fundraising with strategic planning, governance, and patron engagement.
WASHINGTON, DC—The Phillips Collection announces the appointment of Elizabeth Racheva to the position of Chief Advancement Officer. In this role, Racheva will serve in a senior leadership position, overseeing the development and execution of the Phillips’s fundraising efforts that support the museum’s mission of fostering dynamic collaborations, public participation, and diverse voices through art. She will lead capital campaigns and advancement opportunities for all areas of the museum including exhibitions, public programs, membership, and content-based initiatives. Racheva will begin her new position on October 30.
Racheva recently concluded seven seasons at Washington Performing Arts (WPA), where she served as Vice President of Strategic Planning and Chief Advancement Officer after joining in 2016 as Chief Philanthropy Officer. There, she managed WPA’s individual and institutional giving and provided direction in defining and implementing organizational strategy and governance. Through her leadership, Racheva achieved consistent annual giving and re-ignited Washington Performing Arts’s endowed giving program to secure six and seven-figure gifts to benefit performances and educational programs. Her tenure in DC followed more than a decade of progressive leadership in higher education and arts and culture in comprehensive capital campaign-focused environments.
As the Phillips’s Chief Advancement Officer, Racheva will report to Vradenburg Director and CEO Jonathan P. Binstock and work closely with the Phillips’s Board of Trustees to grow and diversify the museum’s engagement with stakeholders and drive strategic growth.
“Elizabeth is a respected and accomplished professional who brings her expertise and a new perspective to build support for The Phillips Collection,” says Vradenburg Director and CEO Jonathan P. Binstock. “This is matched by her deep appreciation for the Phillips and for the importance of her leadership role in working with our colleagues to shape the museum’s second century. Elizabeth will be essential in implementing new objectives that will further propel the Phillips’s contributions to the global conversation on art and culture.”
“I am deeply honored to join the leadership team at The Phillips Collection, and I am eager to meet our members, supporters, and fans throughout the region and beyond,” says Chief Advancement Officer Elizabeth Racheva. “Since I moved to Washington seven years ago, I have been tremendously impressed with how the Phillips creates a dialogue across cultures, geographies, and media through its permanent collection and exhibitions; promotes inclusion and belonging in realizing the breadth of its mission; and exemplifies how museums today can foster connection, empathy, and community. I am excited to join Jonathan, the Board of Trustees, and the talented staff in defining a strategy for the next 100 years at the Phillips and in growing support for that vision.”
Throughout her career, Racheva has incorporated communications, marketing, and digital initiatives to support the production of key funds and capital campaigns by maximizing persuasive storytelling, case-making, and data-driven prospect management across channels. An active public speaker, she has been invited to present on WPA’s emergence as an industry leader in virtual event production by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, digital arts marketing leader Capacity Interactive, and the Association of Donor Relations Professionals, alongside annual guest lecturing for American University’s arts management program and others.
“On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I am delighted to welcome Elizabeth to the Phillips,” says Barbara Hall, Vice Chair of The Phillips Collection’s Board of Trustees and Chair of the Advancement Committee. “Her background and demonstrated success leading comprehensive campaigns makes her an excellent choice for the role. I especially look forward to collaborating with Elizabeth to advance the museum’s ambitious fundraising efforts, guided by her pragmatism and compassion for the Phillips’s community.”
Racheva has nurtured a parallel career in non-profit management, the arts, philanthropy, and higher education and is a professional classical vocalist, spotlighted as a featured artist with several acclaimed symphonies, chorales, opera companies, and series nationwide. She previously headed external affairs and patron engagement at the Curtis Institute of Music and was instrumental in organizational leadership at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Greenhill School, and Southern Methodist University.
Racheva obtained a Bachelor of Arts from Emory University and a Master of Music and Graduate Performance Diploma, with a certificate in opera performance, from Peabody Conservatory and is an alumna of Middlebury College’s Deutscheschule and Austria’s Franz Schubert Institut.
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IMAGE: Photo by Alissa Randall
ABOUT THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION
The Phillips Collection, America’s first museum of modern art, was founded in 1921. The museum houses one of the world’s most celebrated Impressionist and American modern art collections and continues to grow its collection with important contemporary voices. Its distinctive building combines extensive new galleries with the former home of its founder, Duncan Phillips. The Phillips’s impact spreads nationally and internationally through its diverse and experimental special exhibitions and events, including its award-winning education programs for educators, students, and adults; renowned Phillips Music series; and dynamic art and wellness and Phillips after 5 events. The museum contributes to global dialogues with events like Conversations with Artists and Artists of Conscience. The Phillips Collection values its community partnership with THEARC—the museum’s satellite campus in Southeast DC. The Phillips Collection is a private, non-governmental museum, supported primarily by donations.