John Federico, director of development for the Pittsburgh Opera, prepped for his career in arts management and fundraising by working at theaters and theater associations while he earned bachelor's and master's degrees at universities in New York City.

But he believes his job really comes down to this: Say please and thank you.

At least that's what he tells aspiring young interns.

"If you're going to be a fundraiser and if your parents raised you right, you really should know the most important things to say by the time you're 5. If you can do those things, the rest is all polish."

Although he was born and raised in Philadelphia and went to college and graduate school in New York, Mr. Federico always imagined he would work for a regional arts organization away from the Big Apple. A blind ad for a development assistant in 1997 led him to Pittsburgh Opera, where he helped lead a $17 million fundraising campaign that, among other things, allowed the company to expand from four to five productions per season.

After seven years, he moved to City Theatre on the South Side and shifted gears from raising money for classic, elaborate operas to finding funding for smaller, more intimate and often experimental stage productions.

Earlier this month, Mr. Federico returned to Pittsburgh Opera, which is close to completing an $8 million campaign to fund its acquisition and renovation of the former Westinghouse Air Brake Co. factory in the Strip District.

Since 2008, the Opera has occupied the 139-year-old, block-long building with an interior that features exposed brick walls and an urban loft style. It houses the Opera's offices; rehearsal studios; flexible performance space; wardrobe, makeup and wig facilities; and a music library.

In his second-floor office, Mr. Federico talked about his career transition from theater to opera to theater and back again, and how arts organizations have fared asking for money during the recent economic recession.

Q: How did you end up in the development side of the arts?

A: My second year of grad school I had a full-time residency at Theatre Communications Group in New York and stayed on to do management and government programs research and was the point person for a national survey on theater finances. The most interesting part was the salaries. When it was time for me to move on, I looked at the salary survey ... and said, development or marketing? It could go either way but it looked like development directors had a little bit more stature in their organizations. I said let me give that a try.

Q: You were part of a successful fundraising team at the Opera before you left for City Theatre. Why did you make the jump to an organization with not quite half the operating budget? (The Opera's budget was $8 million last year versus City Theatre's $3 million).

A: That was kind of a chance. It started to feel like seven years [at the Opera] was a long time. If you were in an academic setting, you'd get to take a sabbatical.

Theater has always been a passion for me. If you had told me in 1985 that I would end up working in an opera company for any point in my career, I probably would have looked at you funny said you gotta be kidding. It was hard to leave here but it was also a really good chance to build a different kind of fundraising program in a different environment. And to go from supporting production of classic work to supporting the production of new work.

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• John Federico talks about how to appeal for money from donors during an economic downturn.

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Q: What's the difference between asking for money for universally recognized operas performed at the Benedum Center versus frequently unknown plays staged in a 250-seat former church on the South Side?

A: Everybody knows when you say "Carmen" what the sponsorship means or represents in the community. But it's equally satisfying to work on a project like "Speak American," a play we did last year at City Theatre that is about immigrants and really kind of capitalizes on the history of the community that we live in.

Over at City, I got to be a lot more hands-on in terms of working with donors. There is a smaller number of donors, a smaller board of directors and a really good chance to push things in a different way. And there's a lot of overlap between the two crowds -- a lot more overlap between the Opera, City Theatre and Pittsburgh Public Theatre audiences and donor bases than you would expect. I think it's even more overlap than you find between the Opera and the Pittsburgh Symphony.

Q: How critical is fundraising to an arts company? Obviously it can't survive on ticket sales.

A: At the Opera and City Theatre, it's about the same ratio: Ticket sales provide about 35 percent to 40 percent of the operating budget, the return on the endowment generates 5 percent to 10 percent, and 50 percent to 60 percent comes from contributions.

Q: You were at City Theatre when the stock market collapsed and the recession was in full-swing. How did that affect how you did your job?

A: People are looking for more time to pay off the commitments they've made. So we had to be more sensitive to that. We're looking at people who have had professional downturns, who have felt the economic impact directly. It makes it harder to pick up the phone and initiate relationships with people -- new and even ongoing relationships.

People are skittish about going out for the cup of coffee, or lunch because they feel like their commitment to spending time with you outside of a performance is kind of a promise they'll be receptive to a request later on. So it makes it harder for the real work of development, which is developing those relationships.

Q: What kept you going when people were losing so much of the disposable income they might typically spend on the arts?

A: There was a period in early 2009 when I was getting on the phone with my colleagues who have a lot more experience than I do and saying, 'How are you negotiating through this?' because none of us had ever seen an economy quite like this one.

We looked at opportunities by phone or mail to solicit the people who had always been supportive and tried to build the fundraising program around hanging on to as many of our current donors as we possibly could. When there's a big change [in the economy] that nobody was anticipating, the challenge is to say how much of that is the work I'm doing and how much is just a reflection of where the world is and what the climate is right now. That's a hard personal and professional thing to face.

Q: How has technology changed fundraising? Do you still have to make fundraising calls when people can just donate using their computers ... or even their cell phones?

A: People expect you to have a presence online so that they can find out information about the organization. You're also expected to find a way to be able to collect donations online. After the Haiti earthquake, people could enter a text message to make a gift.

That's something to look at but it takes an awful lot of $10 gifts coming that way to have the impact of a really well-developed relationship with somebody who cares deeply about the organization. Are we interested in the long run or what we can get right away? We're interested in both.

Q: So is it an opera or a play when you're not working?

A: When the opera's going on, I'm at the opera. With 20 performances a year, it's really important for us to make the theaters that we don't own feel like home for our guests, our ticket buyers. When people don't want to talk on the phone and don't want to go out to lunch, this is a great opportunity to find them at their seats or invite them to the donor lounge and get their feedback on what we're doing right and what we might not be doing right.

My younger daughter, 14, is involved in theater arts activities that take up a good chunk of my time, too. She'll be in her high school musical, so I'm showing support for that.

Q: Do you spend any down time not soaking up culture?

A: I'm a big sports fan so we look forward to getting out in the spring to Pirates games because they're the easiest tickets to get. There's a lot more access to those. I still keep my Philadelphia allegiances but root for the Pittsburgh teams, too.

And I lived long enough in the Bronx that I'm still a Yankees fan. I had a horribly conflicted time last fall when the Yankees and Phillies were playing in the World Series.

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