Head of Philanthropy

This role requires someone who loves fundraising. Someone who is bold, curious and collaborative. Someone who is confident and expert in their knowledge and experience. Someone who is realistic, but ambitious. Someone who believes in the power of life-changing research and its ability to change lives. The role will manage an expanding team, currently made up of four direct reports. Above all, we need someone with a solid track record and demonstrable knowledge of budget planning, target setting and a coaching approach to management. You will have real autonomy in your work and get stuck in, helping to drive us forward and make an impact for all those affected by leukaemia.

If, once you’ve read the pack, you feel you have the passion for our work and the right mix of skills, energy, and flair to embrace this broad and challenging role and enable our strategy to fly, then we would love you to apply.

• To be a leader and role model and as a member of the Fundraising Team, take responsibility for leading performance in Philanthropy by exemplifying our values
• To be responsible and accountable for setting and delivering income targets across all areas of Philanthropy
• To be responsible and accountable for setting and managing expenditure budgets across all areas of Philanthropy
• To lead on Philanthropic innovation, growth and development, to deliver the Charity’s 5 Year Philanthropy fundraising strategy
• To hold key relationships with some of the charities most important funders, supporters and advocates

Essential Experience

• Overseeing the delivery of Special Events
• Managing Trusts and Foundations Fundraising
• Managing Corporate and High Value Fundraising
• Fundraising strategy, income target setting, expenditure management, income reporting
• Expertise in using CRM packages such as Salesforce
• Managing key relationships

Highly Desirable Experience

• Previous experience of being a Head of Philanthropy or equivalent
• Delivering £1m+ gross income
• Raising money for research
• Contacts in the hospitality industry

Knowledge

• Fundraising best practice
• GDPR best practice
• Fundraising and the law
• Risk assessments and health and safety
• Budgeting and forecasting

Skills and Abilities

• Strong written and oral communication skills with a real talent for connecting and influencing people at all levels
• Great listening skills and the ability to interpret the needs of individuals, teams, and organisations
• Numerate and disciplined thinker who has the ability to think through complex issues and produce evidenced based judgments
• Ability to multi-task, keep a cool head, and lead from the front
• Ability to juggle multiple priorities
• To work cross-organisationally, recognising different teams priorities and workloads
• Working with and to a wide range of financial and non-financial KPI’s
• Entrepreneurial, with the ability to lead a programme of fundraising activity, with strategic, well thought through application of investment to deliver growth
• Demonstrable track record of a coaching/mentoring approach to management

Styles and Behaviors

• Highly personable – a genuine ʻpeople personʼ – who can secure the confidence of others quickly
• True team player who can thrive in a highly collegiate environment where matrix working is the norm
• A grown up with a solutions-focused mentality
• Results orientated with high standards and a strong can-do attitude and a sense of personal responsibility
• Tenacious and resilient, with a positive and enthusiastic mind-set
• A strong empathy and understanding of the work that the Charity does
• Enjoys rolling up their sleeves and dealing with day-to-day issues as and when required

Despite progress in recent decades, someone in the UK is diagnosed with a blood cancer every 16 minutes and survival rates are among some of the worst of any cancer. And the physical and psychological impact can be lifelong.

Over the next 5 years we plan to increase our investment into ground-breaking world class research, advocacy and awareness focused on improving diagnosis, kinder, more effective treatment, and care for leukaemia and other blood cancers. To do this, we are embarking on a period of significant growth, investing strategically to grow our income, profile, influence, engagement and impact.

Critical to this is an ambitious strategy and leadership, which will drive our world-class research and advocacy to ensure it translates into tangible progress for all those affected by leukaemia. Underpinning this strategy is the development of robust income streams. This role will lead on delivering income from Special Events, Trusts and Foundations, High Value and Corporate supporters, (collectively known as Philanthropy) as well as being part of the Fundraising Leadership Team contributing to the overall income strategy, management of the income department and the wider charity in general.

This role is an exciting opportunity to make a huge impact with, and on, the lives of people diagnosed with leukaemia and other blood cancers over the coming years, by working as part of a professional, highly motivated Income Team that works hard to achieve our goals and bring our values to life in every aspect of our work.

We want to ensure that there is a diversity of perspectives across our staff team, which are truly representative of the communities and individuals we serve. We particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups with the relevant skills and experience, including those from ethnically diverse backgrounds and people living with disabilities across a broad age- range.

Reporting to the Director of Income, the post holder will at times be required to work both strategically and hands on, autonomously and collaboratively and as a critical member of the Fundraising Leadership Team. We are halfway through year two of an evolving plan to grow income to £5m over five years. The plan requires investment at strategic points over the five years triggered as milestones are achieved.

We are a close-knit team, who are all passionate about Leukaemia UK and putting those affected by the disease at the heart of everything we do. We are all focused on “keeping it real” with pragmatic, practical solutions, as well as ensuring that our charity gets the funding it needs to continue to help those diagnosed with leukaemia and other blood cancers.

From us you can expect all the laughter you can handle, as well as great challenge and support. We may not be about the corporate life here, but we are all about the delivering exceptional expertise and making a real change to people’s lives.

The closing date is Wednesday 30th August 2023. We will be interviewing week commencing 4th September 2023.

Find out more about the role by downloading the full role profile.