Fundraising Director

The charity is 9 years old, and initially started its work in Blackpool, the community facing the highest multiple deprivation in the country, before starting to scale. After slow and steady growth in our early years, a combination of our reputation, growing evidence, and the increased demand for place based change has seen our rate of growth rising in recent years. We are taking a “quality first” approach to scaling our delivery work, as we cannot let down any of our communities through scaling beyond our capability.

In order to support the increasing level of demand for our work, over the next five years, the fundraising team will embark on an ambitious growth strategy – as we look to grow our income £8 million this year to £20 million by 2029, increasing the breadth, depth and number of communities that we serve. 

The successful candidate will play an integral role in designing, developing and leading the delivery of our fundraising strategy to ensure that children and young people have the best start in life. They will be responsible for a broad range of income streams with a particular focus on growth across high net worth individuals, individual giving, corporate and digital whilst continuing to effectively maintain and build upon our strong funder base in trusts, foundations, philanthropy and statutory support.  They will also directly oversee the wider fundraising team which currently includes the fundraising manager and fundraising officer roles. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Overseeing the successful design, development and implementation of Right to Succeed’s 5 year fundraising strategy. 

• Leading, inspiring, developing and managing the charity’s fundraising team, taking overall responsibility for achieving fundraising targets for the organisation.

• Ensuring a collaborative and integrated approach to fundraising across the organisation through working collaboratively with the finance and programmes team to ensure maximum efficiency across our prospecting, budgeting, monitoring, tracking and reporting processes

• Ensuring that fundraising activities comply with legal and regulatory standards, including donor privacy, tax regulations, and the Fundraising Regulator’s code of practice 

• Building positive, sustainable relationships both internal and externally, effectively managing all key stakeholders and funders. 

• Representing Right to Succeed externally, including organising and attending funder events and regularly engaging with local and regional commissioners and funders. 

• Providing key fundraising insight to the Senior Executive team and when required trustee board as part of the wider leadership group, shaping organisational strategy and decision-making. 

• Identifying opportunities and potential challenges, working collaboratively across functions to maximise impact and mitigate risk.

• Working in partnership with the communications team to align cross-departmental priorities ensuring that increasing organizational profile leads to greater levels of funder interest in supporting our work

• Working collaboratively with the Finance Director to ensure clear alignment of budget management processes and being proactive in managing and communicating change and risk 

• Developing an in-depth knowledge understanding of our work and the communities we serve to enable the production of high-quality fundraising materials, proposals and reports

Fundraising 

• Overseeing a diverse portfolio of income streams, with a clear strategy and plan for growth and sustainability

• Working alongside the Senior Executive and wider leadership team to set, monitor and deliver annual income and expenditure targets.

• Support the Senior Executive team in cultivating new relationships and stewardship of HNWI whilst continuing to build upon our existing funder base, ensuring that all supporters receive a first-class experience.

• Proactively planning for meetings with funders, prospects and networking events to develop new opportunities.

• Working collaboratively with the comms and and programmes teams to increase awareness of RtS and our programmes, developing professional and engaging fundraising materials including fundraising applications, proposals, appeals, pitches and reports.

• Identifying new fundraising trends and developments and make recommendations to the Senior Executive team around resource prioritization. 

• Ensuring the fundraising database and pipeline is fully kept up to date, implementing and embedding a clear framework for decision making regarding fundraising opportunities across the organisation. 

• Working collectively with the Chief Programmes Officer and Programme Directors to identify, develop and grow local funding opportunities within their respective communities

Budgeting, reporting and compliance

• Managing the team budget, providing regular reports as required to the Senior Executive, Finance, Development Committee and Board of Trustees.

• Setting, delivering and monitoring the fundraising business plan, ensuring all objectives and KPIs are met and risks are managed as appropriate.

• Ensuring all fundraising activity complies with legal and regulatory standards.

• Supporting the finance team in compiling information for the annual audit process

• Working with the finance and programme teams to ensure alignment across organisational, funder and programme budgets 

• Maximising the effectiveness of our organisational CRM (Hubspot) to provide high-quality analysis, insight, reporting and strategic decision making

Leadership and management

• Developing a collaborative, high-performance culture that is ambitious, passionate and proactive in its strategic and operational practice.

• Providing effective line management to direct reports, setting and monitoring individual performance objectives and motivating the team to be innovative and professional in its thinking and delivery.

• Ensuring all fundraising staff receive clear and consistent direction and feedback to enable them to perform to the best of their ability.

• Having an open attitude to constructive peer feedback around improving policies and processes as we continue to learn and grow as an organisation

• Being an inspiring ambassador for RtS, networking widely, and ensuring it is reflected in the strategies, outputs and behaviors of the fundraising team.

• Contributing to the strategic direction of the charity, joining the senior executive team meetings once the fundraising function is working effectively. 

• Leading by example in terms of your work ethic, your commitment to the delivery of results and demonstrating the values of the organisation in all that you do. 

• Investing in the professional development of your team, ensuring that they are growing in their roles and as members of the Right to Succeed staff team. 

Travel 

This role will require travel to Right to Succeed’s offices in Liverpool and Manchester as well as to funder meetings across the UK. It is essential that the post-holder has access to a car or excellent transport systems.

Person Specification 

Experience required (essential) 

• Strong track record of meeting and exceeding fundraising targets in a senior fundraising role.

• Leading the development and implementation of a successful fundraising strategy generating significant organisational income.

• Track record of working across different forms of fundraising including trusts & foundations, high net worth individuals, individual giving, corporate and statutory/public sector.

• Track record of leading, managing and inspiring high performing fundraising teams.

• Proficient in research, strategic planning, budgeting and monitoring.

• Fostering successful relationships and partnerships with key internal and external stakeholders.

• Bringing together influential funders and policy makers to increase awareness and support of key issues.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to facilitate senior stakeholder meetings, speak engagingly to a wide range of audiences and to represent RtS externally.

• Understanding of the issues facing the children, young people and communities that we serve.

• Collaborative working style and excellent relationship building skills.

• Working with Senior Executive teams and trustee boards.

Experience required (desirable) 

• Experience in working with city regions, local authorities, government departments and their commissioning processes.

• Leading local or national fundraising campaigns. 

• Knowledge of utilising CRM systems (we use Hubspot) for fundraising. 

Skills & Personal Qualities (essential)

• Commitment to the aims and ethos of Right to Succeed and a desire to bring about positive change in relation to societal inequity. 

• Business management and Financial management skills. 

• Strong leadership skills and the ability to enthuse, motivate and develop a team and partnerships that deliver results. 

• Ability to think strategically and to communicate a compelling strategic vision.

• Excellent all round communication skills and relationship management abilities. 

• Professional and resourceful, with the ability to work independently and as part of a team. 

• Ability to model and instill the Right to Succeed values as outlined below. 

• Strong organisational and people management skills.

• Ability to work in a small, but highly ambitious, growing organisation

Qualifications and Knowledge (essential)

• Awareness of local areas, key challenges and understanding of current contexts 

• Collective impact and place-based change 

• In-depth knowledge of education improvement and community development 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How to Apply

To apply for this position, please submit a CV and a supporting statement including your motivation for applying and how you meet the criteria for the role by end of day on Friday 8th November. 

Please note we will be interviewing candidates as applications are received and may close the vacancy earlier if a suitable candidate is identified. Candidates are advised to apply as early as possible.

Unfortunately, we can’t consider any candidates who do not submit a supporting statement. 

Your supporting statement must not exceed two pages and should cover your motivation for applying for the role and how your skills and experience meet the criteria outlined in the Person Specification. This is also your opportunity to evidence the written communication skills that will be necessary for the role.

Timetable 

Applications invited by Friday 8th November 

Interviews: 

Stage one will be held on Zoom on Tuesday 12th and Wednesday 13th November

Stage two will be held on Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th November 

Start date: December 2024/January 2025

These dates may be subject to change.