Associate Director- Campaigns and Local Partnerships

Leadership & strategic thinking

• Excellent track record of leading, empowering and motivating a team, including setting clear, measurable objectives and targets.
• The ability to think and plan strategically with a good track record of designing and delivering philanthropic and/or partnership building strategies.
• Track record of working with initiative, responsible decision-making, and thinking creatively and laterally.
• Experience of working as part of an effective senior management team in a complex organisation.

Knowledge & experience

• Passion for, commitment to, and knowledge of higher education and the role of philanthropy.
• Significant experience of working in a target-focussed income-generating office.
• Proven experience of building relationships with organisations, partners or individuals (especially High Net Worth Individuals and / or charities).
• Good knowledge of relevant ethical charity law, fundraising issues and relevant data protection issues, including GDPR and issues around data consent.
• Good knowledge of campaign planning, database management, due diligence processes, gift administration and prospect research, and knowledge of best practice in development services.
• Good experience of working with a large and complex CRM database (ideally Blackbaud CRM).
• Passion for the intelligence that data and analytics can bring to informing future strategies.
• Ability to write high quality, bespoke reports for a range of audiences including senior management.
• Ability to work to tight deadlines and prioritise own workload under pressure.

Communication & relationship building

• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to interact effectively with a wide range of audiences including senior colleagues, donors, alumni, academics, students, and external organisations
• Strong track record of persuasion and influence to a range of stakeholders.
• Personal confidence, independence, and determination to succeed as an individual and as part of a team.
• The ability to represent the University to alumni, donors and other individuals in the UK and overseas with confidence, diplomacy and authority.

General

• Educated to degree level or equivalent.
• The flexibility to work unsociable hours (evenings and weekends) and to travel overseas when required.
• Track record of working calmly and effectively with competing and challenging priorities.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and adept at dealing with change and change management.
• Ability to exhibit the DARO values and behaviours, leading by example and working with pace and energy.
• Good experience of financial and budget management.

Are you a leading charity professional with a passion for building effective partnerships and helping your local community? Are you an inspirational leader capable of mobilising a passionate, creative and diverse team? We are now in the planning stages of our next campaign.Inspired by our founder, Joseph Chamberlain, it will aim to change lives locally and globally.It will be unique and ambitious and will place Birmingham as one of the leading fundraising and volunteering universities in the world.

There is a rare opportunity to join the DARO Leadership Board at this exciting time in campaign preparations in a fixed-term maternity cover post (one year) as the Associate Director of Campaigns and Local Partnerships. The role is responsible for shaping and delivering a bold and innovative local philanthropy strategy, whilst building a sustainable infrastructure (data, management information, financial administration, and prospect research) for the University’s next fundraising and volunteering campaign.The post is a key member of the Leadership Board, which shapes, delivers and monitors the overall strategy for the office, and will take particular responsibility for the local elements of the next campaign.

Our University has a long and proud history of philanthropy stretching back to its foundation in 1900.With a clear vision of changing the lives of the citizens of Birmingham, Joseph Chamberlain raised the funds required to build the University from philanthropists and corporations based locally and around the globe.Since then philanthropy has continued to play an important role in shaping the University.There have been a number of fundraising campaigns including a £1m urgent capital appeal after the Second World War, a £1.4m campaign to fund the Vale ‘student village’ in the 1960s and, more recently, the Circles of Influence Campaign, which raised £193 million and was the largest HE fundraising campaign outside Oxbridge and London.

The University is one of the top 100 research-led universities globally and we now have 11 Nobel Prize winners.Academics here are exploring the impact of climate change, helping to prevent global health epidemics and changing our understanding of Shakespeare.We also have one of the largest and most diverse student populations in the UK.Our students come from nearly 150 countries and our flagship outreach programme means that almost 25% of our students come from disadvantaged backgrounds, one of the highest proportions in the UK.

The Development and Alumni Relations Office (DARO) exists to support this academic and student community by engaging and inspiring alumni, individuals and charitable funders who can give their money, time and networks to support the University’s strategic priorities.The Office is particularly focused on fundraising and volunteering from alumni and individuals who are based locally or globally and who are passionate about changing lives, whether by funding cancer research trials, supporting student bursaries, mentoring students or providing internships.

For an informal discussion of the role please contact Carol Rock on (0)121 415 8751.