The Role

There has never been a more exciting time to join the Advancement Office, as we are in the second year of our ambitious fundraising campaign ‘From Newcastle. For the World’. The aim of the Campaign is to inspire a spirit of philanthropy across our global alumni community and to significantly boost support for future students, future research and a future of positive change in our city and around the world. We invite you to join us and be part of this exciting journey. 
 
The Philanthropy Manager role sits within our Major Gift Fundraising team, and you will play an important part in building and maintaining positive relationships with senior alumni and other high net worth individuals. The successful candidate will manage relationships with prospect and donors, with the aim of securing financial support for the strategic objectives of the University. Our donors play a significant role in helping us to break down barriers to education, advance our world-class research and develop our campus. 

Advancement team members benefit from an extensive range of in-house and external training and development opportunities. 

Newcastle University (NU) Advancement is the driving force behind fundraising and alumni and supporter engagement across the University. Our work transforms lives, inspires ground-breaking research, and creates opportunities and communities that have a profound impact.

We are looking for an ambitious, dedicated professional to join our Major Giving team. You will play an important part in building and maintaining relationships with alumni and supporters who have the potential to offer philanthropic support to the University. The ideal candidate will have great communication skills, experience managing relationships and be able to influence and inspire.

For informal enquiries please contact Alexa.Mapplebeck@newcastle.ac.uk.

Interviews will take place on Tuesday 12th December for successful candidates.

Key Accountabilities

• To deliver against a strategy for Major Giving philanthropy, including prospect identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of donations
• To secure philanthropic support for University priorities, primarily through building relationships face-to-face with individual donors and prospects as necessary. This may require travel, primarily to London and potentially other areas of the UK and overseas
• To prepare and personally present compelling proposals aligned to key university priorities
• To foster relationships with academic colleagues and professional services colleagues to advance relationships with external parties
• To work in collaboration with the Philanthropy Officers (Donor Relations) to ensure that all donors are kept informed of the impact of their donation to improve donor retention and increase giving over time
• To deliver an innovative engagement programme which will facilitate contact with donors and prospects, and represent the University at events, briefing academics and other University leaders where needed
• To work towards a series of benchmarks and personal targets and contribute to NU Advancement’s income goals
• To diligently record interactions on Advancement’s CRM system (Raiser’s Edge) to enable accurate reporting and analytics on team and personal activity
• To remain up to date with developments in fundraising and be aware of GDPR, The Fundraising Code of Practice and other policies, covering alumni engagement and fundraising
• To assist with the development of the major giving fundraising programme and work with the Head of Individual Major Giving to further donor engagement across the organisation

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Strong track record in major giving fundraising or a public-facing role with a focus on sales, external relations, customer relations or alumni relations
• Experience of relationship management and working with senior individuals and a complex stakeholder environment
• Proven experience of securing financial support to further the mission and goals of an organisation, with practiced skills in negotiating and influencing
• Excellent and demonstrable verbal communication skills with the ability to adapt communication styles to differing audiences
• Particularly outstanding written skills, with the ability to absorb and assess detailed information from a wide variety of sources
• Understanding of the importance and impact of universities and a desire to grow support for the sector

Desirable

• Experience of working with high-net-worth individuals, preferably in a marketing, advisory or fundraising role
• Experience of alumni engagement and fundraising
• Experience working with a CRM system, alumni database or equivalent

Attributes and Behaviour

• To embrace the values of NU Advancement: 
  • Ambitious and Future-Focussed 
  • Professional and Approachable 
• Caring and Dedicated  
  • To think strategically, with the ability to see the big picture and manage complex problems and issues
  • To persuade, convince, and influence others in order to achieve results and gain support
  • To work collaboratively with others, play a positive role in teams, and establish and grow relationships across the organisation where different skills, expertise and opinions are valued

Qualifications

• A degree, or the ability to demonstrable significant experience in an equivalent role