Philanthropy Officer

Salary: £29,605 - £30,487 with progression to £32,982 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits . We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 05 April 2024

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 across the University, the city, the region and beyond. 

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.   

This established role presents an exciting opportunity to gain fundraising and relationship building experience, as part of a friendly and ambitious team. 

The Role

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.

This role sits within our Individual 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 with the potential to offer philanthropic support to the University. You will offer an excellent level of service and supporter experience, with a specific focus on securing philanthropic gifts.

This established role presents an exciting opportunity to gain fundraising and relationship building experience. Advancement team members benefit from an extensive range of in-house and external training and development opportunities. 

Interviews to take place on Monday 15th April 2024.

The post is full time, permanent.

For informal enquiries please contact Alexa Mapplebeck, Head of Individual Major Giving - [email protected] .

Key Accountabilities

• To raise philanthropic income from individuals to support the University fundraising priorities
• To grow and manage a personal portfolio of high value relationships with prospective supporters, maintaining close personal relationships with them
• To offer accurate advice on ways to support Newcastle University including tax-efficient ways to give 
• To devise cultivation plans for prospects to increase their affiliation to the University and their propensity to offer financial support
• To prepare and personally present compelling opportunity proposals aligned to key university priorities
• To work with teams across the University to negotiate donor opportunities and prepare donation agreements
• To work towards a series of benchmarks and personal targets and contribute to NU Advancement’s income goals
• To attend events run by NU Advancement and other organisations as required  
• To maintain excellent communication with donors in order to ensure that they see the real impact of their donation and continue their support
• To diligently record interactions 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
  

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience 

• Experience of working in a public-facing role with a focus on sales, fundraising, external relations, customer relations or alumni relations 
• Excellent oral and written communications skills and experience of writing and presenting accurate, inspiring, and persuasive proposals 
• The confidence to work with senior individuals, and the ability to adapt communication styles to differing audiences
• Proven ability to work with a range of internal and external stakeholders at all levels of seniority to achieve results
• Skills in negotiating and influencing
• The ability to plan and manage own workload, to prioritise effectively, and to manage multiple simultaneous projects with competing deadlines
• 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 (Essential)

• To embrace the values of NU Advancement: 

      -    Ambitious and Future-Focussed
-    Professional and Approachable

      -    Caring and Dedicated  

• 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
• To gather a broad range of relevant information from internal and external sources making this information widely available. Use information to gain competitive advantage
• To persuade, convince, and influence others in order to achieve results and gain support

Qualifications

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

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are aDisability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 26851