Job Title: Head of Employer Partnerships
Reports to: Deputy CEO (but the role will also work in close collaboration with both the CEO and the Director of Programmes).
Location: Open to national flexibility on location. May occasionally need to attend our London office – Quantum House, 22 – 24 Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, EC4A 3AB.
Purpose: This is a fantastic opportunity for a dynamic professional to take the lead role in engaging employers, corporate funders, and professional networks and securing funded partnerships with them. This will provide essential income for the charity’s work with schools. It will also help the recruitment of skilled, diverse volunteers to support delivery of the charity’s innovative programmes for children and young people.
The postholder will work closely with our established employer networks and develop new networks; give leadership to a small team currently managing our partnerships and business development; and work collaboratively with an involved senior leadership team and further supportive colleagues right across the charity to achieve our aims.
Remuneration: £36k – £41k – depending upon experience. Pro rata depending on agreed full time equivalent hours of appointment (see below)
Additional Terms: We want to support our staff to get the absolute best contribution from them. We offer:
– 30 days paid holiday, exclusive of statutory bank holidays.
– A competitive pension scheme and employer contribution
– An environment that supports ongoing professional development
– A volunteering allowance of up to 5 days per annum – pro rata in accordance with the length of contract.
– Additional family friendly benefits including enhancements to Statutory Payments.
Appointment Terms: Permanent and full time. However, we would consider applications from those with excellent experience if they can provide a minimum of 0.8fte.
Closing date for applications: 12pm (noon) on Monday 13th May 2024
Interviews: Week commencing 20th May, likely Thursday 23rd May 2024 at our London offices
This is a super exciting role for someone who is passionate about improving life chances for children. We are looking for someone who is resilient, relentless, and driven by moral purpose to help secure the employer partnerships that will provide us with the income and delivery channels to achieve our charity’s ambitious plans. In return you will be working collaboratively with an equally passionate and supportive team of colleagues helping you fulfil your role, whilst enjoying the benefits above, and developing your talent further!
Job Purpose:
The successful candidate will be responsible for charity-wide strategic partnership engagement and management. The focus will be on developing new relationships with corporate partners, employers, and other organisations that help fund and grow the reach of our charitable work, establishing a strong and supportive network of employers.
To be successful, candidates should have experience of developing and securing funded corporate partnerships. This experience could be in the charity sector or within a different context. You should be able to demonstrate a proven track record in building, developing, generating income from, and owning effective long-term relationships with new and existing partners. You will need to show experience of managing stakeholder relationships at all levels of seniority.
The ideal candidate will be proactive, resilient, and used to managing competing priorities within a varied and exciting workload. They should be flexible, collaborative, and willing to perform varying duties depending on the shifting needs of a small charity with national presence.
We are looking for a strategic individual who can target, drive forward and subsequently deliver successful partnerships with employers and professional associations. The post-holder will understand the personal and professional benefits of volunteering in education and is passionate about supporting young people to realise their potential. They will share and champion our organisational values of being inspiring, inclusive, innovative, impactful, all underpinned by working with integrity at all times.
The ideal candidate will be a strongly self-motivated professional, with excellent communication skills, able to absorb key information quickly and work well with a small team and in a dynamic, supportive, and fun working environment.
Key Accountabilities:
Identifying and securing new employer partnerships:
- Lead on identifying different opportunities to generate income growth for our charity, including ‘charity of the year’ partnerships and developing and promoting a range of attractive strategic opportunities for corporates/ employers looking to sponsor and fund our charity;
- Researching and developing a prospect pipeline, including spending time generating new leads and meeting clients, to support the development of new corporate partners and ensure that CRM information is continuously updated;
- From this pipeline, identify, contact, and pitch to prospective partners about the benefits to them of supporting the charity. Prepare and deliver compelling and evidence-based pitches and presentations including developing assets and proposals, reporting, credentials, and pitch decks to support income generation from employer partnerships;
- Generate awareness and visibility of the Education and Employers’ partnership proposition – e.g. delivering a regular series of virtual and face to face sessions to engage with new organisations and sell the benefits of Education and Employers corporate funded partnerships;
- Ensure these briefing sessions are supported by valued current partners who can outline the benefits they themselves have seen organisationally and at an individual employee level leading to the establishment of new partnerships and income from employers;
- Developing an advocates/trusted partner approach by ensuring we equip our trustees, staff, and close partners with organisational assets to share across their wider connections;
- To explore and engage with Social Value/CSR networks, consultancies, and professional bodies to be their programme/charity of choice to deliver social value programmes on behalf of their clients’/ members’ behalf;
- Stay up to date with trends in charity fundraising from corporate partnerships and review how charities in the wider sector are best succeeding in this area.
Establishing, negotiating, and managing new partnerships and further developing existing employer partnerships:
- Negotiating new funding partnerships with clients that are deliverable, cost-effective, and generate money in addition to the cost of managing the partnerships;
- Persistently and professionally following up with clients at different stages of interest, in order to move forward and hopefully convert these partnership discussions into signed contracts/ commitments – i.e. moving discussions along to ‘close the deal’;
- Building strong relationships through a stewardship programme to engage with partners in a variety of ways on a regular basis, in particular with existing partners that are not currently funding partners to transition them to a funded model;
- To work closely with the current Partnerships Manager to effectively handover all successful bids to the Partnership Manager to develop project plans and delivery timelines;
- Design and develop organisational wide project implementation tools and processes to ensure end to end project management supports consistency in delivery, tracking and evidencing impact to successfully achieve strategic priorities and secure new and ongoing funding sources;
- Ensure all contact development activity is recorded on our Customer Relationship Manager system (Salesforce) so that we have clear oversight of our contact history and touchpoints with employers and networks;
Team management and working with the SMT and wider charity to develop employer partnerships:
- Supporting with seeking out new funding opportunities and writing bids that support the organisation to meet it strategic aims including regularly reviewing funding and grants websites;
- Work with colleagues across the organisation to support and create engagement opportunities for corporate partners and prospects that align with our strategic plan;
- Work closely with the Communications Manager and Director of Schools Programmes to create innovative ways to engage new corporate partners, via local networks and social media.
- Future line management of the Employer & Business Development Manager;
- To work closely and proactively with SLT, stakeholder partners and trustees to support and enhance our collective work with employers and to ensure a joined up, strategic approach;
Other
- Represent Education and Employers and the Senior Management Team at external events and conferences as appropriate;
- Other ad hoc duties as required.
Person specification:
These are the required Skills, Knowledge, and Expertise required to undertake the role:
Essential
- Demonstrable experience of generating income from researching, establishing, and developing employer and/ or professional organisation partnerships;
- Demonstrable experience of being target driven and experience of meeting either demanding income or delivery KPIs and targets.
- Demonstrable experience of managing the income generation pipeline right from approaching clients, to engaging them, and finally through to contracting with them to secure inward income and deliver their agreed objectives.
- Awareness and understanding of navigating the multiple decision makers and decision-making gates in corporate organisations and professional member organisations;
- Experience of working with internal colleagues to develop achievable, realistic delivery plans for employer funders and execute them via effective programme and project management;
- Demonstrable experience of client management, including establishing initial rapport and building long term sustainable stakeholder relationships by working effectively and collaboratively with staff and partners across multiple geographical locations;
- Excellent people skills, the ability to influence (including with senior representatives) and the manner to professionally represent the Charity with external employers, professional bodies, and with schools and the education community;
- Knowledge and understanding of the role that marketing and internal and external communications campaigns can have in generating mass engagement of users with a programme or campaign at a national level;
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with strong ability to engage and persuade, including the ability to pitch and present to stakeholders in a professional and engaging manner, including online via video conferencing software like Microsoft Teams and Zoom.
Desirable
- A passion for supporting young people in realising their potential through harnessing skilled volunteers to engage in education;
- A successful track record in delivering tangible outcomes through engagement with employers and professional networks;
- Specialist knowledge of the education and employment sectors and the policy environment and delivery models which underpin relationships;
- Experience of working to deliver significant national income targets or Key Performance Metrics using resources (human and financial) efficiently and effectively;
- Understanding of risk management and data protection.
Personal Attributes
- Good level of education, demonstrating strong client facing aptitude and communication skills both written and verbal. Comfort in working with a variety of senior external stakeholders.
- Self-motivated and relentless in pursuing goals, having an entrepreneurial and enterprising approach to their work;
- Personal resilience and professional persistence in following up leads and moving discussions through to a conclusion;
- Good working knowledge and practical application of Microsoft office tools and the ability to understand and work with customer relationship management software such as Salesforce;
- A “doer”- ability to work at pace and pro-actively anticipate requirements and act to provide workable solutions to these;
- Solutions orientated, perceiving processes as the means rather than the end and as an aid to effective delivery;
- Influencer – demonstrates personal ‘presence’ and gains the confidence of others through temperament, capability, and calibre;
- Demonstrates sensitivity and possesses the ability to effectively manage the organisational tensions that sometimes develop between internal and external stakeholders involved in the organisation and delivery of programmes;
- Team Player: working collaboratively and flexibly with other colleagues to achieve outcomes and is keen to add value to the Charity’s culture and ethos;
- Able to undertake some occasional work in the evenings and at weekends;
- Able to occasionally travel in the UK (England primarily). Although most of the role can be done online from a home location.
Application process:
The Education and Employers charity values having a diverse workforce. We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from all individuals from all backgrounds.
The closing date for applications is 12pm (noon) on Monday 13th May. Successfully shortlisted candidates will be notified no later than close of play on Thursday 16th May.
Interviews will take place in the week commencing 20th May, most likely on Thursday 23rd May at the Education and Employers’ offices in Fleet Street, London.
The interview panel will constitute our CEO Nick Chambers, our Director of Programmes Charlotte Thurston, and our Deputy CEO Dominic Judge – who will initially line mange the role.
Please send a CV and a covering letter (no more than 4 sides maximum for the latter, ideally shorter) addressing the job description and person specification, setting out your interest in and suitability for the role
Applications will only be accepted from those with the right to work in the UK with a valid passport/visa.
Please note, we will only consider applications with both a CV and covering letter.
Applications from recruitment agencies will not be considered under any circumstances.
Thank-you for your interest, we are an organisation that develops talent, and we welcome applications even if you can’t meet exactly every word of the job description. If you have what it takes, we will work with you to develop your talent further. We very much look forward to receiving your application!
Good luck,
Nick, Charlotte, and Dominic.
Apply now