Head of Donor Development and Impact

Job Title: Head of Donor Development and Impact

Reporting to: Deputy CEO

Location: Full-time- Hybrid working practices in place- at least 3 days in the London Office

Contract: Permanent

Salary: £56,400- £62,000

Direct Reports: Systems & Change Manager; Learning, Impact & Data Lead

Choose Love supports refugees and forcibly displaced people worldwide, making sure they have what they need when they need it. Our support ranges from lifesaving search and rescue boats to hot, nutritious food, clothes, and legal advice. We’re a small, agile, and ambitious team powered by our vision of a world that chooses love and justice every day for everyone.

Summary of Role:

The Head of Donor Development & Impact is crucial in driving Choose Love’s strategic and financial growth and impact. Choose Love has a fundraising target of approx. £20 million a year, this role plays a crucial part in securing those funds through donor development (approximately £5-10m) and specifically with Trusts & Foundations. You will help Choose Love achieve its strategic objective to increase and diversify income by driving donor engagement, fostering sustainable partnerships, and enhancing our impact reporting to ensure transparency and accountability in our grant-making initiatives.

You will oversee the development and implementation of the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Framework for the organisation, working across teams to ensure the impact is measured and recorded effectively, with continual learning. This role requires a strategic, data-driven professional with a strong understanding of humanitarian issues and a passion for advancing the welfare of forcibly displaced communities.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Donor Development & Fundraising Strategy:

○ Develop and implement a comprehensive donor engagement and development strategy to cultivate long-term partnerships and diversify income streams

○ Identify, engage, and build strong relationships with existing and prospective donors, especially Trusts & Foundations in the UK, Europe and the US.

○ Lead the development of high-impact proposals, pitches, and presentations to secure funding for current and future programmes.

○ Work closely with ELT and the Director of Partnerships and Fundraising to support relationships with corporate partnerships and individual donors to diversify and increase revenue. This includes responding to urgent requests for data and impact to showcase Choose Love’s work.

○ Keep abreast of emerging trends and research in humanitarian aid, donor expectations, and innovations in impact measurement within the humanitarian sector.

○ Identify potential funding risks and opportunities, providing insights to inform Choose Love’s donor development strategy. ○ Keep the Donor Tracker CRM up-to-date with all communications and submissions to donors to ensure good record-keeping.

2. Impact Measurement &Reporting:

○ Will be accountable for Choose Love’s annual Impact reports for the organisation and reporting requirements to various donors. Having exceptional writing and communication skills is critical to this role. This includes having a vision for how to creatively showcase the significant and extensive impact of the organisation beyond our grant-making work (social change, narrative change through strategic communications)

○ Ensure systems are in place for continual learning and improvement of impact measures and reporting to communicate our funded programmes’ outcomes effectively (through our Airtable reporting platform). ○ Work closely with the Learning, Impact, & Data lead, overseeing the design and implementation of Choose Love’s Theory of Change.

○ Collaborate with the Programme team to gather accurate, relevant, timely data on project performance and outcomes, ensuring continuous collaborative review to ensure our reporting platforms are fit for purpose.

○ Prepare high-quality, data-driven reports and presentations for donors, specifically those responsible for Trusts and foundations, highlighting programme successes, challenges, and impact stories. ○ Ensure that all donor reporting requirements are met and deadlines are adhered to. Responsible for writing and submitting high-quality reports and maintaining a high standard of accountability and transparency. This will involve coordinating with the Programmes team for relevant stories and information.

3. Partnership & Stakeholder Management:

○ Build and maintain relationships with other humanitarian organisations and relevant stakeholders in the refugee sector

○ Represent Choose Love at donor meetings, conferences, and events to raise funding and awareness about our mission, objectives, and impact.

○ Act as the primary point of contact for donors, especially Trusts & Foundations, ensuring prompt responses to queries, concerns, and feedback.

4. Team Leadership & Management:

○ Will lead and manage a small team of experts, creating a collaborative and high-performing team leading on fundraising and MEAL, with a culture aligned to Choose Love’s organisational strategic objectives

○ Provide guidance on best practices in donor engagement, reporting, and impact measurement, ensuring the team keeps abreast of emerging trends and innovations in humanitarian grant-making.

○ Collaborate with teams across the organisation, including programmes, finance, and communications, to align strategies and ensure donor and impact reporting coherence.

○ Coordinate with the Communications team to integrate impact stories and data into marketing and communication materials and donor comms requirements.

Essential Criteria:

● Proven success in fundraising and donor relationship management within the nonprofit sector.

● Exceptional written skills, with extensive experience of successfully writing proposals and donor reports

● Demonstrable knowledge of the humanitarian funding landscape, especially Trusts & Foundations in the UK, Europe and the US, bringing a broad network of contacts

● Strategic thinker with a passion for humanitarian causes and a deep commitment to improving the lives of refugees and displaced people

● Excellent writing and communication skills, with the ability to convey complex information clearly and persuasively.

● Extensive experience in report writing, developing impact measures and analysing data, along with powerful storytelling to showcase program impact and outcomes

● Excellent organisational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to manage multiple tasks and deadlines.

● Experience of managing complex budgets

● Experience in managing a team

● Proficiency in using relevant software and tools for data management, reporting, and communication.

● Cultural sensitivity and ability to work effectively in a diverse, multicultural environment.

● Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to build and maintain relationships with donors, partners, and colleagues

● Flexible and happy to work out of hours when needed

● Commitment to Choose Loves values and working to improve the lives of refugees and displaced people around the world

● Committed to embedding an equality, diversity and inclusion lens in all your work

Desirable Criteria:

● Experience of working directly for a Refugee & Asylum charity

Benefits:

It is based

In a vibrant, dog-friendly office close to Old Street station, Shoreditch and Liverpool Street are on the doorstep. Opportunity to make a difference and work with some of the industry’s leading lights. Fantastic for personal growth and learning in a dynamic business that puts love in the heart of everything they do. If that doesn’t whet your appetite, coffee, doughnuts, and a variety of opportunities to meet amazing people might!