Partnership Development Lead  

Job Description and Person Specification  

Reporting to: Head of Corporate Partnerships  

Location of work: Home-based with approximately one or two office days per month. The role may involve some irregular travel throughout England and Scotland. Expenses will be paid in line with our Travel and Expenses policy. 

Contract type: Full-time, 35 hours per week, although part-time/flexible hours may be considered. The role may require occasional evening and weekend work. 

Contract Length: 12 months FTC  starting in early January

Salary: £37,500-£45,000 based on skills and experience 

BACKGROUND  

Magic Breakfast is a registered charity providing healthy breakfasts to children and young people in the UK who arrive at school too hungry to learn, and expert support to their schools. Over 230,000 children and young people are on roll at Primary, Secondary, ASL / Special Educational Needs Schools and Pupil Referral Units that the charity works with, in disadvantaged areas of Scotland and England. Providing breakfast ensures that children start their school day with the energy and nutrition they need to be able to make the most of their morning lessons. Magic Breakfast also undertakes research, and campaigns for long-term solutions to end hunger as a barrier to learning. 

JOB PURPOSE  

As part of the Corporate Partnerships team in the Fundraising and Development directorate, Partnership Development is responsible for leading on securing new, high-value, strategic partnerships to support our vision of ensuring that no child or young person is too hungry to learn now and for good.  

As the Partnership Development Lead, you will be responsible for spearheading the development and delivery of the new business strategy, as well as working collaboratively with colleagues across the organisation to pull together and deliver compelling proposals and pitches. The role will line manage the Senior Partnership Development Manager and Partnership Development Manager, working together to achieve the goals and priorities of the team. You will also create, embed and monitor key new business processes such as pipeline management, income forecasting and reporting, and work with the wider Fundraising team to deliver our fundraising strategy. 

 KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:   

Partnership Development 

In conjunction with the Partnership Development Team: 

• Lead on the development and delivery of the team’s new business strategy. 

• Develop and manage a pool of prospects, identifying, cultivating and securing new corporate partnerships, using a range of tools to enable this eg prospect research, networking, cultivation planning, creative and compelling new business propositions and engaging and tailored pitches and proposals. 

• Identify and attend business networking events, representing Magic Breakfast when required. 

• Keep abreast of restricted and unrestricted funding needs, including our Gift in Kind requirements, managing the process to keep this up to date and building the team’s pipeline to meet these needs. 

• Lead on thinking and strategy on key pieces of work eg refreshing and updating our ‘go-to-market’ narrative. 

• Ensure that accurate and up to date prospect and partner records are maintained on our database.  

• Use Sales Force to capture and analyse key new business data and KPIs and use insight to inform new business activity. 

• Stay abreast of sector trends and the wider market, leveraging insight to inform the strategy and implementation roadmap, ensuring that the team is anticipating and responding to trends in corporate giving. 

Internal working 

• Work across the team to ensure a strong prospect pipeline, maximising existing individual and organisational networks during the cultivation process. 

• Ensure the smooth transition of prospects to a) Partnership Managers, where appropriate working with prospective partners to agree partnership vision, objectives and KPIs in collaboration with them or b) small corporate team. 

• Work with wider Fundraising & Development team to help create and deliver prospecting opportunities, cultivation and stewardship events. 

• Engage relevant internal colleagues across Policy & Engagement, Finance & Performance and Service Delivery to feed into the partnership development process. 

• Work across the organisation to identify pro bono projects, specific funding opportunities/ GIK/ other support as required to deliver on the strategy. 

Planning, reporting and due diligence 

• Support Head of Corporate Partnerships in accurately forecasting new business income for each financial year, and ensure forecast income is updated monthly. 

• Support Head of Corporate Partnerships in developing annual plans for new business activity as well as updating and executing the new business strategy. 

• Ensure all prospects meet the criteria in our ethical fundraising policy, flagging any risks upwards for resolution. 

• Ensure all new business activity is carried out in line with the Fundraising Regulator’s Code of Practice.  

• Ensure all new partnerships have appropriate contractual agreements in place with logo license fees included where appropriate.  

Management responsibilities 

• Manage, support and motivate members of the Partnership Development team to ensure they have a clear understanding of objectives and that development areas are identified with a clear development plan in keeping with the Support & Supervision process 

• Promote a culture of testing and learning to continuously drive improvement, and in line with Magic Breakfast’s values, policies and procedures. 

• Take responsibility for the operationalisation of Magic Breakfast’s policies and practice in relation to safeguarding, risk management, and GDPR across the corporate partnership team as appropriate 

General 

• Contribute to Fundraising & Development and Corporate Partnership team meetings and reflection sessions, sharing best practice and supporting team members in line with Magic Breakfast values. 

• Help to maintain a positive working environment; keeping the vision of Magic Breakfast at the heart of everything we do. 

• Uphold a culture that encourages curiosity, continuous improvement, optimism, and a steadfast commitment to social impact. 

• Work collaboratively to build good working relations across the organisation and provide ad-hoc support to other teams and members of staff. 

• Adhere to all Magic Breakfast policies and procedures.  

• Ensure that all activity is compliant with current legislation, GDPR and child safeguarding requirements. 

• Undertake any other duties commensurate with the role. 

PERSON SPECIFICATION  

Knowledge and Experience  

• Experience of securing high value, mutually beneficial, strategic and multi-year partnerships. 

• Good working knowledge of best practice new business cultivation processes from identifying to securing new partners through experience gained in charity or corporate sector.  

• Experience of conducting due diligence in the charity sector to ensure that all partners meet our ethical fundraising criteria.  

• Experience negotiating and agreeing contracts. 

• Experience of income forecasting, reporting and some strategic planning.  

• Experience of using a fundraising database (ideally Salesforce) for relationship management and income forecasting purposes desirable but not essential. 

• Up to date knowledge of the corporate fundraising landscape desirable but not essential. 

• Relevant professional training or qualifications in fundraising or related fields desirable but not essential.  

Skills and Abilities  

• Proven success of good stakeholder management (both internally and externally), with the ability to build and manage strong working relationships, influencing, negotiating and collaborating effectively with a diverse range of individuals and at differing levels of seniority.  

• Excellent written and verbal communication including presentation and pitching skills with the ability to communicate information effectively and compellingly to both specialist and non-specialist audiences. 

• Confident and collaborative team player able to effectively contribute and manage projects remotely across teams and departments and inspire others.  

• Excellent project management and planning skills. 

• Outstanding time management and organizational skills with the ability to plan and prioritise a varied workload autonomously and maintaining a high degree of attention to detail.  

• High level of competency in the use of Microsoft Office packages. 

Other  

• Passion for and commitment to Magic Breakfast’s aim of alleviating morning hunger as a barrier to learning for children and young people in the UK.  

• Share Magic Breakfast’s values and commitment to Diversity, Equality and Inclusion within the workplace.  

• Experience of working for a charity, especially in the area of children and young people, desirable but not essential. 

Application PROCESS

Should yoUhave questions about the role before applying please email our People and Culture Team, recruitment @magicbreakfast. com

Close - Sunday 20th October 

Shortlisting - Monday 21st October & Tuesday 22nd October 

Interview 1 - Thursday 31st October

Interview 2 and informal interview - Wednesday 6th November 9-12.30pm