Fundraising Manager

About Smart Works 

Smart Works is a dynamic, high profile and fast-growing UK charity that dresses and coaches unemployed women for success at their job interview. We empower each woman by giving her the clothes and the confidence she needs to succeed. After visiting Smart Works, 69% of clients secure a job within a month, gaining financial independence and transforming their lives.   

More information about who we are can be found on our website.

About the role  

As the charity works to double the number of women it helps, we are recruiting for a Fundraising Lead to join our Newcastle team. Reporting to the Centre Manager, they will engage new and existing supporters and raise vital funds across events, grants and community fundraising to support of our mission. 

In practice, this involves identifying new locations to deliver our annual events calendar, expanding our portfolio of grant funders and delivering our annual community fundraising campaign to target income. 

They will also work with our Communications Assistant to deliver engaging digital content about our events and community fundraising initiatives across various social media platforms. 

The successful candidate will have good relationship building skills to ensure lasting and mutually beneficial event partnerships, experience in stakeholder management (both internally and externally) and excellent written communication skills. Knowledge and experience on how to elevate a website is highly desirable.

The role will be based at our Smart Works centre in Newcastle with occasional travel to set-up and host corporate and community events. Occasional weekend and evening work is also required to lead and support on our events calendar. 

This is a fantastic opportunity for someone looking to develop their career in events and community fundraising for a worthy cause. If you can multi-task and are a strong networker, we would love to hear from you.

Duties and responsibilities  

• Leading on Smart Works Newcastle’s signature fundraising events, including high-end supporter events, fashion sales, and pop-up shops, managing the project from planning to execution and ensuring income targets of circa £55K are met.
• Effectively steward and manage multiple fashion retail and events partners to increase annual gift-in-kind support, clothing donations and engagement.
• Seek networking opportunities to grow our supporter base, through community fundraising and corporate partnerships, owning KPI income targets for community, grants and events. 
• Secure one-year and multi-year grants from a range of Trusts and Foundations to achieve our circa £55k income target, in liaison with the Head of Grants and Strategic Development in London.
• Working with the National Community Fundraising Manager, to deliver our annual community fundraising campaigns such as Cycle for Smart Works, leading on corporate engagement and ensuring that a minimum of £20k is raised.
• Working with our Communications Assistant, ensuring our events and fundraising successes are shared far and wide in exciting and engaging content. 

Personal Specification 

Essential Criteria

• Demonstrable experience in event management and delivery, ideally in a fundraising capacity.
• Experience working with grant applications and/or funding proposals, and utilising a range of tools to identify new funding opportunities.
• Strong relationship building skills and confidence managing various stakeholders.
• Target driven with excellent organisation and time management capabilities, demonstrating an ability to prioritise and work to deadlines.
• Effective project-management skills, comfortable with managing multiple projects simultaneously.

Desirable Criteria

• Confident user of Microsoft Office (including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel), social media platforms and digital content creation software such as Canva and Adobe InDesign, for professional settings.
• Proven track record in securing five-figure philanthropic income. 
• Experience in a fundraising or sales-based role.
• A detailed understanding of the fundraising landscape across Newcastle. 
• Experience working with VIPs or influencers.

How to Apply  

Please visit our website or click "Apply Now" to find out more information - we can't wait to hear from you.