Senior Partnership Development Manager

We are looking for a positive people-person with business acumen and the ambition to help take ANT to our next level of impact, delivering on natural capital and private finance for the Lower Chew Landscape Recovery project and Avon Needs Trees’ woodland projects.
Job Purpose
Your legacy will be a tangible impact on slowing down climate change, helping nature recover and creating social impact by leading on landowner and stakeholder engagement for the Lower Chew Landscape Recovery project that will see thousands of acres of local land managed in harmony with nature. You will join a fast-growing organisation that started in 2019 with four volunteers and has grown to a staff team of thirteen (which will double over 2024), over 1,000 volunteers and ownership of 170 acres (soon to be 600 acres) of land that will grow woodlands of over 160,000 trees.
The project
Landscape Recovery is one of Defra’s three environmental land management schemes. Avon Needs Trees has been awarded development phase funding for Landscape Recovery in the Lower Chew. This is a unique opportunity to help co-design nature’s recovery and social impact at a landscape scale. The project will engage existing landowners and managers across over 867 hectares of land in the Lower Chew, an area where good quality but fragmented woodland provides a basis for woodland connectivity and large-scale woodland creation, as part of a mosaic of grassland and woodland habitat. This locally-cherished landscape of rolling farmland on the edge of Bristol is the strategic setting for delivering local environmental and social priorities. Avon Needs Trees woodland projects include two Wiltshire Woodlands, the Great Avon Wood, Ed Woods, and the upcoming Lower Chew Forest.
Main responsibilities
● Join and help to lead our journey to discover the increased impact that private finance can bring to nature’s recovery
● Become our in-house expert on the local natural capital market and other forms of bringing private finance into nature’s recovery, including identifying and building relationships with potential future partners
● Being a strong advocate, internally and externally, for the landscape recovery project and the benefits it will deliver
● Leading on the delivery of the blended finance and business model for landscape recovery project, including:
      ○ Baselining agricultural finances
      ○ Finance model design, development and implementation
      ○ Landowner consultation on blended finance and business model
      ○ Developing a framework for natural capital
      ○ Ensuring legal agreements are compatible with blended finance models
● Work with the wider Avon Needs Trees team to help build a resilient, multi-site charity and undertake any other work necessary to pursue our aims
● As with all Avon Needs Trees roles, contributing to grant writing and fundraising activities
● Other duties and opportunities as required