Director of Supporter Engagement

Mary’s Meals serves nutritious school meals to children living in some of the world’s poorest countries. The promise of a meal attracts these hungry children into the classroom, giving them the energy to learn and hope for a better future.

We are excited to be recruiting for a Director of Supporter Engagement to join Mary’s Meals UK. Reporting the Executive Director and serving as an integral member of the UK leadership team, the Director of Supporter Engagement will lead, inspire and develop the Supporter Engagement function, balancing strategic leadership with a hands-on approach to fundraising.

MMUK is the largest and longest established National Affiliate in the Mary’s Meals network, currently raising c.£20M to support global school feeding programmes, reaching children living some of the world’s poorest countries. The promise of a meal attracts these hungry children into the classroom, giving them the energy to learn and hope for a better future.

We have a remote-first approach to work and are happy for you to work remotely and flexibly from anywhere in the UK, in a way that best supports your work-life balance. This role will also require regular travel throughout the UK, particularly London and Glasgow.

Key responsibilities include but are not limited too:

Strategy and Leadership

• To support the day-to-day management of the charity and contribute to the organisation’s strategic direction and growth, as part of the senior leadership team.
• To contribute to the preparation of the charity's strategic plan and the monitoring and reporting of progress against organisational goals and objectives.
• Lead on cross-organisational projects in line with organisational strategy.

Fundraising:

• To develop a clear and inspiring vision for fundraising, backed up by ambitious strategies and activities that significantly raise awareness of Mary’s Meals in the UK, and grow and diversify income.
• To ensure our fundraising approach and activities remain aligned with our organisational strategy, values and fundraising model.
• To lead, inspire and develop the Supporter Engagement team (formed of the Grassroots, Philanthropy, Institutional Giving and Supporter Care teams).
• To manage a portfolio of donor, volunteer and prospect relationships, travelling regularly to attend meetings, and network to cultivate new prospects and funding opportunities.
• To support the team to develop professional and engaging fundraising materials including fundraising propositions, applications, proposals, appeals, pitches, presentations and reports.
• To oversee volunteer strategy, management and support to further empower our volunteers with a greater role in our shared vision and maximise their skills and networks.

Budgeting, Reporting and Compliance

• To set, monitor and deliver annual income and expenditure budgets, providing regular reports as required to the Executive Director, Leadership team, wider Mary’s Meals family, and our Board of Trustees.
• To feed into organisational strategic KPIs and team KPIs, and ensure a regular schedule of reporting, and insight gathering is in place to monitor activity and use insight to guide decision-making and drive growth. 

People and culture

• To create a high performing team that is ambitious and passionate about the Mary’s Meals vision.
• To ensure teams receive consistent and motivating direction and feedback to enable them to work to the best of their ability.
• Build strong working relationships with colleagues across the charity at all levels, adopting and encouraging a collaborative working approach across the Mary’s Meals family. This role must work particularly closely with the Director of Communications, and collaboration with this role will be key.
• To work with the Head of People to ensure that MMUK is an employer of choice which attracts, recruits and retains a talented team of values-led, paid employees and volunteers, throughout the UK.
• To actively promote safeguarding practices and model behaviours that support a safe culture across all MMUK activities. 

About you:

• Significant experience operating at senior management level, including leading a fundraising department, ideally with experience in the areas of grassroots and major giving fundraising.
• Experience of developing and executing strategies to secure significant revenue generation, with specific evidence of delivering income growth.
• Experience of representing an organisation at a senior level, with excellent written, presentation and public speaking skills.
• Excellent entrepreneurial networking and relationship building abilities, with experience of proactively identifying and cultivating new and existing donor relationships, and securing strategic funding partnerships and high-value donations.
• Experience in volunteer strategy, management, recruitment and engagement.
• Experience in setting, monitoring and delivering significant annual income and expenditure budgets, providing regular reports as required.
• Experience of testing and launching new fundraising products (e.g., mass engagement grassroots campaigns, corporate partnerships, major donor events etc.).
• Experience of developing first-class supporter journeys, interactions, products and propositions.
• Experience in innovation and product development.
   

Please see the recruitment pack on our website by following the instructions on Charity Job.