University of Cambridge Development and Alumni Relations
Fundraising Manager
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Could your skills translate into major gifts fundraising?
If you have built senior relationships, influenced C-suite decision-makers, negotiated complex deals and taken opportunities from first conversation through to successful close, they might.
The University of Cambridge is looking for an outstanding relationship-builder, influencer and negotiator to join our Development and Alumni Relations team as an Associate Director on a maternity cover basis.
You may already have a successful career in major gifts fundraising. Alternatively, you may have developed your experience in a commercial, professional services, business development, partnerships or another relationship-led environment.
What matters to us is what you have achieved and the skills you can bring, rather than following a particular career path.
The opportunity:
Cambridge is tackling some of the biggest questions facing society. Philanthropy plays an important part in making that work possible, supporting world-leading research and education, students, academic posts, collections and major projects across the University.
As an Associate Director, you will build and develop relationships with individuals and organisations with the potential to make significant philanthropic gifts to Cambridge.
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Working closely with academics, senior University leaders and colleagues across Collegiate Cambridge, you will understand our priorities and identify where they connect with the interests and motivations of prospective supporters.
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You will manage your own portfolio of prospective donors, develop strategies for individual relationships, create opportunities for engagement and lead conversations that can ultimately result in six and seven-figure philanthropic gifts.
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You will meet prospective supporters personally, represent Cambridge at meetings and events, develop compelling proposals and, when the time is right, make the case for significant financial support.
Just as importantly, you will need to navigate Cambridge itself.
This is a complex, highly devolved and matrixed environment. Successful fundraising requires you to build effective relationships across different parts of the University, understand different perspectives and priorities, and use influence rather than authority to make things happen.
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What we are looking for:
We are looking for someone with a strong track record of achieving significant outcomes through relationships, influence and negotiation.
You may have developed your career in fundraising, but you may equally have gained your experience in a completely different sector or professional environment.
You will be able to demonstrate experience of:
- initiating, developing, negotiating and successfully closing significant deals, agreements, investments or philanthropic gifts
- building and managing complex, long-term relationships with both internal and external stakeholders
- working successfully within a complex, matrixed organisation
- engaging confidently with C-suite executives, senior leaders and other decision-makers
- leading senior-level meetings and presenting ideas, proposals or opportunities clearly and persuasively
- influencing people where you may have no formal authority
- navigating competing priorities and bringing different stakeholders towards a successful outcome
- understanding different perspectives and motivations and adapting your approach accordingly
- taking personal ownership of opportunities from initial engagement through negotiation to successful completion.
You will also bring excellent emotional intelligence, judgement and discretion. You will know when to listen, when to challenge, when to adapt your approach and when to move a conversation forward.
We value curiosity, adaptability and resilience. You will be comfortable operating with autonomy, learning quickly and building effective relationships with people from a wide range of professional and personal backgrounds.
Do I need fundraising experience?
Previous major gifts fundraising experience would be valuable, but it is not the only route into this role.
We are genuinely interested in hearing from people with highly transferable experience from other sectors and professions.
Perhaps you have developed major client relationships, won complex business, negotiated significant agreements, built strategic partnerships, secured investment or worked with senior decision-makers in another context.
What matters is that you can demonstrate your own contribution. We are looking for people who have personally developed opportunities, built the relationships required to progress them, navigated complex negotiations and taken them through to a successful conclusion.
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The context here is philanthropy rather than commerce, and success is measured in philanthropic impact rather than commercial return. But many of the capabilities required are highly transferable: building trust, understanding motivation, influencing decisions, negotiating effectively and securing significant commitments.
We will help you develop your understanding of Cambridge, philanthropy and major gifts fundraising. You will bring the relationship skills, judgement, adaptability and ability to deliver significant outcomes.
If you recognise the capabilities we are looking for but your career has taken a different route, we would encourage you to apply.
Why Cambridge?
Few organisations offer the opportunity to build relationships around such an extraordinary range of ideas.
One conversation might involve pioneering scientific research, another the future of technology, sustainability, education or the humanities. Your role is to understand what matters to the people you meet and create meaningful connections between their interests and the work taking place across Cambridge.
You will work alongside leading academics and senior colleagues and engage with influential individuals and organisations in the UK and internationally.
For someone joining us from outside fundraising, this could be an opportunity to take everything you have learned about relationships, influence, negotiation and closing significant opportunities and use those skills for a very different purpose.
For an experienced fundraiser, it offers the opportunity to do that work within one of the world's leading universities, representing an extraordinary breadth of research, education and ideas.
Whoever you are and whatever route your career has taken, if you can demonstrate the capabilities we are looking for, we would like to hear from you.
University of Cambridge Development and Alumni Relations – do your best work here.
Closing Dates:
- Arts and Humanities - 31 Aug
- Associate Director, School of Arts and Humanities (Maternity Cover) | University of Cambridge
- Physical Sciences - 6 Sept
- Associate Director, Physical Sciences (Permanent and Maternity Cover) | University of Cambridge
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