[Hiring] Head of Fundraising @mySociety and SocietyWorks

mySociety is a small, purposeful charity which uses digital tools to help people to participate more fully in democracy, make governments and society more transparent and help people work together to address societal challenges. We’re looking for an experienced fundraiser who has the research, proposal writing and budget development experience to deliver on our fundraising strategy by securing new sources of income from grant making foundations and government programmes, coupled with the strategic planning and management skills to further diversify our income by building our individual donations. You’ll be providing maternity cover and working as part of a nimble, digital-first, and entirely remote team - you can work from anywhere in the UK! You will have the opportunity to meet your colleagues face to face at our quarterly in person team meetings.

The role requires developing existing connections and leads and identifying and building new relationships in order to deliver ~£1 million a year in funding. You’ll be our sole fundraiser, coordinating with our Chief Executive and brilliant, friendly, multidisciplinary programme teams to develop workable, fundable proposals, and to manage and report on grants, acting as the main relationship holder for funders. You will need to be inventive in seeking out potential new funders, and to quickly grasp how the organisation works, with a good understanding of how our technology-led climate, transparency and democracy programmes sit within and extend the reach of broader systems of impact. 

The ideal candidate will be an exceptional communicator, proactive and tenacious at finding and following up leads, flexible and collaborative in approach, with good knowledge of the broader funding landscape and relevant and active connections and networks.

No recruiters or agencies, please.

What does the role involve?

• Deliver on and refine our four year fundraising strategy, building and maintaining a good understanding of the needs of each of our programmes, priorities and desired charitable goals
• Frame our current and planned activity to appropriately align with the priorities of potential funders
• Identify new leads for unrestricted grant funding to support our existing and core activity
• Identify relevant restricted grant funding for projects that align with our existing priorities and new adjacent areas
• Lead on writing and submitting grant proposals, developing appropriate budgets, logframes, etc in collaboration with other members of the team
• Maintain effective monitoring practices in order to identify new funding opportunities
• Maintain our database of funders and potential funding contacts
• Contribute to the development of the organisation’s wider strategy, through knowledge of the funding landscape
• Produce regular reports on fundraising progress against targets
• Develop mySociety’s broader income generation work, building individual giving and other approaches as appropriate

• Own the relationship with existing funders and be their main point of contact within mySociety
• Lead on grant agreement/contract negotiations and compliance
• Ensure all relevant team members are fully briefed on the terms and conditions of funding agreements, including key deadlines
• Provide regular updates to funders on progress, and share insights and news with them

Requirements

We think this position would suit you best if you have some or all of the following:

• Demonstrable fundraising track record; both quantitatively in money raised, and qualitatively in organisational fit and sustainability
• A proactive and resourceful approach
• Great personal rapport and people skills, able to quickly make connections and build productive and effective relationships
• Breadth of experience and interest in developing different income streams
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral - able to capture the breadth of our experience and summarise it tailored for the needs of each proposal
• Ability to develop the strategic relationship between communications, events and fundraising
• Strong sector experience, ideally within civic technology or related fields
• Practical and organised for record keeping and reporting
• Able to assess grant opportunities and comprehensively break down proposal requirements into manageable tasks
• Tech savvy with proven experience of relevant databases and applications

Interested in applying but not sure you have all the skills? Please apply anyway! We support learning on the job and rearranging tasks within the teams to suit the skillsets of the best applicant. Please let us know in your covering letter what your relevant experience is and where you might need to learn as you go.

Got questions? Drop an email to Yolanda Gomes on [email protected]

Benefits

This is a fixed-term maternity cover contract with a pro-rated salary in the range of £55,000 to £65,000 per year, plus pension (4% employer, 4% employee).

You must be based in the UK and you need to have the right to work in this country (sorry, but we can’t offer help with visas or relocation expenses).

You can read more about what it’s like working at mySociety at https://www.mysociety.org/about/careers/culture/

Deadlines and dates

The application deadline is 10pm Sunday 15 December 2024 and interviews will take place in early January 2025  via video conference. We will aim to notify applicants of whether or not they will be invited to interview by the end of December 2024.

Application instructions

Your application should consist of a CV and covering letter. We’ll rely on your covering letter to show us why your skills make you a good fit for this role when we are shortlisting candidates, so take your time getting it right. There will also be a practical exercise for longlisted candidates to complete.

We will shortlist all applications anonymously. So please use your initials rather than your name on your CV and cover letter, and don’t include identifying details such as your name or email addresses on these attached documents.

We are particularly interested in improving the diversity of our team and we welcome applications from all suitably skilled and experienced people, and particularly from candidates with Black, Asian or other Minority Ethnic heritage, in line with our EDI strategy.

We are monitoring our recruitment processes to ensure we are doing everything we can to encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We would ask you to please complete our optionalequalities monitoring form. The information you share in the form will be anonymous and will not influence the assessment of your application.

mySociety is a not-for-profit social enterprise, based in the UK and working internationally. We make websites and tools that empower citizens… like WriteToThem, FixMyStreet, WhatDoTheyKnow, TheyWorkForYou, and Alaveteli.

You can read more about why you might want to work for us on our careers page, or sign up to our jobs mailing list to hear about new positions.

Got questions? Ask us anything.