Head of Donor Relations

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About us:

Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement (P&A) provides a fundraising and alumni engagement function in support of King's College London. We are proud to work with colleagues across the university and its health partners to help them serve society through world-leading education, research and healthcare. Our work also includes a partnership with the Maudsley Charity in support of children's mental health initiatives between the university's Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience and the South London & Maudsley NHS Trust.

We are a committed team that brings together fundraisers working across different channels, alongside colleagues who promote King's College London's engagement with its worldwide alumni community. Our work is underpinned and enhanced by a range of dedicated professionals in supporting areas covering proposition development, supporter engagement, supporter operations and business operations.

We have an impressive, well-established track record of success in securing support that allows the university and partners to deliver on their missions. This includes our global, award-winning World Questions: King's Answers campaign, which set the standard in the sector and enabled us to raise substantial funds to help tackle some of the world's biggest challenges. Ambitious and innovative, the team has won awards such as a CASE Platinum Award for Fundraising and a CASE Gold Award for Donor Relations and Stewardship. We are strongly values-driven with a focus on sustaining an excellent and supportive culture, which we see as key to creating a successful team that can support the university and its partners in making a real and positive difference to the world we live in.

More on King's College London

King's College London is an internationally renowned university delivering exceptional education and world-leading research. The university is dedicated to driving positive and sustainable change in society and realising our vision of making the world a better place. Through its commitment to exceptional education, impactful research and genuine service to society, King's College London is creating positive change in its communities, both in London and on the world stage.

Find out more here - https://www.kcl.ac.uk/about

About the role:

As King's College London approaches a landmark period-launching a new Philanthropy and Engagement Campaign in 2027 and celebrating our Bicentenary in 2029- our community of donors plays a vital role in shaping what King's can achieve. This moment presents an extraordinary opportunity to inspire, thank, and nurture lifelong relationships that enable our supporters to feel truly connected to our purpose and proud of the impact they help create.

King's is seeking an outstanding Head of Donor Relations to lead a meaningful and sector-leading stewardship and donor experience programme that recognises every supporter and clearly demonstrates the transformative impact of their giving. Reporting to the Director of Advancement Communications & Engagement and working across Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement (P&A), you will play a pivotal role in helping King's raise more philanthropic income by strengthening donor trust, loyalty and long-term engagement.

Working in close partnership with academics, you will capture, evidence and communicate outcomes with clarity and credibility, translating complex work into meaningful impact stories that resonate with donors. You will lead the philanthropic naming and recognition strategy and advise philanthropy teams as they shape compelling opportunities.

You will collaborate closely with Advancement Events and Advancement Communications to deliver an exceptional end-to-end donor experience, explore appropriate automation, and showcase philanthropy internally and externally. You will also strengthen scholarship stewardship frameworks, ensuring strong links with the Student Finance Office and an approach that is mindful of safeguarding. As a confident, collaborative leader, with an entrepreneurial mindset and a strong attention to detail you will support the development of your team and deploy department resources strategically to maximise impact.

You will lead a talented team and work closely with senior leaders from across the university, our Estates team, world-leading academics, and fundraisers to ensure our highest-value donors receive meaningful, personalised engagement.

This role is ideal for a confident, collaborative leader who can bring creativity, strategic thinking, and insight to a complex and fast-moving environment.

Whether your background is in higher education, the non-profit sector, or another complex organisation, you will bring strategic vision, service excellence, and a deep commitment to building long-term, relationships with donors.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite contract. P&A has a hybrid working approach, with a minimum of 40% of time in the office. Typically, this equates to two days per week, but we're very happy for colleagues to be in more frequently if they so wish.

About you:

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Substantial experience working in donor relations and stewardship.
2. Proven leadership experience managing teams.
3. Shaping and delivering strategic change within a complex organisation.
4. Demonstrated ability to work with senior stakeholders and high-value donors with discretion, diplomacy, and sound judgement.
5. Advanced project and programme management skills; ability to manage competing priorities at pace.
6. Experience managing naming rights, gift agreements, and donor-recognition processes.
7. Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, capable of producing high-quality narrative content for senior audiences.

Desirable criteria

1. Experience in stewarding donors at all levels including principal gift level (£5m+).
2. Shaping and delivering strategic change within a complex organisation.
3. Strong analytical skills with ability to interpret complex programme data, evaluate impact, and shape strategic decisions.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further information:

At King's, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university. The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination. When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King's guidance.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.

We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ' How we Recruit ' pages.

We are open to discussing flexible working arrangements, including part-time, compressed hours and/or job shares, as appropriate and in the context of the business needs associated with the role.

We offer the opportunity of an "Ask Us Anything" Teams call on Monday 13th April at 10am. During this call you will be able to ask any questions you might have about the role, the selection process, our department, our core values and work culture, our current hybrid work policy, or simply listen to others' questions. To join please email sarah.carter@kcl.ac.uk

This role with have three interview stages - a standard skills-based first-stage interview; a second-stage follow-up interview to include a presentation; and a third stage (for up to two appointable candidates) Core Values interview.

First stage interviews are due to be held on Friday 1st May and Tuesday 5th May.

Second stage interviews are due to be held w/c 11th May.

Core values interviews are due to be held w/c 18th May.