Senior Donor Relations Officer, Development

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Job Scope

The Royal Society's Development Team raises funds from high-net-worth individuals, charitable trusts and foundations, and corporate donors to support the Royal Society's strategic plan. The Society is uniquely placed to convene philanthropic support from global partners in furtherance of our founding principle "to promote excellence in Science for the benefit of humanity".

The Society has a strong history of Development and an ambitious vision for increasing fundraising, which requires the innovative, thoughtful and diligent oversight of all donor relations. The Donor Relations Officer will have oversight of our donor experience with specific responsibility for new donor engagement and existing donor stewardship. The post holder will report to the Head of Development and work collaboratively across the Development Team and Royal Society to ensure a first-class donor experience. The postholder will have overall responsibility for the project management of donor reporting and will play a key role in developing donor communications including proposals, reports and web copy.

Reports to: Head of Development

Line manages: None

Location: Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AG (with some evening and out of hours work on occasion)

Hours: Full time, 35 hours a week

Pay band: D

Salary: £38,000 to £45,000

Contract type: Permanent

The application closing date is 12 January 2025.

Interviews will take place on 20 and 21 January 2025.

Please note that we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.

Responsibilities

Reporting and stewardship

• Author insightful and accurate reports for donors, ensuring reports demonstrate the value of their support, enabling the Society to maintain positive relationships.
• Work alongside fundraising colleagues to coordinate stewardship plans for all current donors.
• Work with the Development Operations Manager to ensure financial reporting to donors is accurate and delivered on schedule.
• Keep Donor Relations processes and resources up to date and proactively identifying where processes need reviewing and updating.
• Review complex information provided by grant recipients and identifying potential case studies for donor reports and communications etc...

Cultivation and engagement

• Work with the Manager, Medals and Fellowship, Scientific Programmes to brief them on donor events and work in collaboration to ensure that the content and delivery meets agreed objectives.
• Coordinate donor relations and engagement communications including Christmas and holiday messages and VIP invitations to Royal Society events.
• Ensure donor recognition is accurate, consistent and up to date across Royal Society communications and written resources.
• Identify opportunities for enhanced stewardship activities and communications.

Philanthropy writing and proposition development

• Develop giving opportunities summaries and briefings, including stewardship and recognition options.
• Create communications with key donor audiences for specific projects including legacies.
• Build engaged and collaborative relationships across the Royal Society and take an active interest in activities and new developments.

General

• Monitor any potential risks associated with gift deliverables, escalating to the Head of Development where appropriate.
• Take an active interest in Donor Relations trends and networks, implementing this at the Royal Society where appropriate.
• Ensure GDPR compliance in all data processing activities.
• Ensure the Development database records relating to donors are kept accurate and up to date.
• Staff and attend both internal and external events as required.
• Perform additional duties as required.

Key Knowledge and Skills Required

Essential

• Demonstrable experience of writing impactful reports or donor communications.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Excellent analytical and editorial skills.
• Ability to project manage multiple activities and deliver to deadlines.
• Proven ability to prioritise and organise own workload effectively and efficiently.
• Ability to find creative solutions to complex issues when they arise.
• Ability to develop credibility and build and maintain excellent working relationships with internal staff members at all levels.
• Experience of working closely alongside or within a major gifts team.
• Sensitivity and discretion in dealing with confidential information.
• Experience of using Microsoft packages including Word, Outlook and Excel.
• An interest in science, scientists and the aims and objectives of the Royal Society.
• Flexibility to attend and assist at events where required.
• Education to a Bachelor's or Masters degree or equivalent
• Experience of using a CRM database to record information and produce reports, including the ability to interpret data where necessary

Desirable

• Comfortable with presenting information in written and verbal formats to colleagues.
• Flexible and able to adapt to last minute changes and opportunities.

Competencies

The competency levels for a pay Band D role are described below.

Self-management

• Works unsupervised and can motivate self

• Produces results under pressure

• Can manage in stressful situations

• Pushes for the best results

• Pursues and encourages feedback that may reveal an error in judgment and then makes appropriate adjustments

• Recognises own personal biases or limitations, and uses this understanding to improve decisions and plans for action

• Seeks out mentors and other development resources to gain additional self-awareness and personal development

• Reflects on negative situations with maturity and seeks to understand own contribution to the situation

• Holds things together and acts as a settling influence

Working with others

• Contributes ideas and identifies opportunities to work with others both within the team and across the organisation

• Willing to provide feedback to sectional colleagues when requested

• Produces succinct presentations and papers for senior colleagues

• Understands when to seek senior advice on potentially delicate negotiations

• Reaches a variety of audiences using an appropriate mix of communication methods and tailored messages to appeal to their unique needs

• Speaks from the heart to compel action and creates an emotional appeal for organisational priorities

• Creates an environment of transparency while respecting confidentiality requirements

• Builds consensus for delivering team goals. Frequently interacts with peers, on cross-functional matters.

Resource management

• Makes the best of internal/external resources and coordinates well with external partners to best meet the needs of the Society

• Builds contingency into projects taking into account possible outside factors

• Sets and monitors performance against quality and results orientated targets.

• Focuses on both short and long-term goals

• Creates novel solutions to problems

• Creates a detailed design or plan to implement a new solution or approach

• Evaluates new technology as potential solutions to existing issues.

• Adjusts course as new information comes to light

• Executes quickly and decisively in a time-sensitive situation

• Takes accountability to persist until opportunity is realised or problem solved

Critical thinking

• Determines and clarifies the exact requirements of any situation

• Checks information for accuracy and raises concerns if information is inaccurate

• Extracts the key points succinctly, clearly and accurately

• Puts forward suggestions for improvement concerning current processes or systems

• Tries different ways of doing things to get the best results

• Compares and evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of options

• Formulates an opinion by considering opposing views and suggestions

• Runs trials and models or applies statistical analysis and stress testing to confirm or disconfirm proposal

Adaptability

• Overcomes obstacles and is not deterred by setbacks; checks assumptions and first principles and works out alternative approaches

• Reacts proactively to new challenges and works in a flexible manner to produce solutions

• Provides feedback and participates in discussions surrounding new ideas approaches or projects

• Maintains focus and continues to deliver when things are 'up in the air'

• Adjusts to act differently depending on the situation

• Takes steps to understand basic risk management and importance of identifying and maintaining controls

• Helps others to understand and cope with ambiguous situations

Managing people and relationships

• Delegates effectively, setting clear expectations and authority

• Monitors results and feedback to team on a regular basis

• Recognises others' contributions and acknowledges their limits

• Helps others to identify ways to improve their performance

• Prioritises supervisory responsibilities and carries them out in a timely fashion

• Understands and can identify client/stakeholder/staff needs and looks for opportunities to improve their experiences

• Demonstrates trust in others' ability to accomplish tasks at acceptable levels of performance

• Provides current, direct, complete and actionable positive and constructive feedback

• Has a mind-set of sharing own and others' expertise

• Creates an environment of transparency while respecting confidentiality requirements

• Focuses on surfacing underlying customer issues/concerns and identifying root causes

• Increases exposure to and personal relationships with customers

• Expresses positive views of the customer