Head of Corporate Partnerships - National Trust : Job Details

Salary: £55,000 – £65,000 dependent on experience, with benefits

We are looking for a Head of Corporate Partnerships - maternity cover to lead our ambitious Partnerships team.

This is a great opportunity for an experienced Corporate Partnerships leader to join the National Trust at a really exciting time, as we develop our plans to grow income from corporate partnerships and build new propositions for private-sector partners.

In addition, we are embarking on an ambitious change programme – the Fundraising Growth Programme – which aims to increase the National Trust’s fundraising capabilities so that we can help generate the income needed for the delivery of the National Trust’s new Strategy from 2025. Corporate Partnerships is one of the income streams that has been identified as having significant headroom for growth across a range of partnership types.

In this role, you’ll be responsible for the continued success of the Corporate Partnerships Team, ensuring that the remainder of the 2024/25 delivery plan is implemented; developing and putting in place the 2025/26 income and delivery plan and ensuring that the team is supported to develop a robust pipeline of new prospects and grow existing relationships with current partners. In 2023/24, the team raised £4.1m, the highest partnership income to date for the National Trust. We have plans to continue to grow this income year on year. You’ll be responsible for a team of 7, with 4 direct reports across Business Development, Account Management and Corporate Volunteering.

This is a fixed term, 12 month contract, with possible extension to 14 months depending on the maternity leave duration

With 5.37 million members, 10,000 staff and thousands of volunteers, the National Trust is now the biggest conservation charity in Europe, caring for more than 250,000 hectares of farmland, more than 780 miles of coastline, and more than 500 historic properties, gardens and nature reserves. We’re an ambitious bunch, committed to preserving nature, history and beauty for everyone, forever.

Our Corporate Partnerships team sits alongside Philanthropy and Grants to form our High Value Fundraising team, which in turn forms part of our wider Fundraising team which includes Public Fundraising, Legacies and Fundraising Operations. Fundraising as a whole sits within our Support and Revenue Directorate, which brings together our supporter-facing income streams from Membership to Fundraising through to our Commercial teams.

Within Fundraising, our job is to inspire individuals, grant makers, trusts and companies to support the Trust in our mission to ensure that nature, beauty and history are there for all to enjoy, for ever. This includes welcoming new donors at all levels from diverse audience groups, inspiring their support for people and places, and championing a fundraising culture across the Trust.

Your contractual location will be either our head office in Swindon or our London office at Savoy Hill House, and there will be an expectation for you to attend the office on a regular basis. However, there is flexibility on where you are based at other times. You will be required to work at a National Trust location for 40-60% of your working week. This will be discussed in more detail at interview.

The role involves some travel to work with National Trust colleagues, and visit our projects and properties across England, Wales and Northern Ireland as required.

Reporting to the Head of Philanthropy & Partnerships, you’ll be responsible for developing our corporate partnerships value proposition, shaping our corporate engagement strategy, and increasing income in this area. Day to day, and with the support of your team, you'll establish and drive a proactive approach to identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding corporate prospects and partners to grow the pipeline and develop existing partners to grow this income stream. You'll ensure that we create and deliver compelling propositions to inspire corporate partners to support the work of the National Trust across the broad range of organisational priorities.

In addition to providing leadership and strategic direction to the Corporate Partnerships team, you will work closely with the Corporate Partnerships Fundraising Growth Lead to develop and test the Corporate Partnerships growth plan, embed opportunities for improvement in our ‘business as usual’ operations, as well as supporting the team through this period of change.

As part of the High Value Fundraising leadership team, you'll work collaboratively with your peers, Head of Grants and Head of Philanthropy, to identify common areas of opportunity and embed best practice high value fundraising across the organisation.

You can view the full role profile for this vacancy in the document attached. You do not need to have all the knowledge, skills and experience listed in the role profile; this is just to provide a full picture of what is possible in this role.

We would love to hear from you if you have:

• Proven track record of leading and motivating a corporate partnerships team to meet targets, build innovative propositions and develop new approaches.
• Excellent interpersonal and negotiation skills, the ability to navigate change, and be excited by an opportunity to create something new.
• Experience of organisational strategic planning and development of a corporate fundraising strategy.
• Strong influencing skills to build cultivation strategies with leadership teams in order to develop and steward high-value partners.
• A significant track record of developing and securing six and seven-figure new business relationships with leading brands and companies, ideally gained in a corporate fundraising environment in the not-for-profit sector and in an organisation of a similar scale and complexity as the Trust.
• A good understanding of the corporate fundraising landscape and best practice trends within the sector.
• Experience of developing and effectively managing projects and budgets.
• Finally, you will bring a passion for fundraising and a strong desire to advance the charitable mission of the National Trust.

The National Trust has the motto ‘For everyone, for ever’ at its heart. We’re working hard to create an inclusive culture, where everyone feels they belong. It’s important that our people reflect and represent the diversity of the communities and audiences we serve. We welcome and value difference, so when we say we’re for everyone, we want everyone to be welcome in our teams too.

•Substantial pension scheme of up to 10% basic salary

•Free entry to National Trust places for you, a guest and your children (under 18)