Development Manager (Major Relationships)

The Heart of England Forest is an exciting and ambitious charity working hard to create a huge new woodland in the heart of the country that will benefit people and wildlife for generations to come.

We take our mission very seriously; it has never been more important to invest in our natural environment.  Planting trees and creating new woodlands is no longer just a positive ambition for the country, it’s absolutely essential. It is the simplest solution to help mitigate climate change and create new green spaces that can help reconnect people and communities with nature and the natural environment.

Our goal is to reach 30,000 acres of semi contiguous forest by planting 13 million native broadleaf trees. To date we have planted more than 1.8 million trees.  The significance and scale of our work cannot be underestimated: The Heart of England Forest, already the largest new native forest in the country – will become one of the largest forests in England.

Not only is our Forest expanding, so too is our team, and we have an exciting opportunity for you to join us.  The charity is a rewarding place to work and offers its staff a number of benefits.

Development Manager (Major Relationships) - Salary- £30,000

We are excited to be growing our fundraising team at a crucial time of development for the charity. We would love to hear from an experienced major donor fundraiser, looking for their next challenge, who is committed to conservation and enthusiastic about investing in our environment.

The Heart of England Forest has an attractive and varied portfolio of funding opportunities across woodland creation, habitat restoration, education, biodiversity, accessibility, health and wellbeing and you will have the opportunity to develop and generate new major relationship funding to support this work – and really make an impact.  In the next three years we are aiming to grow major giving from a reactive ad hoc income stream to an established and thriving source of funding for the charity, with an initial 6-figure target set which is ambitious but achievable.

The perfect candidate will be able to demonstrate their experience of developing and managing high level, meaningful funder relationships. You will be an excellent and confident communicator, who has a strategic approach and significant experience working towards and achieving fundraising targets. You’ll bring a track record of effective prospecting and delivering high quality stewardship.

In return, the charity can offer excellent benefits and the opportunity to help establish important and impactful relationships at a pivotal time in the charity’s development.

Additionally, for the right candidate we will consider a range of flexible working opportunities, including working from home and compressed hours but you will need to be able to regularly visit and attend meetings at the Forest and on occasion London.

Closing date: midnight Sunday 15th September 2019

Interviews will be held at one of the Forest sites in Warwickshire on Monday 30th September 2019

Please visit our website to download a job description / person specification and an application form. Please note that CVs will not be accepted in lieu of a completed application form.