Head of Partnerships

Acorns Children’s Hospice provides specialist care and support for babies, children and young people who are life limited or life threatened. When time is short, every moment is precious. Acorns helps children and families fill the time they have together with love, fun and laughter to create lasting memories.

Palliative care for children aged 0-18 is delivered at Acorns’ hospices in Birmingham, Worcester, and Walsall, as well as in family homes or elsewhere in the community. Their holistic, tailored approach meets each child’s clinical, emotional, cultural, religious, and spiritual needs. Supporting over 750 children and nearly 1,000 families annually, Acorns is a vital lifeline for families across the West Midlands and Gloucestershire during unimaginably difficult times.

Over the past three years, Acorns’ leadership has enhanced collaboration and innovation across the charity and embedded an organisation-wide fundraising culture. Since then, they’ve appointed ambitious, driven fundraising leaders and are now seeking a Head of Partnerships to shape the strategic direction of corporate and community fundraising and play a key role on the fundraising.

With a newly formed integrated team and an upcoming £5m appeal, Acorns is seeking a senior leader to review, refine and scale its approach to corporate and community income. The Head of Partnerships is a senior leadership role responsible for leading a newly integrated Partnerships Team covering corporate new business, corporate account management and community fundraising, ensuring clear tiering, structured pipeline progression and robust income performance.

Reporting to the Associate Director of Fundraising, you will hold full responsibility for corporate and community income targets, budgets, forecasting and return on investment. You will also act as the Partnerships lead for the fundraising appeal, co-canvassing alongside the Head of Philanthropy and executive leadership, and mobilising corporate and community networks around key campaign moments.

As Head of Partnerships, you will:

• Lead and integrate Corporate and Community fundraising into a cohesive partnerships strategy aligned to the wider Fundraising Strategy
• Design and implement a three-year corporate and community income plan, with full budget and forecasting responsibility
• Conduct an audit of current partnerships activity, pipeline and resource allocation to ensure effort aligns to regional and national potential
• Establish a clear tiering framework, ensuring smooth progression from new business into account management and appropriate movement from community into corporate relationships
• Support the development of corporate executives into major donor relationships where appropriate
• Lead corporate new business acquisition, securing multi-year strategic partnerships, Charity of the Year agreements, cause-related marketing, sponsorship and stock generation partnerships
• Lead high-value pitches and negotiations, positioning Acorns credibly within the ESG and CSR landscape
• Increase C-Suite engagement and develop the Business Ambassador strategy
• Oversee structured account management, ensuring robust account plans, relationship mapping and retention strategy
• Develop scalable fundraising products for schools, universities, faith groups, clubs and smaller businesses
• Lead clearer prioritisation and KPIs across the regional community team
• Manage volunteer ambassador programmes and lead the strategy for golf days and key sporting initiatives
• Personally manage a small portfolio and own an income target
• Line manage senior corporate and community leaders and contribute as an active member of the Fundraising Senior Leadership Team

Essential skills and experience:

• Strong corporate fundraising background within a charity setting
• Proven track record of securing six-figure corporate gifts
• Experience managing and motivating teams to deliver robust income targets
• Experience designing strategies, annual plans and budgets and adapting them as required
• Strong knowledge of the corporate landscape, regionally and ideally nationally
• Confidence leading high-value pitches, negotiations and senior stakeholder engagement
• Experience of forecasting, reporting and managing income performance
• Strong working knowledge of CRM systems and fundraising compliance

Desirable:

• Experience across both local and national corporate partnerships
• Exposure to community fundraising or engagement programmes
• Experience working on appeal boards or high-value campaign activity

Employee benefits include:

• 27 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• 5 days holiday buyback scheme starting from April 2026
• 7.5% employer pension contribution
• Life assurance scheme (2 x annual salary)
• Retail discounts (including the Blue Light card)
• Cycle to work scheme
• Discounted gym membership
• Access to expert financial health and wellbeing support
• Hybrid working with 2dpw at preferred location (Birmingham, Worcester or Walsall).