Special Events Manager in Reading

Location: Reading, Hybrid (at least twice a month to Reading Office)

Hours: Full time

Salary: £40,000 per annum

Contract Type: 12 month FTC

Campaign Closes: 18th February 2026

First Stage Interviews: 25th & 26th February 2026

Second Stage Interviews: 3rd or 5th March 2026

At Make A Wish UK, we create life changing wishes for children with critical illnesses. Our Special Events programme plays a vital role in making those wishes possible by raising essential income, inspiring supporters and bringing our community together. We are looking for a talented and driven Special Events Manager to lead, shape and grow our portfolio of high profile events.

Core Purpose:

To lead the delivery and growth of Make A Wish’s programme of Special Events, maximising net income, strengthening donor and supporter stewardship, and identifying new opportunities across the organisation and beyond to enhance and expand our events portfolio. This role also supports wider departmental events, including those connected to Art of Wishes, while inspiring and managing supporters, committee members, suppliers and volunteers.

To be successful in this role you will need:

• Essential Criteria
• Ability to prepare materials to support a range of audiences and requirements, from presentations through to toolkits, meeting notes etc.
• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to work effectively at different levels in the organisation
• Ability to articulate core concepts in different formats and approaches
• Ability to negotiate and influence across different organisational levels
• Work as part of a cross functional team
• Understanding of regulatory frameworks, best practice and ethical issues related to marketing and engagement with children and young people
• Knowledge of regulatory frameworks around fundraising
• Understanding of advertising and influencer regulatory frameworks
• Managing and working with user permissions and compliance around user permissions, safeguarding, data protection
• Experience of working with others
• Inspiring and encouraging self-development in team members/colleagues
• Setting objectives and KPIs and managing performance towards these
• Integrating volunteers and networks into teams
• Volunteer management
• Evidence and Experience of using and updating CRM tools – Salesforce
• Managing data accuracy
• Producing reports and analytics
• Reading and interpreting data
• Experience of managing finance and budget
• Developing budgets
• Recording financial information
• Reading and understanding financial information
• Calculating basic information, particularly to show return on investment
• Managing expenses and invoicing processes
• Experience of managing and planning work
• Working on cross team plans
• Using technology to support planning and prioritisation
• Able to use MS Office tools, in particular Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel to support delivery of work
• Evidence of ongoing professional development in a related field or areas (formal or self-directed)
• Significant experience in planning large scale special events, dinners, balls, receptions or similar
• Evidence of managing £200,000+ event budgets
• Experience planning and executing events for 200+ attendees
• Experience working with event agencies

Key Responsibilities:

• Event support
• Own and develop relationships with key Make-A-Wish event supporters including committee members, suppliers, speakers and donors.
• Project manage and/or provide event support to key Make-A-Wish flagship and high-value supporter events.
• Generate income and gift in kind for Make-A-Wish owned and high value third-party events.
• Oversee the stewardship of high value third-party events by the Events Officer.
• Be the day-to-day contact for Special Events agencies and third-party suppliers, attending and leading meetings to ensure each event is executed as smoothly and successfully as possible.
• Manage internal and external event stakeholders including Make-A-Wish BCE and volunteering teams, committee members and event suppliers in relation to their role at the event.
• Attend all the Special Events and represent Make-A-Wish in a professional manner.
• Support on the development of the special events strategy with Art of Wishes & Special Events Lead and Philanthropy Director.
• Create and manage event budgets with a focus on reducing costs and maximising net income/budget relieving GIK.
• Complete event performance evaluations including wrap-up analysis, measure against KPIs and review if goals were achieved.
• Oversee the post-event financial administration and processes with Supporter Care Team and Philanthropy Team to ensure a positive guest experience.
• Support internal teams in event planning to maximise opportunities and ensure consistent delivery.
• Identify additional opportunities for the programme both internally and externally.
• Work to identify and secure sponsorship partners for events.
• Line management
• Provide engaging and motivating leadership, coaching, management and development of one direct report (Special Events Officer) which includes quarterly coaching conversations, career development conversations and more.
• Supporter Management
• Support and manage organising Committees to ensure each event is executed as smoothly and successfully as possible.
• Lead committee meetings.
• Develop relationships with event supporters to increase support and GIK donations.
• Oversee the supporter journey of prize donors, prize winners and wish sponsors, including but not limited to thanking and providing feedback post-event, prize fulfilment, building long-term and sustainable relationships through correspondence.
• Work with the Volunteering team and Special Events Officer to manage volunteers including recruitment, pre-event briefings, communications, on the day and post-event thanking.
• Communications and Internal Collaboration
• Take responsibility for maintaining and updating the supporter database with any event and guest details ensuring it is GDPR compliant.
• Leading and supporting on events and projects across the organisation as required.