Head of Strategic Income & Growth in Watford

At YMCA Chiltern Group, we’re looking for an exceptional Head of Strategic Income & Growth to lead our approach to generating sustainable income, strengthen our financial resilience and help us create even greater impact across the communities we serve. If you are a commercially minded, creative and proactive leader who can spot opportunities, build compelling propositions and turn promising ideas into viable plans, then we’d love to hear from you.

About the opportunity

This is a senior leadership role at the heart of our growing and ambitious charity. You’ll lead our Strategic Income & Growth function, bringing together contracts and tenders, trusts and grants, corporate relationships, fundraising and enterprise into one connected approach. Working closely with colleagues across YMCA Chiltern Group, you’ll set priorities, direct resources, manage performance and develop a diverse income portfolio aligned with our organisational strategy, values and expertise. This is an opportunity to build on our already strong foundations, develop a high-performing team and convert opportunities into sustainable growth and impact. What you’ll be doing You will provide strategic leadership for our Strategic Income & Growth team, creating a culture of ambition, accountability, innovation and continuous improvement. You’ll lead the identification, assessment and pursuit of contracts, commissioning and tender opportunities, working across finance, operations, impact and other specialist teams to coordinate competitive, evidence-based submissions. You’ll oversee a proactive trusts, grants and foundations programme, ensuring applications, agreements and funder reports are compelling, accurate, compliant and supported by clear outcomes and evidence. You’ll set the direction for corporate relationships, focused events and individual giving, while developing enterprise and commercial opportunities that generate unrestricted income and align with our mission. You’ll also strengthen forecasting, pipeline management, budget oversight and performance reporting, using data to guide decisions, focus resources and build a financially sustainable future.

What we are looking for

Significant senior leadership experience in income generation, fundraising, business development, commissioning or a related field. Proven success in growing income, managing budgets and pipelines, and leading multidisciplinary teams across distinct but connected income streams. Strong strategic thinking, commercial awareness and financial acumen, with the ability to assess opportunity, return, deliverability, risk and social value. Excellent communication, influencing, negotiation and relationship-building skills, with the confidence to engage executive leaders, trustees, commissioners, funders and partners. An ambitious, resilient and values-led approach, with the judgement to balance strategic thinking and operational delivery while promoting ethical and compliant income generation.

Why this role?

This is a rare opportunity to shape how one of Europe’s largest YMCA organisations generates sustainable income and invests in future impact. You’ll lead a talented team, influence organisational strategy and build partnerships and income streams that strengthen our reach, resilience and ability to serve communities. Most importantly, you’ll help turn opportunity into sustainable growth, ensuring YMCA Chiltern Group can continue helping people belong, contribute and thrive in body, mind and spirit.

Sound like you? We’d love to hear from you. For an informal chat about the role please contact our Associate Director of Income Generation and Impact, Tom. M: 07548 831764 E: tom.cavalot@ymcacg.org

We offer flexible hybrid working, with colleagues typically spending around two days each week in the office to collaborate, connect and contribute to team life.

This is a Permanent role.

Hours per week: 37.5

Working Pattern: Monday-Friday

Important information:

We do not provide visa sponsorship; you must be eligible to work in the UK. You must reside in the UK for the duration of your employment and provide Right to Work evidence.

As some of our roles involve working with vulnerable members of society, this position may require a Basic or Enhanced Criminal Disclosure, which will be conducted once a conditional offer is made

Previous Applications: We welcome applications from all qualified candidates. However, if you have applied for a similar role within the last 6 months and were not successful, please consider whether your experience has developed further before reapplying

Accessibility & Adjustments: We are committed to making reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process and will strive to be as accommodating as possible. Please inform us in advance of any arrangements you may need to fully participate in the process.

We are an inclusive organisation and actively promote equality of opportunity for all with the right mix of talent, skills, and potential. We do not discriminate on the basis of Age, Disability, Gender Reassignment, Marriage/Civil Partnership, Pregnancy/Maternity, Race, Religion/Belief, Sex and/or Sexual Orientation. We encourage applications from all backgrounds, communities, and industries, and are committed to having a team that is made up of diverse skills, experiences, and abilities.

One YMCA and its subsidiaries, the Early Childhood Partnership (ECP) and Signpost are on an exciting journey to double our impact by 2025. We are over half way through an exciting new strategy launched in the first hour of the new decade, via email where all staff and volunteers were invited to put themselves forward to apply and attend an intensive, three-day Kickstarter Event.

By the end of these three days, there was a brilliantly multi-faceted set of themes and ideas, which formed the starting point for the rest of the Mission 25 process to build on. The aim of Mission 25 is to give every staff member and volunteer the opportunity to play their part in shaping the strategy to do “more and better, together” so that we double our impact by 2025. We deliver a vast array of services across Herts, Beds and Bucks that reach over 135,000 individuals annually.

These include:

• Provision of over 700 units of accommodation for homeless people
• Move on accommodation for individuals moving onto independent living
• Housing and practical/emotional support for young asylum seekers
• Community HUBs hosting a range of activities and meeting space hire
• Childcare provision in Hertfordshire
• Family support through a network of children’s and family centres covering Hertfordshire and Bedford
• Therapeutic and non-therapeutic support for male and female victims of domestic abuse and their children
• Independent sexual violence services across Bedfordshire, Luton and Hertfordshire
• Domestic abuse perpetrator reform programmes across Bedfordshire
• Youth services offering emotional wellbeing support and youth club opportunities for 11-19 year olds alongside our National Airplay programme funded by the RAF Benevolent Fund
• A community gym where everyone can enjoy the benefits of physical exercise Our values remain at the forefront of how we operate as a charity, and it is important to us that all staff and volunteers can fully buy in to our ethos.