Corporate Partnerships Manager - Maternity Cover

Contract: 12-month fixed term maternity cover

Location: London hybrid, a minimum of two days in the office

Reporting to: Head of Corporate Partnerships

Salary: £45,000 – £47,000 (dependant on experience)

About In Kind Direct

For nearly 30 years, In Kind Direct has been at the forefront of product redistribution in the UK, ensuring that no one misses out on life’s essentials. Founded by HM The King, we partner with leading brands and retailers to channel everyday goods—hygiene items, household products, toys, clothing and more to over 6,000 community groups. Every week, we help more than half a million people in need. Yet, poverty and exclusion remain as key challenges within the UK, and we’re on a mission to reach even more people with more products.

Our Values

We work with kindness, togetherness and integrity, driving innovation.

The Opportunity

We are seeking an adaptable, and enthusiastic self-starter with experience in account management or business development to join our dynamic and passionate team. You will have the proven ability to build strong personal relationships and networks, engage and influence senior stakeholders.

You will be responsible for managing new / current corporate partner organisations to maximise product donations in line with our ambitious five-year strategy. You will be responsible for developing mutually beneficial relationships based on understanding of the “why” and matching that with the benefits of working with In Kind Direct. You will possess commercial hunger, drive, and a desire to deliver results against clear KPI’s.

Crucially, you will have experience building new partnerships with organisations in several key categories for which you will have ownership. You will be aware of the prospective organisations’ internal and external business drivers, understand their KPI’s and know how to build propositions that excite them. You will be able to demonstrate how you have delivered results within this environment.

Key Responsibilities:

• Partner Management
• Accountability for the value distributed, engagement, frequency of donation, campaign participation, financial contributions and relevant KPIs of partner portfolio.
• Protect, nurture and grow relationships with a defined number of existing corporate partners (retail and non-retail), developing persuasive and tailored proposals, progress reports and analysis.
• Support the shift from surplus donations to planned donations which could be through retailer/sales activations.
• Use a tiered approach to prioritise and build deeper relationships, shifting from reactive to proactive planning, and develop joint business plans with priority partners.
• Work closely with the Marketing and Charity network team to maximise corporate involvement and engagement in the events and content programme.
• Work with several cross functional teams as required, from ecom, finance, charity network and operations and customer service teams.
• Negotiate contracts with corporate partners.
• Business Development
• To research and identify suitable prospective corporate partners for securing donations of product in line with the charity and network-user needs.
• Creativity to propose new ideas, and propositions to drive value for In Kind Direct and its network.
• Creatively utilise In Kind Direct Campaigns, network feedback, research and data points to unlock new conversations, including retailer activations.
• Presentation and Analysis
• Produce and develop compelling proposals and presentations for a wide range of corporate partnership audiences, from staff to senior executives.
• Maintain accurate records, analysis & reporting of activity on in-house CRM system.
• Maintain a strong external profile as an ambassador for the charity, whilst keeping up to date with developments in the Corporate and Charity Sector.
• Work closely with Head of Corporate Partnerships & Head of Business Development to ensure robust forecasting of corporate accounts including accurate maintenance of product donation and corporate financial pipelines.

To succeed in this role, you will be able to demonstrate:

• Relevant commercial experience in sales, account management or relationship management.
• Proven ability to deliver results against KPIs and targets.
• Experience building strong, collaborative partnerships, including joint planning and delivery against shared objectives.
• Confident communicator with excellent written, verbal and presentation skills.
• Highly organised, with strong administrative skills and the ability to prioritise a busy workload.
• Comfortable working with PowerPoint, Excel and databases/CRMs to produce reports, presentations and insights.
• Able to build effective relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders.
• Collaborative, adaptable and proactive, with a creative approach to engaging corporate partners.
• Passion for change and impact, with a genuine interest in the charity and corporate responsibility sector.
• Strong alignment with In Kind Direct’s values of kindness, togetherness, integrity and innovation.

All training, development and equipment will be provided.

Why In Kind Direct?

As well as having the chance to work in a charity that helps thousands of people each year, our team benefits include volunteering days, 28 days holiday each year including 3 days between Christmas and New Year, excluding public holidays), an interest-free travel loan, and a generous pension scheme entitlement. We are an equal opportunity employer and support our team to succeed in their roles through training, adaptations, flexibility in working, access to our Employee Assistance Platform, and a range of policies to support people in their personal, family and care responsibilities.

We are an accredited Great Place to Work – and have additionally been recognised as a Great Place to Work amongst small Charities and a Great Place to work for Women.

We seek to challenge discrimination and are committed to our values of kindness, togetherness, integrity, and innovation. We are on an organisational journey to achieving our EDI vision and welcome any questions about our progress and aspirations.

We especially welcome applications from anyone with lived experience of being on a low income or working with smaller charitable organisations.