Senior Philanthropy Manager - Development and Alumni Relations Office - 100736 - Grade 8

Position Details

• Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
• Full time starting salary is normally in the range £47,389 to £56,535 with potential progression once in post to £63,606
• Grade: 8
• Full Time, Permanent
• Closing date: 14th October 2025
• UK travel may be required for this role.

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Background

The University of Birmingham is a global institution working within a diverse and vibrant City, offering an inspiring education to our students, and undertaking critically important research. We are a place of open, critical thinking, and the creation, sharing and dissemination of knowledge. Professional Services put students at the heart of all they do and enable an exceptional educational experience. They provide outstanding support to our researchers and help the University to grow its influence regionally, nationally, and globally. They ensure the University’s resources are used wisely, manage and improve the infrastructure which sits at the heart of the institution, and support decisions to be made quickly and based on sound evidence. Our Birmingham Professional programme operates across the University, supporting colleagues to network and collaborate, offering opportunities to learn and develop, contributing to the delivery of the University’s objectives, and helping everyone to understand the broader context within which we work.

Office Overview

Our University has a proud history of philanthropy stretching back to its foundation in 1900. With a clear vision to change the lives of the people of Birmingham, Joseph Chamberlain raised the funds required to build the University from citizens and corporations based locally and around the globe. Since then philanthropy has continued to play an important role in shaping the University. There have been a number of fundraising campaigns, including a £1m urgent capital appeal after the Second World War and a £1.4m campaign to fund the Vale ‘student village’ in the 1960s. In 2015 we closed the Circles of Influence Campaign, raising £193 million, making it the largest HE fundraising campaign outside Oxbridge and London.

The University has global reach, including several partnerships with other leading universities around the world, and is grounded in our local community, having opened the first fully comprehensive University secondary school in the country in 2015. We are an ambitious and successful research-intensive University (one of the top 100 research-led universities globally) and have produced 10 Nobel Prize winners, including three who received their awards in 2016. Academics here are exploring the impact of climate change, helping to address global health epidemics, and changing our understanding of Shakespeare. Our students come from nearly 150 countries and our flagship outreach programmes mean that almost 25% of our student population come from underrepresented backgrounds: one of the highest proportions in the UK.

DARO exists to support this academic and student community by engaging, inspiring, and celebrating alumni, individuals, and charitable funders who give their money, time, and networks to support the University’s strategic priorities. The Office, which is comprised of five teams, is focused on fundraising and volunteering from alumni, organisations and individuals who are passionate about changing lives, through funding various research projects, supporting student bursaries, mentoring students, and providing internships, as well as providing a versatile programme of engagement opportunities for our global alumni community.

Role summary

Join us in the ambitious ‘Birmingham In Action’ campaign, which commits to raising over £600 million of charitable funding and 1 million volunteer hours, positioning the University of Birmingham as one of the leaders in philanthropy in the UK. To fulfil our exciting campaign ambitions, we are recruiting a Senior Philanthropy Manager to maximise philanthropic funding and to take our campaign to the next level. A key member of the Development and Alumni Relations Office’s (DARO) Fundraising team, you will be responsible for growing major gifts opportunities and building a sustainable pipeline of future donations. You will have experience of delivering against financial targets, along with the ability to translate complex information into a compelling ask in both verbal and written form.

As a senior fundraiser in DARO, you will be innovative, self-motivated, and take ownership of fundraising opportunities, with particular alignment to one of the University’s Colleges. As part of a dynamic team and led by some of the most respected names in higher education fundraising, you will work across the University to generate significant gifts for amazing philanthropic projects and encourage new donors to make long-term, sustainable gifts. You will have an enthusiasm for building relationships, the skill to interact with high-level donors and supporters, and the ability to showcase the game changing work of our academics and clinicians.

Main duties

As a Senior Philanthropy Manager you will excel in the following areas:

• Responsible for increasing six figure+ philanthropic gifts for the University of Birmingham, developing a sustainable pipeline of prospects and philanthropic income.
• Manage a portfolio of 80 -100 prospective donors who will, initially, be a combination of alumni and non-alumni of the University with expectation to expand this through peer connections and research.
• Demonstrate an understanding that successful fundraising is based on building effective relationships, which match a prospective donor’s philanthropic interest with an area of strength and/or opportunity at the University. Be responsible for the end-to-end relationship management process of your contacts including:
  • Identifying new prospective donors from your networks.
  • Making the approach and managing a tailored cultivation process.
  • Translating complex ideas, including academic research and University strategy, into compelling messages tailored to individual supporters.
  • Asking confidently, passionately and effectively for key priorities.
  • Starting and building long-term relationships that are centred on the donor, including maximising volunteering opportunities where appropriate.
  • Stewarding the donor once a gift is made, ensuring the individual remains connected to the University, the project and the impact which they have made.
• Deliver against set targets including money raised, asks made and meetings secured. Regularly report the delivery of these KPIs to the Head of Philanthropy.
• You will be the individual philanthropy lead aligned to a College within the University. This will involve working with the senior DARO leader for the College and Campaign Management team to align DARO and College priorities, playing a collaborative role in a cross-department team to report on progress against campaign targets and building relationships with key academic colleagues. Work in partnership with other fundraisers, in the Fundraising and Corporate Partnerships teams and members of DARO to share best practice, discuss prospect development and collaborate with colleagues.
• As a senior fundraiser in the team, lead by example to demonstrate DARO behaviours, working with pace and energy.
• Responsible for the line management and professional development of a Philanthropy Manager (who in turn, manages a Philanthropy Officer).
• Build mutually beneficial relationships with academic and Professional Services colleagues, particularly in relation to campaign projects, and align programmes of activity where appropriate.
• Work in partnership with the Philanthropic Finance team, Contracts, Legal and wider Research Finance teams to ensure gifts are processed in line with donor wishes, financial regulations and counted in compliance with the campaign methodology.
• Ability to work with professional services and academic colleagues across the University, to create shared opportunities that support and advance the University’s fundraising priorities.
• Work with the Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor, members of the University Executive Board (UEB), External Relations and other senior colleagues as appropriate to identify opportunities to connect prospects and donors with the University.
• Efficiently use CRM to record and report on activity – feeding into campaign data, team reporting and management information for the senior leadership team.
• Be responsible for adhering to relevant fundraising regulation and current data legislation in the UK and in target markets whilst ensuring fundraising is ethical and that due diligence is undertaken as necessary.
• Understand the priorities for the University Strategic Framework, and its implications for Colleges, DARO and the University.
• Actively manage equality, diversity and inclusion through monitoring and evaluation and actively challenging unacceptable behaviour.
• Support the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working.
• Any other duties commensurate with the grade.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Educated to Degree level (or equivalent qualifications) plus significant relevant practical experience.
• Authoritative knowledge of the work practices, processes and procedures relevant to the role, including broader sector/commercial awareness.
• Strong understanding of fundraising and data protection regulation.
• Experience of identifying and building long-term mutually beneficial relationships with High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNWI), donors, supporters and volunteers.
• Experience of developing medium and long-term solicitation strategies and using these to maximise income and foster a ‘culture of giving’ across the whole of your prospect pool.
• Experience of developing fundraising plans and tactics.
• Extensive experience of working to and delivering against financial targets.
• A track record of securing six figure gifts from individuals.
• Substantial experience of engaging, and collaborating, with internal and external stakeholders.
• The ability to work with initiative, navigate university hierarchy with ease and think creatively and laterally.
• Maturity of judgement to achieve credibility and influence, working independently, with philanthropists, senior alumni, potential donors, supporters, volunteers, academics, donors and partner organisations.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to present complex information in an engaging and accessible manner to a varied audience.
• Outstanding interpersonal skills, with the necessary listening, facilitation, negotiation, influencing and diplomatic skills required to interact with senior individuals.
• The ability to act as an ambassador, representing the University internally and externally with confidence, diplomacy, and authority.
• Ability to work to tight deadlines and prioritise workload under pressure.
• Excellent people management skills, with proven experience of leading, motivating and managing teams.
• The ability to lead by example and to coach, train and develop staff.
• High level of self-motivation and personal accountability with ability to plan and deliver goals to deadlines under pressure
• Highly proficient IT skills, including the MS Office suite. You should be confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages as required
• Experience of championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in own work area.
• Ability to monitor and evaluate the extent to which equality and diversity legislation, policies, procedures are applied.
• Ability to identify issues with the potential to impact on protected groups and take appropriate action.

Informal enquiries to Gary Bilham, email: g.bilham@bham.ac.uk

View our staff values and behaviours here

We believe there is no such thing as a \’typical\’ member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone
on our website