Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA)

About the Role:

This post plays a key role in developing and delivering the strategy for major donors and gifts in Wills. Gifts in Wills has been identified as a high potential growth area for our income over the coming years. The post holder will be responsible for the growth and strategic direction of both RDA s legacy and major gift programmes. You will design and implement a brand-new legacy marketing and administration programme and identify, cultivate, engage and steward existing and new major donor prospects, generating income and achieving ambitious targets.

Specific Responsibilities:

Strategic Planning and Development

• In collaboration with the Head of Fundraising, develop and implement robust strategies to secure income from major donors and legacies;

• Responsiblity for developing and implementing annual activity plans to achieve targets;

• Engagement with the wider sector and monitoring of trends to maximise opportunities.

Operational

• Lead on the creation of impactful collateral to attract new donors (major gifts and legacy pledgers) and retain existing donors and legacy pledgers;

• Work effectively with the Fundraising Team and RDA teams to identify new opportunities for income growth;

• Lead on building, updating and generating donor portfolios (both major donors and legacies) and income pipelines, reporting against Key Performance Indicators (KPIs);

• Ensure all prospects have a positive donor journey, creating unique and engaging development plans to support relationship management;

• Identify potential major donors and research other prospects with a likely interest in our cause;

• Lead and directly manage a portfolio of key donor relationships, while maintaining accurate records, and growing RDA s supporter database.

• Support the excellent stewardship of major donors, liaising with RDA teams as required, to ensure donor objectives are fully met.

• Lead on developing a special events programme for high value supporters and for promoting legacy giving;

• Lead on the management of major donor and legacy fundraising content on MyRDA (RDA network web platform).

Financial

• Responsibility for the development of annual income targets in relation to major donors and legacies, in agreement with the Head of Fundraising and Director of Finance and Resources.

• Process all incoming donations in line with internal procedures and ensure prompt and appropriate acknowledgement of all income.

• Assist in quarterly forecasting, weekly and monthly reporting across a range of financial and non- financial KPIs.

Other

• Implement the Equal Opportunities Policy into daily activities;

• Ensure compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations (2018) across all relationships, including data collection;

• Keep abreast of key fundraising trends/issues and the regulatory environment around fundraising. Ensuring standards are set, procedures are followed, and issues addressed or escalated as appropriate.

• Ability to travel and work evenings and weekends on an occasional basis.

• Undertake any other duties as may reasonably be required in this post.

Person Specification:

Knowledge and Experience (Essential)

• Experience of strategy development and implementation in major donor or legacy fundraising;

• Experience of managing and developing relationships with existing and potential major donors, influential individuals and senior volunteers to inspire them to support the charity;

• Demonstrable success in proactively identifying, cultivating and recruiting new donors and soliciting new major gifts/uplifting gifts;

• Experience of prospect research, formulating project and bespoke budgets to create proposals for high value donors;

• Experience of coordinating stewardship and engagement programmes which underpin a successful high value annual gift strategy;

• Experience of supporting senior volunteers, staff and trustees to maximise donor relationships;

• Proven experience of meeting targets and deadlines, and ability to work under pressure;

• Exceptional organisational skills with experience of managing multiple tasks and prioritising effectively;

• Proven ability to work collaboratively across teams to achieve organisational objectives;

• Ability to plan and report on activities;

• Excellent oral and written communication skills;

• Strong analytical and creative skills;

• Experience of using administrative systems and Central Relationship Management (CRM) systems.

Knowledge and Experience (Desirable)

• Experience of reviewing and adapting plans;

• Experience of working with volunteers;

• Experience and/or understanding of working in a federated charity structure;

• Previous experience of building or running high profile and professional events;

• Some knowledge of working with disabled people.

Attributes and Behaviours

• High level of motivation;

• Credible, with exceptional relationship development skills;

• Organised with great attention to detail;

• Collaborative approach;

• Desire to give RDA supporters an excellent experience;

• Empathy with the aims and values of RDA.