Development director jobs in East of england
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The Role:
This is a pivotal moment for Dialogue Earth. As news organisations continue to retreat from climate coverage and the funding landscape for independent journalism becomes more challenging, we are looking for a Director of Development who can help us strengthen existing funder relationships, build new partnerships and shape our funding strategy for the years ahead.
You will work closely with the CEO, senior colleagues, and trustees to develop a clear funding strategy, identify new opportunities, lead high-quality proposals and ensure funders understand the value and impact of Dialogue Earth’s work.
The Director of Development will be a key member of the senior management team, and share responsibility for delivering Dialogue Earth’s mission.
What we are looking for:
Essential
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Commitment to our mission – the search for shared global solutions to climate change and the environmental crisis.
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Dedication to our values of openness, dialogue, ecological and informational integrity, and justice.
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Significant senior leadership experience in partnerships, philanthropy or income development, with a strong and demonstrable track record of securing and growing funding from a range of sources.
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You will possess both strategic insight and hands-on experience, be networked across the charitable funding sector, and combine commercial thinking with a deep understanding of the NGO and fundraising landscape.
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Strategic judgement and strong relationship-building skills, with the ability to communicate clearly, analyse complex information and influence a range of stakeholders.
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A proactive and collaborative approach, with the ability to navigate complex funding landscapes and deliver against ambitious targets.
Main responsibilities:
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Develop and execute a clear income growth strategy with defined targets, milestones, and measurable outcomes.
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Oversee the development of an updated funding pipeline.
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Lead and develop Dialogue Earth’s small focused fundraising team with clear objectives and accountability.
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Lead on Dialogue Earth’s engagement with existing and potential funders.
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Ensure funding reports are prepared and delivered on time.
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Lead on the submission of funding proposals, ensuring they are in line with editorial priorities and budgeted appropriately.
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Provide strategic oversight of key income generating events, ensuring they are leveraged effectively to cultivate and secure high value support.
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Support Trustees to act as effective ambassadors and introducers.
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Contribute actively to the senior management team, ensuring fundraising is embedded within wider organisational strategy and decision making.
Essential experience, knowledge and skills:
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Proven track record of securing significant funding commitments.
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Experience of creating an organisational fundraising strategy and enacting a strategic plan
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Experience building and converting a strong major donor pipeline, including multi-year commitments.
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Demonstrated ability to lead high value partnership or funding conversations and personally secure significant commitments.
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Experience setting and delivering against ambitious income growth targets.
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Experience of leading and developing a small team
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Experience of contributing as part of a senior management team, with the ability to help shape organisational strategy
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A natural relationship builder, able to establish trust quickly and sustain long term partnerships with high value supporters.
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Comfortable with accountability and transparent performance measurement.
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Self-aware, pragmatic, and calm under pressure.
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Demonstrates alignment with the values of Dialogue Earth and a commitment to collaborative, high-performance working.
Registered Charity 
21 - 50
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
The Organisation
ImpactEd Group supports education and purpose-driven organisations to maximise and realise their potential.
We do this by helping our partners to be consistently impactful and operationally sustainable. Drawing on our domain expertise and technical skills in these areas, ImpactEd Group aims to be the first port of call for leaders across the education ecosystem.
This role exists as a senior leader in our Group and leads the business development and commercial growth of our Consulting Practice. ImpactEd Consulting (IEC) supports school groups, education organisations and government agencies in the following specialist areas:
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Strategy, governance and strategic projects
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Data and AI advisory
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People and culture
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Fundraising and philanthropy
Partners include the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), the Department for Education, Oasis Community Learning, Careers and Enterprise Company, Outwood Grange Academies Trust, The Economist Educational Foundation, Star Academies, Get Further, Reach Foundation and more.
The Opportunity
We are excited to be recruiting for a Principal Director to lead business development and commercial growth within our Consulting practice. This is a new role within the practice. Reporting to our Group Directors, the Director will work as part of a practice leadership team that will oversee all aspects of the Consulting team's work, with a focus on partnership development, retention and growth.
You will provide strategic leadership, represent the organisation both internally and externally, and be responsible for driving the commercial performance of the practice, ensuring that ImpactEd Consulting is positioned well as first port of call for schools and social purpose organisations who want to achieve greater impact and sustainability. You will lead a number of sales and marketing campaigns, develop key propositions for our partners, provide high level guidance and advice, scan and respond to relevant tenders and work closely with a team of consultants to ensure we are able to continue to bring accessible expertise to our work and partners.
The role would be ideal for a proven leader with deep understanding and networks across the education sector, a track record in consulting and business development, and the ambition to shape the direction of a growing social enterprise.
About you
As a team focused on research and evaluation, we would also expect roles at this level to demonstrate:
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Values and people: Alignment with our values and ability to demonstrate them in your work. You will facilitate conversations about professional development for your direct reports and act as a coach and role model for other members of the team.
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Partnership management: Modelling of excellence in partnership management, particularly on proactive driving of partnerships forward, scope management and stakeholder engagement.
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Sales and scope design: Leadership of business development for consultancy engagements to support high-complexity partnerships and support our partners to deliver against their knottiest challenges.
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Proposition development: Understanding of our sector and ability to combine that with our offers as a practice to create propositions that can drive partnership and business development opportunities.
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Reporting and improvement: Ability to listen to and synthesise partner needs to tailor advice and guidance, quality assure others' outputs, and help partners take action off the back of our work.
Our Head Office is in London, and we have satellite offices in Leeds and Lincolnshire, but our team work from across the country; we are happy to support remote, hybrid or office-based working. For this role we anticipate there to be weekly attendance in London, ad-hoc attendance at sector events and three in-person offsites per year
Why Us?
As well as a commitment to the organisations we work with, we have a commitment to our people and developing the next generation of leaders within the social enterprise, education and evaluation sectors.
Our employee experience is organised around four themes:
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Trust: we support hybrid working, provide flexible hours, and provide responsive management.
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Shared ownership: we are an employee owned organisation and look to increasingly share ownership with our employees, including in terms of governance and culture, and realise this in a number of ways such as ownership awards, and transparent governance including an Employee Voice board.
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Connection: we pay for your travel, provide termly company offsites, support informal clubs and societies, and provide opportunities for in-person and digital connection between colleagues.
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Health and fulfilment: we have an extensive professional development programme, provide an annual books and development budget allowance and offer 3 days of CPD leave per year in addition to annual leave. We offer all employees access to a MediCash plan and wellbeing advice, including free therapist support.
Expected earnings of £75,056-£92,720 (base salary: £63,023-£70,400) with opportunities for performance related pay and annual profit share, dependent on company performance
Applications close at 23:59 on Sunday 7th June 2026.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.