Head of corporate partnerships and special events jobs in bristol, city of bristol

Variety, the Children's Charity is excited to recruit for a Corporate Partnerships Manager to join the fundraising team as we launch a new multi-year partnership in January 2026. This role is a new position to support our ambitious growth to deliver award winning partnerships and raise money from corporate partners across the Northeast region. This key role on our team will ensure our work to fund life-changing practical support to disabled and disadvantaged children and young people continues across the UK.

You will be joining the charity at an exciting time as we are launching a three-year strategy to drive growth with lots of new fundraising plans in place alongside a great team and a new Director of Fundraising. You will have a large partnership in the property sector to manage, and with your experience you will develop new partners in the Northeast of England, ensuring we maximise leads and introductions. You will play an important role in our collaborative and high-performing team to deliver the partnership strategy.

ABOUT VARIETY

There are 1.8m children living with disabilities in the UK with 600,000 children living in poverty. Variety exists to improve their lives. We believe every child has a right to live their best life and reach their full potential, whoever they are. We fund and deliver life-changing programmes that enhance their quality of life and give children and young people across the UK a better future.

Over the past 75 years we have supported over one million children by funding almost 6,000 Sunshine Coaches, almost the same number of wheelchairs, and giving thousands of grants to individual children, schools, youth clubs and other organisations for specialist equipment.

In addition, each year thousands of children take part in day trips, special events and educational activities as part of our Variety Great Days Out programme and every single day we are improving more young lives. We do it with practical, tangible help, that makes a real and immediate difference.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

● Lead account management of a large national corporate partnership, delivering a six-figure fundraising target and giving first class stewardship to ensure engagement with all staff across multiple sites in the UK

● Develop engaging marketing and communications for the partnership and develop new business materials for their suppliers and customers, to get them involved in the partnership

● Travel across regional offices for fundraising and volunteering, engaging staff and working with our beneficiary schools on engagement events

● Write and deliver quarterly impact reporting, making presentations at head office with partnership updates

● Track income and expenditure for the partnership

● Develop new business by introductions from the partnership and also work across the Northwest to develop new leads for the corporate fundraising pipeline

● Plan volunteering days for corporate partners, coordinating with our school’s network, sending briefs and attending some events to ensure smooth coordination

● Attending regular partnership meetings and keeping all account plans up to date utilising our CRM system Salesforce

● Attend Variety fundraising and awareness events representing the charity and speaking confidently about our work

● Collaborate with the programmes team to plan partner Sunshine Coach presentations, Great Days Out, and visits to partner schools

● Participate in staff meetings, fundraising team meetings and contribute to the success of Variety’s fundraising strategy

SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

Essential

• Two years’ experience working on a charity fundraising team

• Experience managing corporate partnerships at a national level

• Experience of excellent donor stewardship

• Good writing and communication skills

• Good organisational skills and multi-tasking during busy periods

• Enthusiastic, energetic, self-motivated and passionate about the Third Sector

MAIN BENEFITS, TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Reporting to: Director of Fundraising & Communications

Salary: £35,000-£38,000 per annum

Location: Remote working (must be in the Northeast area) (with 2-4 days per month working from a corporate partner office in Newcastle)

Hours: 9am to 5pm, Monday - Friday

25 days holiday (we also normally give between Christmas and New Year off, but this is not contractual). In addition, after one year's continuous service, there will be an extra 2 days annual holiday added for every complete year of service, up to a maximum of five days' extra holiday.

Employer Pension contributions of 7% (Employee 2%), Life Assurance scheme of 4 x annual salary, Company sick pay scheme, Medicash scheme.

HOW TO APPLY

Please submit your CV with a cover letter explaining why you’d make a great candidate for this role. Applications will close on Thursday, 6 November at 5pm with first round interviews taking place week commencing 10 November and second round of interviews on 17 November 2025. Please let us know if you have any accessibility requirements or need any adjustments for the interview.

EQUALITY DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Inclusion is one of our key values and it is our ambition to recruit great people from diverse communities.

We welcome and encourage applications from suitably qualified candidates regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment/identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy/maternity and or marriage/civil partnership status, race, religion or belief.

Please let us know if you have any access requirements which we might need to consider in relation to the selection process.