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.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
About us
Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement (P&A) raises philanthropic funds in support of King’s College London and engages with the university’s worldwide alumni community. We are proud to enable the work of colleagues across the university and its health partners, helping them serve society through world-leading education, research and healthcare. Our activity includes a partnership with the Maudsley Charity in support of children’s mental health and initiatives between the university’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience and the South London & Maudsley NHS Trust.
We are entering an exciting period as a team. Our work is identified as a key enabler of the new King’s Strategy 2030, with associated ambitions that include preparing for our next major philanthropic and engagement campaign. This will accelerate and energise our work in support of the University’s mission to be ‘in service to society through academic excellence’ – be that through exceptional, impact-led research; ensuring our students are supported to thrive during their time at King’s and beyond; or by helping the university to invest over the long-term into its people, ideas and infrastructure. We plan to deepen and scale engagement with our global alumni community, donors and other supporters, mobilising them behind these shared priorities. We are strongly values-driven with a focus on sustaining a strong and supportive culture, which we see as key to creating a successful team that can realise these ambitions.
More on King’s College London
For almost 200 years, King’s has been a place where ideas turn into action. From revealing the structure of DNA to reimagining nursing, from advances in medicine, law and the study of war and peace to shaping culture and public debate, our work has always been guided by a belief that knowledge should serve society. Over our history, King’s has been home to 14 Nobel Prize winners, and to scholars whose ideas and leadership have shaped thinking, policy and practice around the world. King’s has always been a place where knowledge is put to work for the benefit of others. King’s College London is a world-renowned university that delivers exceptional education and world-leading research. We're committed to creating positive and sustainable change in our local and global communities through outstanding education, impactful research, and genuine service to society.
King’s Strategy 2030 sets out how we take that purpose forward, with four key priorities including student success in and beyond university, investment in research and education excellence that responds to the changing world, fostering innovation and entrepreneurship, and delivering sustainable finances for a secure future.
As we prepare to launch our ambitious Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement campaign in Spring 2027, this is a unique opportunity to play a key role at a defining moment for our team. You’ll be part of a high-profile, organisation-wide effort, helping to bring inspiring stories, creative ideas and impactful communications to life as we engage alumni and supporters in bold new ways.
This is an exciting, cross-team role offering the chance to collaborate on a wide range of projects and creative formats. Supporting both fundraising and alumni engagement communications, this position is ideal for a creatively driven individual who enjoys working across the full breadth of a modern communications function.
You’ll bring strong design experience across multiple channels and feel confident creating engaging content for fundraising, research, volunteer recruitment and events. We’re looking for someone who is curious, adaptable and energised by variety - someone who can translate ideas into compelling visual and written content.
In this role, you will tailor content for diverse audiences across a range of platforms, so excellent attention to detail, strong organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities and build strong relationships will be key to your success.
As a core member of the team, you will help shape the external voice and personality of the Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement (P&A) team, working within clear brand guidelines while bringing fresh thinking and creativity. You’ll be joining a friendly, highly skilled and supportive team during an especially exciting period of growth and activity.
This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered an fixed term contract for a period of 18 months from the start date. P&A has a hybrid working approach, with a minimum of 40% of time in the office. Typically, this equates to two days per week, but we’re very happy for colleagues to be in more frequently if they so wish.
About you
To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:
Essential criteria
- Experience of translating organisational activity into engaging and clear content.
- Understanding of communicating with different audiences and understanding their need/interests.
- Active professional interest in content trends and innovations as a means of driving engagement.
- Significant experience of creating video and other image based content, using design software Photoshop and InDesign.
- Experience of the UK charity sector or university philanthropy and alumni engagement.
- Proactive in spotting opportunities and able to work independently.
- Organised and diligent; able to work on multiple projects, prioritising effectively to manage competing deadlines while maintaining attention to detail.
- Confident attending events to capture content and engage with attendees.
Desirable criteria
- Experience of reporting on email or social media campaigns.
- Experience with Contensis website CMS or Dynamics Marketing App
- Experience of managing and moderating social media comments.
- Experience of working on a major fundraising or engagement campaign
Further Information
At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.
The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.
We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.
When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King’s guidance.
We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.
We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.
We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.
In P&A we want to build a diverse team, which represents the communities served by the organisations we support. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented.
We are open to discussing flexible working arrangements, including part-time, compressed hours and/or job shares, as appropriate and in the context of the business needs associated with the role.
We offer the opportunity of an “Ask Us Anything” Teams call at 12.30pm on 2 June. During this call you will be able to ask any questions you might have about the role, the selection process, our department, our core values and work culture, our current hybrid work policy, or simply listen to others’ questions.
Closing date: 7 June 2026.
This role will have two interview stages, a standard skills-based interview followed (for up to two appointable candidates) by a Core Values interview.
First stage interviews are due to be held on 19th June. Core Values interviews are due to be held on 25th June.