FareShare Midlands is the region’s largest food redistribution charity, fighting food poverty by tackling food waste. We're looking to recruit a talented and experienced individual to help deliver our fundraising strategy. 

This is an exciting time to join FareShare Midlands as we develop and expand our operations across the East and West Midlands and look to grow our fantastic portfolio of corporate partners, trust, grant and foundations and community supporters.

We are looking for someone ambitious who wants to take a leading role in developing and driving forward our fundraising strategy to meet our growth plans. If you have experience in trust, foundation and grant writing, relationship building, engagement and stewardship of donors, this role is for you.

About FareShare Midlands

FareShare Midlands' mission is to save good food from going to waste. An independent charity, we work in partnership with FareShare UK to access and receive food that is surplus to requirements from retailers and manufacturers and engage many volunteers to help redistribute this to local charities and community groups that provide meals to vulnerable people including families and individuals who are homeless, unemployed, socially isolated or recovering from addiction.

FareShare Midlands supports over 400 local charities and community groups. In the last twelve months we redistributed over 2,700 tonnes of food, helping to create 6.4 million meals and feed 35,000 people each week. 

Responsibilities

Account Management

• Manage a portfolio of trust, foundation and grant supporters to cultivate strong, long-lasting partnerships
• Develop persuasive fundraising proposals and reports to increase donations from new and existing supporters
• Support the management of a portfolio of corporate partnerships including meeting with stakeholders, stewardship and impact reporting
• Build strong relationships with funding partners, both face to face and on the telephone
• Manage income and expenditure of project budgets communicating with both internal and external stakeholders
• Work closely with the FareShare UK fundraising team to maximise funding opportunities and share learning

New Business

• Identify a pipeline of new opportunities in trusts, grants, foundations and corporate to secure new income for FareShare Midlands
• Maintain records and analysis of new business secured
• Attend networking events as required to meet new potential donors

Donor Care

• Stewardship of some of our donors, corporate groups, volunteers and other supporters of FareShare Midlands, in line with our fundraising strategy  
• Act as first point of contact for individuals enquiring to support FareShare Midlands
• Send donors information and fundraising materials to support their fundraising for FareShare Midlands
• Ensure supporter interaction points (telephone, post, email) adhere to the highest standards

Administration

• Keep account plans up to date and internal stakeholders informed of key partnerships
• Maintain accurate financial records and budgets for all partners
• Keep application and reporting pipeline up-to-date and accurate
• Write and send outgoing thank you letters to individual donors and groups

Communication

• Ensure the activities of individuals and milestones of donors are promoted and celebrated through our social media and PR channels
• Develop communication plans to keep donors regularly informed of our impact
• Oversee content including proposals, presentations and fundraising packs to ensure high quality and brand adherence.
• Work closely with the FareShare UK marketing and PR team on communications activity

Person specification

Experience

• Experience of supporting or developing fundraising partnerships and maximising fundraising opportunities
• Experience of securing gifts from  trusts, grants and foundations
• Experience in writing compelling funding applications and impact reporting
• Experience in prospecting for new business and stewarding donors face to face
• Experience of customer care in a charity or sales environment
• Experience in keeping good administrative records
• Experience of presenting to a range of audiences

Skills, knowledge and abilities

• Knowledge of trust, grant and foundation fundraising, particularly around restricted funding
• Skilled at managing donor relationships and knowledge of corporate or community fundraising
• Excellent communication skills, good persuading skills and good writing skills
• Excellent numeracy skills and use of Excel
• Good relationship building skills, both inside and outside an organisation
• Ability to work to meet objectives and deadlines
• Ability and experience of working well in a team

Values and behaviours

• A commitment to Equal Opportunities
• An appreciation of FareShare Midlands’ mission and strategy
• Flexibility of approach and ability to work in a team
• Proven ability to develop and maintain good working relations, with both internal and external audiences

Closing date for receipt of applications is 11.59pm, Sunday 2 February 2020. Interviews Wednesday 12 February 2020.