Deputy Development Director

The Portsmouth Grammar School is a leading co-educational school located in the historic heart of Portsmouth. The school is an IB World School and offers the IB Diploma alongside A Level.

From its foundation in 1732, the school has a long tradition of philanthropic support from many benefactors whose generosity is commemorated at the Founder’s Day service held in St Thomas’ Cathedral each July. 

In recent years, charitable support has helped create a state-of-the-art science block (2010) and an outstanding sixth form centre (2014).

In 2015 the school launched The William Smith Fund as a major fundraising initiative with the primary objective of creating more means-tested bursaries to enable promising boys and girls from the local area join the school, whatever their financial background. 16 new bursary places have been created to date.

The Development Office is well established within the school and enjoys strong support from the Head and Governors. Its role is to foster and maintain relationships with alumni, parents, pupils, staff and others who share an interest in the school’s development and to raise funds in support of the school’s strategic objectives.

The purpose of this role is to work closely with the Development Director to deliver the school’s development and fundraising plan within the school’s broader strategic vision. The Deputy Director will take specific responsibility for regular giving activity.

This is a new role and an exciting opportunity for any individual seeking to build a career in educational development and fundraising. 

The successful candidate will have proven success either in fundraising or in client management in a creative environment or similar. He or she will be adept at managing information and scrutinising data and will have demonstrated strong organisational and time management skills. The role would ideally suit someone aspiring to lead their own team in the future.

The post is full-time (37.5 hours Monday – Friday, 9am to 5pm, with an unpaid 30 minutes for lunch) and operates throughout the calendar year. Consideration may be given to candidates requesting flexible or part-time work equating to at least 75% of a full-time role and this can be discussed further at interview.

For all candidates, a flexible approach regarding working pattern is essential to be able to support occasional evening/weekend events. It is a requirement of the role that the Deputy Development Director is able to work throughout the timeframe of the biennial telephone campaign. These are typically scheduled in July / August.

There is an expectation that all support staff attend INSET training days which take place throughout the school year, usually at the beginning or end of school terms.

The starting date will be as soon as is possible.

The new Deputy Development Director will report to the Development Director. 

The main responsibilities of this role are to:

i. work alongside the Development Director to deliver the school’s development and fundraising plan within the school’s broader strategic vision;

ii. further develop and deliver an ongoing regular giving strategy to build widespread support throughout the PGS community; 

iii. support the Development Director in major donor work; and

iv. create an exceptional culture of donor care that celebrates and inspires existing and potential supporters.

Duties and responsibilities

Fundraising

• Review, develop and implement the regular giving strategy, primarily focussed around bursaries, with the aim of achieving income and participation targets

• Take responsibility for the school’s biennial summer telephone fundraising appeal, including the forthcoming appeal in July/August 2019)

• Brief the Development Director on potential major donors identified among the regular donor pool

• Work with the Development Director to promote legacy giving by all constituencies, taking specific responsibility for their own pool of prospects

• Promote charitable giving through the full range of channels and media

Donor care and stewardship

• Work with the Development Director to review, refresh and manage an outstanding donor stewardship programme

• Provide the Development Director with regular bespoke reports on giving for onward communication to senior management, Governors and major donors

• Work with the Alumni Relations and Events Manager (AREM) to coordinate and develop a programme of donor-centred events

Prospect management and research

• Support the Development Director in major donor work by compiling prospect research and developing funding proposals

• Work with the Development Director to ensure the smooth and effective running of the major prospect management process

• Assist colleagues in maintaining the integrity of the data within The Raiser’s Edge NXT database

Alumni Relations

• Work with the AREM to communicate the school’s fundraising aims to alumni

• Provide the AREM with suitable content for the popular alumni magazine, OPUS

General

• Keep fully informed about the work of the school and specifically its charitable vision and outreach activities

• Bring examples of fundraising best practice into the development function

• Aim for constant improvement and aspire to the highest possible standards

• Any other duties within the scope, spirit and purpose of the job as directed by the Development Director

• Attend all safeguarding and other essential staff training sessions

Person Specification

Skills and experience

• Demonstrable experience of either fundraising and donor stewardship or client management in a creative environment or similar

• Educated to degree level or equivalent

• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills

• Ability to balance conflicting deadlines and priorities and to see projects through from conception to completion

• Experience of interacting positively with people at all levels of seniority

• Strong research skills

• Proactive and capable of working without day to day instruction

• Able to work well under pressure and in a small team

• Full familiarity with the Microsoft Office suite of products (Outlook, Word, Excel, Publisher) and Google’s cloud-based G suite products

• Experience of using a CRM database (ideally The Raiser’s Edge/NXT)

• An understanding and ideally experience of gift administration processes and tax efficient giving opportunities in the UK and overseas

• Knowledge and understanding of the GDPR

Personal qualities

• Resilient and self-sufficient

• Highly organised and with a good memory

• Excellent attention to detail

• Positive ‘can do’ attitude

• Passion for learning from others

• Real desire to deliver to the highest standards

• High degree of flexibility

• Calm and measured with outstanding professional integrity

• Discretion and the ability to maintain confidentiality

• Supportive of the aims and ethos of PGS