Our current annual budget is approximately £5m and we plan to double this over the next few years to support our expansion ambitions.
The majority of our funding is currently from grants (trusts, foundations and institutional grants) and we see this income-stream being the main way to fund our expansion plans. The postholder will be required to lead prospecting work for new funders, to support proposal writing and due diligence processes and to coordinate all our donor reporting,
In addition, the postholder would also be expected to lead new projects to diversify our income, for example by gaining support from corporates (charity of the year, sponsorship, grants) and challenges/competitions.
This is a unique opportunity for an ambitious fundraising generalist to join a fun, high impact, mission driven organisation. This could be an ideal opportunity for a mid-level Development Manager looking to grow and develop, or for a mid-level professional with relevant experience to move in to their first management role.
Main duties and responsibilities

Income generation
• To lead prospecting work to identify potential donors, challenges, awards, requests for proposals; to analyse potential areas of alignment; and to advise on fundraising applications (e.g duration, funding request, activities to be funded)
• To organise and participate in meetings with prospective funders/donors
• To support on proposal development
• To attend conferences and events to represent Lively Minds and make contact with potential supporters
• To support the Country Directors and Head of Ghana Partnerships identify and pursue in-country fundraising opportunities
• To coordinate due diligence process with new donors
• Donor reporting and Stewardship
• To coordinate donor reporting to ensure timely submission and quality of donor reports • To develop newsletters/updates for supporters
• To own a portfolio of relationships with existing donors (including funders and individual supporters)

Fundraising communications & collateral
• To create high quality fundraising pitch decks, proposals, event/award applications collaborating closely with Head of M&E, Director of Finance and CEO
• Oversee and write creative and engaging impact stories, collect images & infographics detailing the impact of our work, disseminated through blogs, social media, videos and press releases

You may be assigned any other responsibility in agreement with your line manager, in contribution to Lively Minds work and in recognition of your experience and skills. It is therefore expected for staff to be flexible and willing to contribute to the work of the wider team.

Experience and skills
To succeed in this role, you will need:
• to be a strong and fast writer: You must be able to analyse what will be of interest to the audience and provide compelling and accurate information about budgets/finances, reach, impact and how the programme works. In addition to excellent written communication you must have a desire to grow your public speaking and presentation skills.
• to be resilient – managing funder relations can be challenging and requires excellent emotional intelligence and the ability to recover quickly from setbacks.
• to collaborate well with other team members, and to drive high performance in others
• to be able to quickly adapt to new approaches, processes and to deliver high-quality work at pace
• to have meticulous attention to detail
• to be a salesperson– with an irrepressible ability to generate relationships & seize opportunities, coupled with a sound business-minded approach at all times

Technical abilities
Essential
• Minimum of 3 years’ experience demonstrating the required skills in the above section
• Excellent written communication
• Strong Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint skills

Desirable
• Knowledge of the ECD and global social enterprise funding landscapes
• Knowledge of or experience working in ECD
• Project design and management experience
• Graphic design skills
• Institute of Fundraising qualification