Job Description
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Job Purpose:
As Partnerships and Philanthropy Manager (New Business) you will be responsible for growing income from corporate partnerships and influential donors like high net worth individual and the diaspora through excellent new business development and fantastic donor stewardship. Reporting to the Head of Fundraising, you will focus on identifying prospective individual donors and corporate partners and developing lasting relationships with them. You will also support the management of relationships with existing donors, ensuring all donors have a brilliant experience supporting AREF.
You will work closely with the Head of Fundraising, and the team in The Gambia, so strong relationship management skills will be essential. You are a values-driven, confident and determined fundraiser who thrives in a people orientated, target driven role.
Key Responsibilities:
You will lead the targeted pursuit of AREF’s ‘dream corporate, major donors and diaspora partners’, whilst collaborating closely with the Head of Fundraising, and key internal teams such as Communications, Finance, and Programmes to design tailored, and compelling propositions that bring mutual strategic value to life. This will involve strengthening our offer to partners, including our Corporate Change Makers’ Club and Major Donors Patrons Club and cross‑selling opportunities to ensure the most inspiring, integrated propositions for our prospective partners.
Corporate Partnerships (50%):
- You will research, identify and cultivate new potential new high-value donors and corporate partners through networking e.g. attending events.
- Majority of your time will be spent building and developing a pool of corporate partners who have the potential to make a big difference to early career health researchers’ by giving five to six figure gifts
- Support the Head of Fundraising with securing and stewarding large and mid-gifts, as appropriate.
- Develop and submit high quality and compelling written proposals to secure restricted and unrestricted funding for AREF’s work.
- Support the Head of Fundraising in meeting the highest standards in grant management and donor stewardship.
- Liaise with colleagues in Programmes, Comms and Finance to develop high quality donor proposals, budgets, and impact reports, ensuring donors understand the impact of their gifts and are inspired to continue supporting AREF.
- Manage and grow our small corporate mailing programme.
- Compile and implement compelling stewardship plans.
- Where appropriate, you will involve AREF’s senior staff and the Board of Trustees to make the most of opportunities to engage and build relationships with existing and potential donors.
- You will come up with great ideas for how to effectively build relationships, and engage and inspire donors to support AREF, ideally through multi-year commitments e.g. corporate events, Charity of the Year Partnerships, sponsorship etc.
Major Donors and Influential donors incl. Diaspora (45%):
- Work closely with the Founder, CEO, and Head of Fundraising to identify potential influential donors e.g. Diaspora and major donors as part of strategy to increase unrestricted funds for AREF.
- Research, identify, and cultivate new business relationships with Major Donors, especially from Africa and the diaspora.
- Through relationship building, you will understand the motivations of each existing and potential new influential donor from the Diaspora and/or major donor, identifying the most suitable projects for them to support (where appropriate), enhancing their long-term value and experience as an AREF supporter
- Support the development and implementation of bespoke cultivation and stewardship plans for major donors.
- Aid the delivery of high-quality cases for support, updates, reports, and creative stewardship to further engage high net-worth individuals in the organisation’s work.
- Support organising and carrying out major donor events. This includes being able to travel to event locations in Africa and Europe.
- You will recruit, manage and support well connected, influential volunteers who will proactively fundraise.
Strategic Support (5%):
- Maintain AREF’ donor filing systems and donor database (Salesforce) to enable data driven decisions with a strong commitment to ensuring it is kept accurate and up to date at all times.
- Contribute to overall strategic and budget planning, as required.
- You will work to an agreed individual target to deliver and an agreed corporate income target annually.
- Monitor developments and trends in trusts and major gifts fundraising, including engagement with relevant sector events and networks.
- Monitor income against target, and agreed KPI’s, providing updates and regular revised projections as required to the Head of Fundraising.
- Work as part of the wider fundraising team to develop new and innovative fundraising ideas.
- Act as a representative of AREF when required and communicate its work in a passionate and professional way.
- Understand and adhere to data protection under GDPR.
- Carry out other duties, as required, to maximise AREF’s income generation plans.
Candidate Requirements:
Essential experience and skills (please demonstrate all of these)
• Master’s level degree in international development or other health or business related field.
•Formal training and/or a qualification in fundraising or marketing is mandatory.
• Passionate and demonstrable commitment to AREF’s values and mission.
• Proven experience of raising funds from companies and high net-worth individuals in the not-for-profit sector, or similar transferable experience gained in the commercial sector
• Strong interpersonal skills and personal credibility, with experience of building strong working relationships with a diverse range of people, including high net-worth individuals
• Good influencing skills and experience in giving presentation at companies and fundraising events.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills (including fluency in written and spoken English)
• appropriately represent AREF to a diverse range of people, including CSR company executives and high net-worth individuals
• A tenacious and self-motivated approach to work, with the ability to manage own workload • Experience of working in a performance and target driven environment
• A willingness to work in an agile environment and with the ability to learn quickly.
• Financial management skills and ability to work with budgets.
• Windows-based software packages, including Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint
You may also have (you are not expected to have these, but if you do, we’d love to hear about it)
• Formal training and/or a qualification in fundraising or marketing
• Experience of working in corporate and major donor fundraising
• Experience of working with diaspora communities and circles
• Experience securing new business in a fundraising capacity
• Experience working in an international development organisation.
• A working knowledge of the principles behind successful corporate fundraising and major gift fundraising
• A fundraising or relationship marketing certificate or qualification
• Experience of working with fundraising development boards, high-value giving circles and other fundraising products in the not-for-profit sector as part of a corporate fundraising and/or major donor fundraising/philanthropy strategy.
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Applicants must be based in The Gambia.
The salary will be paid in Grade 2, 1 Points of MRCG at LSHTM’s payscale.
The appointment will be up to 31st July 2028 initially and subject to a probationary period of 6 months.
To apply, please click here to complete an online application.
The closing date for the receipt of applications is 13 July 2026
MRCG at the LSHTM is an equal opportunities employer and operates a strict no smoking policy.
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.