Fundraising Strategy Manager

SENIOR FUNDRAISING STRATEGY MANAGER

Salary: £62,000 - £67,000 per annum

Reports to: Head of Audience & Strategy

Department: Marketing, Fundraising and Engagement

Contract: Permanent

Hours: 35 hours per week (we are open to Compressed Hours or 4 days part-time)

Location: Stratford w/ high-flex (1 – 2 days per week in the office)

Closing date: Thursday 20 March 2025, 23:55

Please note: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Cancer Research UK is not able to offer visa sponsorship.

At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.

We are professionals with purpose, beating cancer every day. But we need to go much further and much faster. That’s why we’re looking for someone talented, someone who wants to develop their skills, someone like you.

We have an exciting opportunity for you to join us as a Senior Fundraising Strategy Manager. We need you to manage the development of an ambitious, supporter-led mass audience strategy that drives sustainable contribution growth over the long-term. This role will lead a step-change to make MFE become a truly audience-centric directorate, working across the whole directorate to ensure our strategy delivers amazing journeys and experiences to our audiences, driving engagement & increasing lifetime value.

What will I be doing?

• Managing and delivering projects to develop and maintain an ambitious mass audience strategy that drives sustainable contribution growth over the long-term
• Leading the development of the audience strategy, working alongside colleagues to deliver strategic projects and programmes of work from initial scoping through to making recommendations
• Identifying key strategic questions and decisions and drive clarity on project scope
• Supporting the Head of Audience & Strategy to establish standardised ways of developing, implementing and assessing strategy in MFE
• Performing analysis to explore strategic questions, including qualitative and quantitative research and commissioning primary research where required. Synthesising conclusions into clear and actionable business recommendations
• Working with the Planning & Change team in MFE to support the development of implementation plans for the audience strategy, including setting annual priorities/ targets and managing prioritisation decisions
• Working with the Planning & Change team in MFE to support MFE quarterly business performance reviews to drive alignment with the audience strategy and ensure prioritisation and investment decisions deliver on overall strategic goals
• Working closely with the Data, Insight and Performance department to ensure audience, market and business insights are front-and-centre of commercial decision-making and prioritisation/ planning
• Contributing to writing impactful papers and presentations for a variety of stakeholder groups, including MFE SLT
• Delivering ad hoc strategic projects in priority areas, including supporting the Head of Audience & Strategy to respond to EB/ Strategy Board requests
• Line managing one strategy manager and (as required) supervise other team members and/or people from other teams to deliver work.

What skills will I need?

• Previous experience of developing strategy at pace
• Strong commercial acumen, including experience conducting data analysis and making prioritisation and/ or investment recommendations
• Experience of managing relationships and interacting confidently with senior stakeholder (ideally C-suite or Director-level)
• Numerate, financially literate and comfortable with data analysis
• Previous experience of and interest in one or more relevant areas – e.g. fundraising/not for profits, customer experience, consumer insight, strategic planning – gained through a previous role and/or consulting or equivalent experience
• Ability to approach problems in a structured way, utilising data analysis, sound financial and business acumen, and logical reasoning to support conclusions
• Ability to interpret and explain information clearly, and in a way that delivers actionable insight
• A strategic thinker, interpreting complex information, putting it in context and having a clear view of the "big picture"
• Strong project management and planning skills and will be comfortable with working flexibly and in a rapidly changing working environment, incl. ability to set and manage own workload and priorities
• Well-developed interpersonal skills and be able to interact confidently with stakeholders and colleagues, maintaining positive relationships
• Able to design, and facilitate / lead meeting to achieve objectives
• A strong team player, able to work independently, lead, support, listen and collaborate.

What will I gain?

Each and every one of our employees contributes to our progress and is supporting our work to beat cancer. We think that’s impressive.

In return, we make sure you are supported by a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools, policies and processes to enable you to do your job well.

Our benefits package includes a substantial retirement plan, a generous and flexible leave allowance, discounts on anything from travel to technology, gym membership, and much more.

We don’t forget people have lives outside of work too and so we actively encourage a flexible working culture.

Our work – from funding cutting-edge research to developing public policy – will change the world. It’s exciting to be part of our team.

How do I apply?

We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; but we won’t be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you quickly, fairly, and objectively.

For more information on this career opportunity please visit our website or contact us at [email protected].

For more updates on our work and careers, follow us on: Linked In, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Please note that, internally, this role is known as Senior Strategy Manager (MFE).

Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures, in particular those from ethnic minority backgrounds who are currently under-represented.

We want to see every candidate performing at their best throughout the job application process, interview process and whilst at work. We therefore ask you to inform us of any concerns you have or any adjustments you might need to enable this to happen. Please contact [email protected] or 0 20 3469 8400 as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, we are unable to recruit anyone below the age of 18, so that we can protect young people from health & safety and safeguarding risks.