Partnerships Manager

We are searching for an exceptional Partnerships Manager to play an integral role in supporting the delivery of Lightful’s strategy to support the resilience of an ever growing number of nonprofits across the world. You will use your passion for building relationships to generate interest in our programmes from our primary audience of Trusts, Foundations and Philanthropists as well as some institutional donors. 

You will report to the Managing Director - Learning and be a key part of Lightful’s Partnerships team working closely with partnerships colleagues, including Lightful’s Co-Founders. You will also work with senior leaders across our Programme, Finance, Engineering, Impact and Design teams.

Who we are

Lightful is a B-Corp and a technology company on a mission to help nonprofits and social enterprises become better storytellers, build trust and raise more money. Our vision is a future where nonprofits have the power to create more equitable communities and a healthier planet.

Lightful’s BRIDGE programme equips charities and civil society organisations with the digital tools and capabilities to become more resilient and deliver greater impact. It generates incredible results for participating organisations, helping them to build trust with their stakeholders by having a stronger digital presence. 

Lightful’s work has been funded by Trusts, Foundations, Philanthropists and Institutional Donors all over the world such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Comic Relief, Jessie Ball duPont Fund, GlobalGiving, UBS Optimus Foundation and JP Morgan Foundation. Thanks to these collaborative partnerships we have been able to support over 2,000 organisations in more than 80 countries across the world.

You can read more about our programmes as well as our purpose, mission and values on our website and Linkedin page.

Key responsibilities include:

• Contribute towards sales targets by winning business from new partners and building multi-year contracts with existing partners
• Support the research and identification of potential new funding partners
• Manage a varied portfolio of Lightful’s partnerships including other grant-making organisations
• Work with our Bid Writer to produce high quality communications, bids, proposals, responses to RFPs, reports and presentations for internal and external stakeholders, liaising with the design and programme teams as needed
• Represent Lightful at conferences and sector events, proactively networking and meeting key potential partners and stakeholders
• Work closely with the CRM Manager to ensure reports and data are kept up-to-date
• Ensure our CRM system is updated with all relevant account management information, working closely with the Head of Programmes to keep track of actions and activities
• Know when to leverage and deploy Lightful’s Co-Founders to support introductions, proposals and the finalisation of partnerships  
• Support and coordinate internal events with current and potential funding partners 
• Delivering a smooth handover from partnerships to programme, ensuring the delivery team have the right context, information and funder expectations to deliver an amazing programme

You should apply if you have most of the following:

• At least four years experience in fundraising, partnerships and/or business development at charities or organisations working closely with the charity sector
• Created funding partnerships with Trusts & Foundations, Institutional donors or other charities/non-profits
• Ability to introduce Lightful to relevant contacts via your existing relationships
• Excellent relationship management, interpersonal, and negotiation skills
• Confident verbal and written communicator
• Experience with CRM management and creating presentations 
• Ability to extract and analyse data to make effective, efficient decisions about prospect strategy and process
• Ability to craft compelling narratives for external audiences
• Great attention to detail - someone who can spot a typo in the footnote of the final draft of a contract
• Comfortable building relationships with different types of partners - be they large capital backed funds or grassroots community groups
• Great team working skills 

Having experience of any of the below would be beneficial:

• Knowledge of fundraising information sources and familiarity with research techniques for prospect research 
• Excellent understanding of why outcomes are important to trusts and foundations 
• An understanding of funders’ needs, and how to meet these needs through thorough and relevant research, and creating compelling applications for support
• Experience using Salesforce to manage opportunities, accounts and leads
• Passion for the charity sector evidenced by having helped to build their skills through volunteering, giving advice or formal or informal consulting

Benefits

We offer a comprehensive benefits package adapted for the world of remote working:

• Highly competitive salary
• Stock options - every team member shares in the success of Lightful!
• 35 days of bookable annual leave (book a bank holiday off, or not)
• Your birthday off (paid) plus day off to move house (paid)
• Simply Health cash back plan
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Free, independent financial coaching from Octopus MoneyCoach
• Lightful Pension provided by Legal & General 
• Free access to Asana Rebel (yoga) and Headspace apps
• Tax free contribution to additional home-working costs
• Cycle to work scheme
• Workplace Nursery (Salary sacrifice scheme providing NI/Tax savings on nursery fees)
• Charitable Payroll Giving (Salary sacrifice)   
• Long Service awards
• Personal development programme
• Thorough onboarding experience, supported by a buddy to support your integration to the team
• Default work from home, with optional access to our London office
• Varied and excellent opportunities for skills/career progression
• Be part of a business that has an impact all over the world!

Need a flexible way of working?

We’re open to talking about whatever it is you need to do your best work. Part-time hours or simply some flexibility to work full-time around existing commitments and other priorities. We can’t guarantee it but let’s talk about it to see if we can find a win-win solution!

Equal opportunities 

A diverse range of opinions and perspectives is core to Lightful’s open culture and ongoing success. As an equal opportunity employer, all applicants will be considered for employment without attention to ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, family or parental status, national origin, veteran, neurodiversity status or disability status.

Additional Requirement

Whilst we are advertising this role as based in the UK, we are open to considering applications from individuals from outside the UK whose experience meets the requirements of the role. 

For UK based individuals, you must be eligible to work in the UK without the need of visa support/sponsorship.