Fundraising and Partnership Trustee

What will you be doing?

As a small board of seven trustees, we are looking for a new trustee to bring fundraising and partnership expertise to our board. We have not had a trustee with this specialised skill set for several years and we increasingly feel the absence of this experience as the charity grows.

School Club Zambia has developed from a small grassroots organisation into a charity delivering increasingly ambitious programmes, including major grants from Comic Relief and most recently, a US$150,000 FIFA-funded education programme. Much of this growth and income has been secured and managed through our Zambian NGO, so the scale of our programme growth is not fully reflected in our UK accounts. Our challenge now is to build a stronger and more sustainable UK fundraising base alongside this growth.

The new trustee will play an important strategic role in helping the board develop our fundraising and partnership approach. They will help us identify new opportunities to increase individual giving, strengthen our trusts and foundations pipeline, and develop more strategic relationships with corporate partners. They will work closely with the Director of Operations, UK Chair and wider board to help turn our growing profile and programme impact into sustainable income.

Importantly, we also have a junior member of our team in Zambia who is keen to develop their fundraising and partnership skills further. The new trustee would have an exciting opportunity to support and mentor them, sharing knowledge and experience and helping us build fundraising capacity within the organisation rather than simply bringing in their own expertise.

We believe this is an exciting time to join us. We have a strong track record of securing significant grants and are entering an important period of growth, with a clear ambition to increase unrestricted income and secure further multi-year funding. The new trustee will have genuine scope to shape how we approach fundraising in the UK, strengthen our partnerships and help ensure that our income growth keeps pace with the impact and ambitions of our work in Zambia.

The trustee will not be expected to undertake fundraising alone, but to provide strategic direction, connections and support to the board and staff, helping us make the most of opportunities whilst building a more adaptive and resilient funding base. 

What are we looking for?

We are looking for a trustee with at least two years’ experience in fundraising and partnership development who can bring practical knowledge, fresh ideas and strategic insight to our small board. Ideally, they will have experience in international development or the charity sector, although this is not essential. We recognise that fundraising skills are highly transferable, and experience gained in other sectors could be equally valuable.

The most important qualities and experience we are looking for are:

• Fundraising success: Experience of identifying funding opportunities, developing compelling proposals and securing successful bids. This could include trusts and foundations, individual giving, corporate partnerships or other income streams.
• Strategic thinking: The ability to help the Director of Operations and Board identify new opportunities, strengthen our fundraising strategy and develop a more diverse and sustainable income base, including unrestricted and multi-year funding.
• Mentoring and developing others: Ideally, experience of mentoring or supporting a colleague to develop their skills and confidence. We have a junior team member,based in Zambia, who is keen to strengthen her fundraising and partnership skills. We would particularly welcome someone who could share their knowledge and help build fundraising capacity within our team.
• Partnership building: Experience of developing relationships with donors, businesses, trusts, foundations or other organisations, and an understanding of how to turn these relationships into meaningful, long-term partnerships.

We are a small board of seven trustees and are looking for someone who is collaborative, approachable and comfortable working alongside both trustees and staff. We would value someone who can offer constructive challenge, share their networks where appropriate and help us think creatively about how to increase our income without expecting to do all the fundraising themselves.

We are particularly interested in someone who understands the challenges of growing a small charity and can help us translate our increasing programme impact into a stronger and more sustainable fundraising base in the UK. Our work in rural Zambia addresses significant challenges, including girls’ education, child marriage, poverty and the growing impacts of climate change. We want to ensure that our fundraising ambitions keep pace with the needs of the communities we serve, in what is an increasingly competitive environment.

Above all, we are looking for someone who is motivated by our mission, enjoys working as part of a small and committed board and is excited by the opportunity to make a tangible difference through both strategic fundraising support and the development of our team’s skills and confidence.

What difference will you make?

This role will have a two-fold impact: strengthening School Club Zambia’s fundraising at board and organisational level, while also helping us build fundraising expertise within our team in Zambia.

The need for our work is growing. In rural Zambia, child marriage, school dropout and poverty continue to limit opportunities for children and young people, particularly girls. At the same time, climate change is creating new pressures, with droughts becoming more frequent and devastating, affecting food security, family incomes and children’s ability to stay in school. We are seeing an increasing need to expand our work supporting girls’ education, livelihoods and protection, alongside climate resilience and sustainable agriculture.

Our organisation has also grown significantly. We have secured increasingly substantial grants and partnerships, including funding from Comic Relief and a new US$150,000 FIFA education grant. However, much of this income has been secured and managed through our Zambian NGO, meaning the growth in our programme activity and income is not yet fully reflected in our UK accounts. We now need to strengthen our UK fundraising and develop a broader, more sustainable income base.

The new trustee will support the Director of Operations and Board to identify new fundraising opportunities, develop stronger donor and corporate partnerships and strengthen applications to trusts and foundations. Their experience and strategic input will help us make the most of opportunities, improve the quality and competitiveness of applications, and develop a stronger pipeline of multi-year and unrestricted funding. This will ultimately give us greater financial resilience and enable us to respond to the growing needs of the communities we support.

The second impact will be on our own organisational capacity. A junior member of our team in Zambia, is keen to develop her fundraising and partnership skills further. The new trustee will be able to provide guidance, mentoring and practical support, helping to grow her confidence and expertise and ensure that fundraising knowledge is increasingly embedded within our Zambian team.

We see this as an opportunity for the right person to make a lasting difference beyond simply helping us raise more money for programmes. By strengthening both our fundraising strategy and the skills of our team, they will help build an organisation that is better equipped to secure core costs alongside the resources needed to keep children in school, prevent child marriage and help rural communities become more resilient to the increasingly severe impacts of climate change.

Anything else...

We would expect attendance at four quarterly online board meetings annually, with board reports read in advance. Additional time may be needed for fundraising strategy, reviewing applications, mentoring and occasional donor introductions, depending on opportunities and availability.