Job description

​King’s College London have been working to make the world a better place for almost 200 years. Since our foundation in 1829, King's students and staff have dedicated themselves in service of society. The Fundraising & Supporter Development Office has been integral to achieving the university’s ambitious goals and mission.  

​As Senior Alumni Manager (London) you will be responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with a portfolio of leadership alumni, through an innovative engagement programme which adds significant value to the university’s strategic priorities. Working closely with colleagues across fundraising, communications and the wider university, you will use your experience of high-level events and bespoke engagement opportunities to inspire our most successful alumni to stay connected and give back to King’s.  

​The Senior Alumni Manager (London) also provides strategic oversight of our UK alumni engagement programming, which incorporates a range of in person and digital initiatives including King’s Experts Series, King’s Distinguished Alumni Awards and recent graduate engagement. This role has line management responsibility for the Alumni Engagement Manager and Alumni Events & Volunteer Coordinator. 

In Fundraising & Supporter Development we are committed to building a truly diverse workforce that reflects the communities served by our partners, recognising the range of benefits that we derive when colleagues bring experiences and perspectives from a range of backgrounds. As part of this work we have developed a race equality plan and we particularly welcome applications from candidates from Black, Minority Ethnic and Asian backgrounds. 

This post will be offered on a fixed term contract to 31 May 2024. 

This is a full-time post.

Key responsibilities

• Working with the Head of Alumni Relations and Senior International Alumni Manager, advance King’s strategy for high-level alumni engagement.
• ​Proactively manage and cultivate relationships with a portfolio of influential alumni in London, who have the potential to have a demonstrable impact on university goals and be responsible for converting their enthusiasm into measurable outcomes.  
• Manage and nurture the London Alumni Advisory Group and cultivate relationships with senior alumni volunteers.  
• Monitor and regularly review canvasser portfolios within the London leadership alumni audience, working closely with prospect research and fundraising teams to ensure the UK alumni engagement programme supports King’s philanthropic pipeline.  
• ​Lead on 2023-2024 annual plans for UK alumni engagement, setting targets and assessing the impact of activities against KPIs. Evaluate activities and provide recommendations to inform future programming.  
• Have strategic oversight of a programme of digital alumni events, UK in person events, and alumni benefits & services. 
• ​Project manage the King’s Distinguished Alumni Awards, overseeing successful delivery of the annual nominations, selections and Awards cycle and creating a tailored engagement plan for each award winner. 
• Oversee recruitment and stewardship of notable alumni graduation speakers and identify future opportunities to connect faculties with high-profile alumni.
• Manage the budget for high-level London alumni engagement and rigorously monitor return on investment.  
• Work proactively across the university to ensure that leadership alumni engagement is maximised for university goals, identifying relevant senior volunteer opportunities, researching suitable candidates for high level activities and introducing leadership alumni to relevant stakeholders as appropriate.  
• Work with colleagues in the Fundraising team to ensure they are aware of recent developments that might impact on their pipeline development.  
• ​Work with the Head of Alumni Communications to identify tailored opportunities to profile leadership alumni across alumni communications. 
• Provide effective line management for the Alumni Engagement Manager and Alumni Events and Volunteering Coordinator, and exceptional leadership for the UK section of the Alumni Relations team.  

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​**The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post. ​

Skills, knowledge, and experience

Essential criteria

1. Educated to degree level, or equivalent, preferably at 2:1 level or above
2. Able to set objectives, measure performance and achieve ambitious KPIs
3. Ability to prioritise and to work under pressure and to tight deadlines
4. Excellent understanding of the role of alumni relations within higher education
5. Excellent written and verbal communication skills
6. Significant experience of successful event and project management
7. Able to work on own initiative, make decisions independently, and think creatively and laterally
8. Confidence and ability to communicate at a variety of levels and to bring together different stakeholders to achieve results
9. Excellent relationship building skills, with evidence of cultivating meaningful relationships with senior volunteers, donors or other external stakeholders.
10. Experience managing budgets and rigorously monitoring return on investment

Desirable criteria

1. Substantial experience of working in higher education, a membership organization or charities
2. Line management experience
3. Experience using Raiser’s Edge, Microsoft Dynamics or a similar relationship management database

Further information

All F&SD appointments involve a standard skills-based interview, followed (for up to two appointable candidates) by a Core Values interview.

Interviews will take place on Thursday 8th June.  

About Fundraising & Supporter Development

Fundraising and Supporter Development (F&SD) is an integrated department that provides a single fundraising and supporter engagement function in support of King’s College London, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and for King’s Health Partners. In doing so, we work closely with and on behalf of the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation, as well as the Maudsley Charity. Based at King’s College London, we work with colleagues across our partners to help them serve society through world-leading education, research and healthcare.

We operate a unique and powerful model, which brings together fundraising for all our partners across major and principal gifts; trusts & foundations; legacies; corporate engagement and public fundraising. We also promote King’s College London’s engagement with its worldwide alumni community, as well as engaging more broadly with supporters of all our partners. Our work is underpinned and enhanced by a range of dedicated professionals in areas such as donor relations, communications and marketing, prospect research, finance, data, supporter services, governance and general administration.

By pooling our passion and expertise, our potential and impact is maximised – to the benefit of our partners and their beneficiaries, supporters and donors. Our model also drives benefits for our staff, who get to work in a unique environment, engaging with several world-leading organisations and having opportunities to learn about and work across the many different component parts of our activity.

We have an impressive, well-established track record of success in securing support that allows our partners to deliver on their missions. This includes our global, award-winning World Questions: King’s Answers campaign for King’s College London, which set the standard in the sector and enabled us to raise substantial funds to help tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges. Ambitious and innovative, the team has won awards across the higher education and charity sectors, including a CASE Platinum Award for Fundraising and a CASE Gold Award for Donor Relations and Stewardship.

We continue to set ourselves high standards and expectations in terms of supporting our partners, mapping out ambitious fundraising campaigns and appeals where we want to achieve ground-breaking milestones in areas such as children and young people’s mental health; sickle cell disease; cardiology; cancer; global women’s leadership; engineering; international relations and support for students who will go out and make a difference in the world. We are a strongly values-driven team, maximising the benefits of working across internationally-leading organisations and united in our ambition to support our partners in making a real and positive difference to their beneficiaries and the world we live in.

Our Partners

King’s Health Partners

King’s Health Partners (KHP) is an Academic Health Sciences Centre and a partnership between King’s College London and three NHS Foundation Trusts – Guys and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley. We bring together 40,000 NHS Staff with 30,000 students and researchers to join up world class research, education and pioneering clinical practice. Our partnership sees 4.8 million patient contacts each year. Academic Health Sciences Centres are engine rooms of high impact and innovation discovering new insights into disease, transforming diagnostics and unlocking new therapies. We speed up the time it takes to translate research and high impact innovations in physical and mental health into outstanding patient care. We do this by working in dedicated clinical academic groups and institutes and by involving more and more people in clinical trials and research. For more information, visit:  www.kingshealthpartners.org

King’s College London

King’s College London is an internationally renowned university delivering exceptional education and world-leading research. The university is dedicated to driving positive and sustainable change in society and realising our vision of making the world a better place.  Through its commitment to exceptional education, impactful research and genuine service to society, King’s College London is creating positive change in its communities, both in London and on the world stage. The Strategic Vision 2029 looks forward to King’s College London’s 200th anniversary in 2029 and sets out ambitious plans in five key areas:

• Educating the next generation of change-makers;
• Challenging ideas and driving change through research;
• Giving back to society through meaningful service;
• Working with our local communities in London;
• Fostering global citizens with an international perspective.

Guy’s and St Thomas’  Foundation and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

We work closely with and on behalf of Guy’s and St Thomas’s Foundation to secure income and engage stakeholders in support of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. The Trust is among the UK's busiest and most successful foundation trusts, with a long history of clinical excellence and high-quality care.  The Trust is made up of two of London's best known teaching hospitals – St Thomas' Hospital and Guy's Hospital. It also includes Evelina London Children’s Hospital and both adult and children’s community services in Lambeth and Southwark.

Dedication to the communities it serves is at the heart of everything the Trust undertakes, providing high quality and personal care. The Trust is guided by its values: putting patients first, taking pride in what we do, respecting others, striving to be the best and acting with integrity. Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals became part of Guy's and St Thomas' in February 2021, bringing together world-leading expertise and research in heart and lung disease.