Development Operations Manager

The Royal Society’s Development Team raises funds from high-net-worth individuals, charitable trusts and foundations, and corporate donors to support the Royal Society’s strategic plan.  The Society is uniquely placed to convene philanthropic support from global partners in furtherance of our founding principle “to promote excellence in Science for the benefit of humanity”. The Society has a strong history of Development and an ambitious vision for increasing fundraising, which requires innovative and robust fundraising operations.  The Development Operations Manager will be responsible for excellent fundraising systems and processes which will help drive income generation for the Royal Society.  The post holder will support the Head of Development and advise on important strategic issues including insights into philanthropy and fundraising trends, fundraising guidelines, and regulations. The postholder will have overall responsibility for managing the operational aspects of the team’s work, including the prospect research management, the Society’s gift acceptance policy and due diligence process.

Reports to: Head of Development

Line manages: TBC

Location: Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AG                                                                    

Hours: Full time, 35hrs 

Pay Band: E

Salary: £50,000 to £58,000 per annum dependant on experience

The application closing date will be at 9 am on 20 January 2025. Applications should be sent to Richmond Associates, please read the details below. 

First interviews with the Royal Society will take place on 3 February 2025, with panel interviews taking place on 10 February2025.

We have partnered with the Richmond Associates team on this search.  To learn more about this role, please visit their website https://richmond-associates.com/job/rs-development-operations-manager/ to download the Information Pack or contact them on info@richmond-associates.com, +44(0) 203 617 9240.

1) Planning, performance, and relationship management:

• Overall responsibility for the income management of the Development team, including the tracking and monitoring of the Society’s fundraising income.
• Provide input relating to Development Operations in support of the Development team strategy.
• Support the Development Team’s annual income and expenditure budgeting and reforecasting.
• Establish and maintain excellent working relationships with all relevant teams in the Society, with counterparts in Finance, IT, and communications, for example.
• Regularly assess the effectiveness of the Development team’s resources, systems, and processes, initiating change or making the case for additional or external resource where appropriate.
• Work with the Head of Development to ensure that the Development team is working within the guidelines of the Fundraising Regulator, ensuring that members of the team are aware of and have the tools to be compliant with these and other relevant regulations and guidelines.

2) Committee support and reporting:

• Oversee the preparation of committee papers and reports including regular internal updates and formal committees, ensuring a high level of accuracy and timeliness.
• Lead on the re-establishment and administration of the Society’s Gift Acceptance Committee.
• Support the Development team’s management of the American Friends of the Royal Society.

3) Gift acceptance and management:

• Embed a comprehensive end to end gift acceptance process and oversee the adherence to it by fundraising staff, including budgetary approval, due diligence and any other relevant internal approvals.
• Working with the Senior Donor Relations Officer to liaise with the Finance team and programme teams on budget management for donor-funded programmes.
• Development measurement tools and KPIs for gift management to demonstrate impact of the team. 

4) Data and information management

• Overall responsibility to ensure best use of the donation management section of the Royal Society’s CRM (Dynamics) and associated processes.
• Oversight of the Development teams record and information management, including use of Royal Society SharePoint site
• Supporting colleagues to ensure all team members are clear of their role in keeping data and information up to date and GDPR compliant. 

5) Prospect research:

• Overall responsibility for the prospect identification, research and pipeline management.
• To complete accurate and GDPR compliant research into prospects, analysing and synthesising information for materials such as briefings and presentations.
• To produce due-diligence reports on prospective and current donors as part of the Society’s gift acceptance policy and procedure.
• Expand and refresh the prospect pool and identify new prospects to target.
• Maintain and develop our research resources and identify new useful sources, as and when necessary

6) General:

• Line management
• Establish co-operative working relationships with appropriate Society staff members and leadership volunteers.
• Adhere to guidelines pertaining to good practice and confidentiality.
• Keep up to date with the work of the Royal Society.
• Perform additional duties as assigned.

General

• Ability to problem solve and scenario plan.
• Proven ability to prioritise and manage a varied workload, taking initiative and often working to conflicting deadlines
• Sensitivity and discretion in dealing with confidential information
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to produce clear, accurate and concise reports for a knowledgeable and discerning readership
• An interest in science, scientists and the work of the Royal Society.
• Well-developed ability to work well with others as part of a team, providing support as required, and build and maintain effective working relationships.
• Intermediate experience of excel, including use of formulas and pivot tables.

Knowledge and experience

• Understanding of major gift fundraising and a solid knowledge of prospect research including the importance it plays in fundraising.
• Experience of prospect research and developing high quality report and briefings for senior stakeholders.
• A proven track record of completing high quality research quickly and accurately using a variety of research resources.
• Education to a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree or equivalent is essential.
• Experience of using a fundraising database to record information and produce reports.
• Ability to clearly articulate complex information in an understandable format for donor reports and newsletters.
• Experience in tracking donor funding from beginning to end, with the ability to clearly present budget information.
• Experience of analysing data and presenting findings to a variety of audiences.
• Knowledge of solicitation cycles and moves management systems.
• Knowledge of data protection issues that impact on profiling, due diligence and stewardship activities.
• Knowledge and understanding of current fundraising regulations, especially in relation to major donor fundraising.

At Band E you will hold a role as a manager, senior specialist or professional in your field. Pay Band E roles are described in the following dimensions:

Decision-making – You organise and undertake a wide range of projects and specialist/professional tasks. You provide input to policy development and/or professional standards or approaches for others to use. You take decisions or make recommendations within broad policies and guidelines. Guidance is available for agreeing on priorities/resources and in reconciling cross-functional issues.

Thinking challenges - Specialist issues require you to apply creative solutions to solve problems.  You identify and implement new ways to of working to improve performance, policies or procedures, based on a combination of theory, your experience and applying your initiative and creativity. 

Communication –  You maintain professional relationships on behalf of The Royal Society; and may be responsible for developing new professional relationships on behalf of the organisation, persuading or advising colleagues, external representatives or members in a wide range of circumstances.  You may be required to represent Royal Society externally in networking activities or in third party relationships.

Developing people – You have formal management responsibility for managing a team. You may also be a leading expert in your field of work, and whilst you may have no direct management responsibility, you will focus on delivering results through providing specialist advice, coaching, training, project managing and otherwise guiding and coordinating the work or contribution of others.

Managing Resources – You may have delegated budget, income generation targets or provide input to budgetary or other resource planning.

Applying knowledge & expertise - You possess managerial and professional expertise that enables you to manage an important area of work and look beyond the horizons of your own specialism.

The competency levels for a pay Band E role are described below.

Self-management

• Identifies difficult situations
• Recognises stress in others and takes steps to reduce it
• Controls pressurised situations
• Effectively enthuses those in the team
• Proactively sets goals and targets for own work

 Working with others

• Actively seeks ideas and criticisms from within the team
• Resolves conflicts within and between teams
• Embeds feedback processes within the team
• Seeks out new networks that will create opportunity for the Society
• Able to present complex issues simply
• Uses discretion, tact and empathy when negotiating with and/or seeking to influence others
• Understands the need to manage expectations and to only promise what is deliverable

 Resource management

• Determines strategy and deployment of resources, balancing cost and benefit; risk and potential for maximum impact across significant business areas
• Manages complex cross-cutting projects to time, budget and specification
• Ensures others accept responsibility towards results or quality
• Sets the quality standards for own business areas in accordance with strategy and contributes to the formulation of quality standards across the Society
• Sets and monitors priorities
• Identifies and manages risk effectively

Critical thinking

• Uses questioning, analytical and probing skills to ‘dig deeper’
• Knows when enough information has been obtained and adapts presentation of information to the needs of the audience
• Evaluates the benefits, practicalities and value for money of ideas and obtains feedback
• Makes sound decisions in a complex or ambiguous environment and is able to gain support and manage challenges confidently

 Adaptability

• Actively seeks the input and opinions of others, often outside his/her section and accommodates and incorporates this thinking into any output.
• Actively seeks new challenges and projects; leads discussions surrounding new ideas, approaches and projects
• Anticipates need for innovation and seeks new ideas, approaches and solutions

 Managing people and relationships

• Sets expectations of others and ensures they deliver
• Demonstrates a positive attitude towards work, celebrating success and instilling confidence, which encourages the same from others
• Encourages others to share ideas and participate in the discussion and decisions of the team
• Assesses needs of clients/stakeholders/staff and makes plans to meet these needs