Welcome, and thanks so much for your interest! Were excited to be recruiting for the role of Development Manager.
About The Yard
The Yard Theatre is an award-winning theatre in Hackney Wick that was built in 2011. Our work brings together classical theatre, contemporary performance, and Londons nightlife. Through this we present extraordinary live stories in our theatre, bar, and across our local area.
To do this we support artists to develop work, take risks and express themselves. The best artists making work today, but also amazing young artists who could make work tomorrow. We create multiple free opportunities for young people aged 4-19 to discover creativity and access careers in the arts, and we support professional artists throughout their career.
Work first seen at The Yard has transferred to other venues including the National Theatre, been turned into television series and radio dramas, and toured the world. The Yards vision is to become a theatre where extraordinary live experiences are offered to audiences to enable connection, compassion and understanding.
Role Outline
Reporting to the Head of Development, the Development Manager will play a critical role in helping us realise our mission and vision through securing funding from Trusts, Foundations and Statutory funders. We are looking for a well organised, strategic thinker who can identify opportunities and see them through to completion.
You will lead on meeting ambitious annual income targets from Trusts, Foundations and Statutory sources with the support of colleagues and the board. Institutional income currently represents 70% of our fundraised income each year at approximately 250k (excluding our Arts Council NPO grant). A key goal over the coming years is to increase the number of high-level multi-year grants we receive while retaining our existing supporters, to reach a sustainable level of growth year on year.
To achieve this, you will write compelling fundraising proposals at five and six-figure levels and will manage our existing portfolio of Trust, Foundation and Statutory funders, creating high-quality reports to showcase our work and ensuring funders are stewarded effectively to maximise the likelihood of uplift and renewals.
The ideal candidate will enjoy identifying network connections and strategising relationship development, and collaborating with others on written work and data collection.
You will also have a good understanding of evaluation and demonstrating impact, always looking to strengthen our case for support, collaborating with colleagues to produce tools for effective fundraising and will have a good understanding of different types of budgets and financial reporting to funders.
We will support your professional development through formal training opportunities, as well as offering informal feedback and coaching. We encourage you to gain a strong first-hand connection to the programmes youre fundraising for through attending script readings and workshops with our cohort of young people.
Person Specification
If the statements in the Essential section describe you, then wed love to hear from you.
Essential
- A proven track record of helping to secure multi-year 5 and/or 6-figure grants.
- Excellent writing and editing skills, including experience of preparing successful funding proposals and compelling donor reports with colleagues.
- Experience in developing and maintaining a pipeline of funding prospects.
- Skilled in stewarding funder or client relationships.
- Experience in producing or overseeing the development of donor budgets and financial reporting.
- Enjoys collaborating with others and working as part of a team.
- Expertise using a CRM database e.g. Spektrix, Donorfy, Raisers Edge.
- Experience of managing relationships with key decision-makers of trusts and grant-making bodies.
- Experience of working with Trustees to identify and build relationships with potential funders.
- Experience in prospect research.
- Knowledge of the UK arts trusts, foundation and statutory donor market.
- Knowledge of The Yards output and position within the London and UK theatre context.
- Design experience and/or knowledge of Adobe Creative Cloud.
- A fundraising qualifications and/or membership of a fundraising body.
For more information about the role, and the appliation process, please visit our website. Applications must be received no later than 1pm on Wednesday 19th April 2023.
