Associate Director of Fundraising

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic and Operational Leadership - Contribute to the design and delivery of directorate strategies and plans that contribute directly to Blood Cancer UK’s strategic goals. Lead on specific directorate or organisational projects, ensuring that all workstreams are coherent, evidence-led and aligned with organisational priorities. As senior technical expert, have specific experience and leadership in own areas of specialism.
• Programme Delivery and Impact - Oversee the management of complex programmes, ensuring quality, accountability and measurable results. Embed effective monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment to demonstrate the difference our work makes for people affected by blood cancer.
• People Leadership and Development - Lead, motivate and develop high-performing teams within the Directorate. Create an inclusive culture where people can thrive, innovate and continuously learn. Coach senior managers and direct reports to achieve professional growth and high performance.
• Financial and Resource Management - Own and manage relevant budgets, ensuring strong financial control, value for money and alignment with strategic priorities. Plan and allocate resources to maximise efficiency and impact.
• Partnership and Collaboration - Build and maintain effective partnerships with stakeholders across the research, policy, health and fundraising sectors. Work collaboratively across directorates to ensure joined-up delivery of organisational objectives and integrated support for our community.
• External Representation and Advocacy - Represent Blood Cancer UK externally with credibility and confidence. Act as a senior spokesperson with authenticity and authority in media, policy, scientific or healthcare settings. Promote Blood Cancer UK as a respected partner, collaborator and advocate.
• Innovation and Continuous Improvement - Identify opportunities to innovate and improve systems, processes and ways of working. Encourage creativity, experimentation and learning within teams to enhance impact and effectiveness.
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion - Champion ED&I across the directorate, ensuring that all programmes and decisions are equitable, inclusive and anti-racist in practice.
• Work proactively to address inequalities in research participation, service access and workforce development.
• Cross-organisational Leadership - Contribute to the Exec Team and wider organisational leadership, promoting shared learning, collective problem solving and a culture of openness and accountability.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Knowledge

• Strong understanding of the charity, research, health or policy sectors and their governance and regulatory environments.
• Knowledge of evidence-based programme design, delivery and evaluation.
• Awareness of the challenges and opportunities facing the blood cancer community and broader health system.

Skills

• Strategic thinker with the ability to translate vision into delivery.
• Skilled communicator and influencer across multiple audiences.
• Effective leader and coach who inspires and empowers others.
• Excellent relationship management, negotiation and partnership skills.
• Strong analytical and financial management capabilities.
• Comfortable managing complexity, uncertainty and change.

Experience

• Proven senior leadership experience in a relevant field (e.g. research management, policy, health, fundraising or public affairs).
• Demonstrated success in leading cross-functional programmes or initiatives that deliver measurable impact.
• Experience managing teams and budgets in a complex or fast-changing environment.
• Evidence of building high-trust relationships with senior external stakeholders, in specialist area of work (eg Research community, NHS, commissioners)
• Experience of integrating lived experience or community insight into strategic or programme delivery.
• Experience of representing an organisation externally, including as a spokesperson.

About Blood Cancer UK

FLEXIBLE WORKING & OUR BENEFITS

We welcome conversations about part time working, job shares, and all forms of flexible working right from application stage. You can get in touch with us at

if you want to ask us anything about flexible working.

Benefits:We think our benefits are brilliant, and the majority start from day 1. These are just a few of them:

• 30 days annual leave PLUS bank holidays
• Generous pension scheme and Life Assurance
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave, as well as study leave and a day off to move house
• Wellbeing is a priority for us, we offer a wide range of individual and team support in our Wellbeing Hub
• Our Academy is our in-house Continued Professional Development (CPD) learning and development programme, including an internal mentoring scheme. We have organisation-wide focus days, which are days set aside for you to focus on your own development, without being interrupted by emails and meetings.
• Cycle to work and season ticket loans
• Opportunity to take sabbaticals

Location:Working agile means we changed from having a culture where people are expected to be in the office from 9am to 5pm to one where we’re much more focused on what they deliver. We've built a positive culture where autonomy, trust, wellbeing and flexibility allow us to recruit and retain the very best people. We recognise that teams still need to come together regularly to develop relationships and strengthen collaborative working. Therefore, for the majority of roles, your contractual place of work will be one of our offices. The expectation for how often you will be required to attend the office is outlined in the job profile and will be discussed with you. Details about our hybrid and

agile working approach(including how travel expenses work) can be found on our

website.

HOW TO APPLY

We ask you to send us a CV and cover letter. In your cover letter, we'd like to know why you're interested in working with us at Blood Cancer UK. It's also helpful if you tell us why you think you are a great candidate for this role based on the skills, knowledge and expertise section above. Your cover letter doesn't have to be too long, 1-2 pages is ideal. Please don't add photos or graphics to your CV, as we use blind shortlisting at this stage of the process.

Full details about our recruitment

processes, including how we use blind shortlisting and what to expect at each stage of the process can be found on our

website. Sometimes we close our vacancies early, usually because we have had a lot of great applicants, so we’d always encourage you to apply early rather than wait until the deadline.

WHY WORK AT BLOOD CANCER UK?

We started because of Susan, we’ll get there because of you.

Blood Cancer UK was started by one family who lost their daughter, Susan, to blood cancer, and that history and sense of family continues to shape who we are today. When you join Blood Cancer UK, you don’t just become an organisational employee – you become part of a collaborative community dedicated to funding research into beating blood cancer that includes some of the most inspiring people you’ll ever meet.

And we’re not that far away from beating blood cancer. We’re confident we can do it within the next generation, and this makes us hugely ambitious and gives us a sense of real urgency. It also means we’re changing quickly as an organisation as we constantly challenge ourselves and strive to become more and more effective. This pace of change means working here isn’t for everyone. But if you’re excited by the chance to work in a fast-paced, agile and supportive environment with the focus and ambition to beat blood cancer this could be the place for you! We focus on results rather than time spent at a desk, so we deliver more for people affected by blood cancer.

EQUALITY, DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

We are committed to actively promoting equality, diversity, and inclusivity. Read our

statementwhich reflects our strong drive to change in this area.

You can read some examples of how we can support you through the application and interview process

here.

Documents

Our Hiring Process

Don't worry if you don't see any roles you want to apply for now. Register your interest to allow us to contact you when a suitable role meeting your criteria comes along. Please note that at the present time, Blood Cancer UK is unable to offer work experience placements or internships.

Register Your Interest