Job Vacancy: Development Director

We are looking to hire a part-time Development Director who will lead all fund-raising activities for Chalke History Festival and the Chalke History Trust covering both commercial sponsorship of the festival and fund-raising from major donors, charitable organisations and patrons.

About the Festival 

The Chalke History Festival is a week-long celebration of history that is unique in Britain which includes talks, performance, music, living history, and story-telling. It is the largest festival in the UK (perhaps the world) devoted entirely to history and attracts a local, regional, national and international audience. The festival is owned by a charitable trust set up to promote the understanding and inspiration of the past to the widest possible audience of all ages, but particularly children through the Schools Festival running at the start of the festival week.


Job Description: Part-time Development Director reporting to the Managing Director.
Part-time Salary: £20,000 per year plus commission on funds raised.
Holiday: 17 days pa (including bank holidays)
Hours of work and Location: Flexible depending on time of year, equivalent to 3 days per week + 7 days during the festival week in June. Work from home, with occasional attendance at the Chalke History Festival Office in Broad Chalke for meetings and throughout the festival week.
Pension: Chalke History Festival has a pensions scheme managed by Nest.

An exciting opportunity for a Development Director has arisen to join our team and play a vital role in the success of our festival.

The Development Director will lead all fund-raising activities for Chalke History Festival and the Chalke History Trust covering both commercial sponsorship of the festival and fund-raising from major donors, charitable organisations and patrons. Working in close partnership with the co-leaders of the organisation (the Managing Director and the Founder & Creative Director). Responsibility for delivering over £750k pa of sponsorship and donation income annually.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Fund-raising

a. Working with the Managing Director, to develop a new 5-year fund-raising strategy to build on the current platform of existing sponsors and donors to underpin and expand the current levels of non-ticket and non-concession income

b. Identify new targets for fund-raising and build a network of potential funders

c. Develop a new CRM system to manage all contacts throughout the fundraising pipeline

d. Utilise the Founder & Creative Director as well as the Managing Director and all of the trustees, ambassadors and other connected parties to the organisation to maximise fund-raising efforts

e. Manage the Sponsorship manager, the Patron manager and the team administrator to makes sure sponsor, donor and patron programmes are managed effectively

2. Commercial sponsorship

a. Manage the relationship with the new lead sponsor ensuring contractual obligations of CHF are delivered and achieve high satisfaction from the new lead sponsor from its sponsorship of the festival

b. Develop the nascent ‘Official Category Sponsor’ tier of sponsors by identifying, pitching and negotiating official category sponsor deals with major national and international brands

c. Migrate current local sponsors to official category sponsors or maximise revenue from junior sponsor category and talk sponsors

3. Donors

a. Develop relationships with existing donors to encourage continued giving and upscaling donations where possible

b. Develop and implement a plan to target new HNWI donors and convert existing HNWI prospects into major multi-year donors

c. Develop and implement a plan to target foundations and other charitable organisations that are non-personal & non-commercial fund-raising

d. Develop and implement a plan to target existing and new individual donors for legacy giving

e. Develop and maintain a donor database, ensuring accurate and timely recording of gifts and effective communication with donors

f. Write summary reports to outline the effective use of donations, in line with the donor requirements

4. Patrons

a. Manage the current patron programme including setting annual prices and benefits

b. Expanding in a controlled manner the number of patrons

Key attributes

• Proven fundraising and project management ability

• Strong understanding of the funding process, grants and loan application

• Experience of selling commercial brand sponsorship

• Ability to sell the festival ethos, the charitable purpose and brand opportunity to prospects

• Maturity and presence to handle C-suite relationships as well as HWNIs

• Proactive collaborating and networking skills to work across diverse stakeholder groups

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite and CRM platforms

• Tactfulness and empathetic skills to professionally handle ambiguous and complex situations

• Excellent grant writing and verbal presentation skills

• Ability to track donor trends to increase the chance of securing project funding

To Apply: Please send your CV and a covering letter of no more than two sides of A4 to recruitment@chalkefestival.com

Deadline for applications is 21st February 2025.

If you haven’t heard from us by 7th March, unfortunately your application has not been successful.