Business Development Officer

Business Development Officer | Blueprint for All

Job Title: Business Development Officer

Reports to: Partnerships Manager

Salary/Hours: 37.5 hours

Location: Blueprint for All | Your Space, 39 Brookmill Rd, London, SE8 4HU

Blueprint for All work with young people, communities, and organisations to create an inclusive society in which everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity or background is provided with tangible opportunities to thrive.

We are accelerating the reach of our programmes nationally, increasing opportunities for engagement between our Corporate Partners and our Programmes, ensuring that our impact on young people and communities continues to extrapolate.

Blueprint for All have a crucial role to play in addressing disparity of opportunity. The development of a new and innovative digital platform will allow us to connect young, under-represented individuals from a diverse, ethnic background to career resources and guidance, mentoring, work placements and internships, bursaries, events and more; in partnership with the forward-thinking organisations, we are connected with.

Purpose of this post:

Corporations are now seeking to work with organisations making impactful change on diversity and inclusion. We are proud to be recognised as an ambitious, innovative & diligent charity whose purpose, programmes and outcomes are notable for their success. We have generated unprecedented corporate engagement in the last two years, engaging with over 400 new corporates on all levels, from donations, strategic funding, partnership programme delivery, to fundraising and pro bono expertise.

We are now looking to strengthen the Corporate Partnerships team to maximise on opportunities and create long-lasting, strategic relationships with new prospects, whilst engaging with the Programme delivery team to identify areas where support (funding, pro-bono & volunteering) is needed most.

The Business Development Officer will support the Corporate Partnerships team with prospect research, outreach, engagement and administration to further expand our new business pipeline. You will need to have excellent research and communication skills and the initiative to work independently at times, whilst managing competing priorities.

Main Responsibilities

Researching the private sector to identify opportunities to engage with and/or pitch to new prospects.
Contributing to the new business pipeline to identify and make approaches to future prospects.
Engaging with partners to utilise their expertise and/or resources to maximum effect.
Managing a small portfolio of partners, their income and activity.
Liaising with the Programmes team to identify future funding needs, and upcoming opportunities to involve Corporate Partners in programme delivery.
Supporting Corporate Partnerships-related communications, including campaigns, newsletters, case studies and social media.
Liaising with the wider team to put together case studies, proposals, contracts and online materials.
Making sure that all approaches to partners and prospects are tracked consistently, through effective use of the CRM System (Donorfy), and other necessary trackers.
Researching and applying to new Charity of the Year opportunities.
Encouraging Partners to enrol into Payroll Giving.

General Responsibilities

Administrative tasks such as income reporting and feeding into internal organisational updates and reporting when necessary.
Maintaining the pipeline of Partners and prospects with up-to-date income, reporting, forecasting and areas for opportunity.
Meeting with fellow officers in other departments (Programmes, Fundraising, Communications & Finance) to ensure areas for collaboration are not missed.
Thanking donors promptly and ensuring the necessary follow up is completed where necessary.
Proactively staying across the Corporate Fundraising sector to identify trends and areas of opportunity.
To represent Blueprint for All at internal and external events including networking events, Partner events and launch activities, as and when required.

Experience

Essential

1 year experience in a business or charity environment, with exposure to new business or prospect research teams.
Effective researcher, competently analytical and experience of generating leads over email, LinkedIn or telephone.
Successfully working to targets or KPIs.
Ability to prepare high-quality documents, proposals, research, and other tasks to a deadline.
Experience of working and collaborating with other internal departments to achieve a shared goal.
Excellent IT proficiency, specifically Microsoft Office, LinkedIn and a CRM System if possible.

Desirable

Confidence to hold or be part of meetings with partners and prospects and present where necessary.
Knowledge or experience of Corporate Fundraising and Partnerships in the charity sector, CSR/ESG in the Private Sector and the value both can bring to each other.

Personal Skills & Attributes

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence and negotiate.
Ability to prioritise workloads, organise tasks effectively and involve other members of the team when needed.
A self-starter that is able to take initiative and work independently on new projects or a set task.
Motivated by success.
A commitment to Blueprint for All’s mission & vision.

Diversity policy

Blueprint for All is keen to encourage applications from people from all backgrounds including race, disability, gender, faith and sexual orientation.

Please complete a covering letter statement attached to your CV demonstrating your capabilities in relation to each of the essential and personal qualities listed above, addressing each point in the order shown.