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Philanthropy Manager

Centre for Australian Progress
  • Start-date: Late January, open to sooner | 18 month role, with a plan to renew
  • Days/week: Full time, open to 0.8 FTE
  • Salary: $90,000-110,000 FTE + super, depending on experience

We are hiring a new role to grow our work with the philanthropic sector and build more support for powerful social change movements and advocacy.

Australian Progress plays a unique role in building the capacity of social change movements. We also play a unique role in the philanthropic sector as a thought leader, connector and providing events and training that grow philanthropic support for advocacy.

We are looking for someone who is a great communicator, organised and brings experience in philanthropic fundraising.

This role will get to work across an exciting breadth of projects, including:

  • Growing philanthropic support for Australian Progress’ and maintaining relationships with our existing philanthropic supporters
  • Bringing together next-gen philanthropists and leading young changemakers through the NEXUS community and bi-annual summit
  • Connecting philanthropists with inspiring social change makers through events
  • Mentoring and coaching small, nonprofits with their philanthropic fundraising

We’re looking for someone who will work closely with and enable our Executive Director to deliver our philanthropy strategy.

We strongly encourage First Nations people, people of colour, people with disability, refugees and asylum seekers, people from low-socio economic backgrounds and LGBTQIA+ people to apply.

We have a number of flexible work arrangements that make working for us more accessible including ability to work from home, flexible working hours, and a willingness to discuss other needs as required.

For further information, or a confidential conversation about the role, please contact Executive Director at Australian Progress, Kirsty Albion, on [email protected] using the subject line: Philanthropy Manager enquiry via EthicalJobs.

About Australian Progress

Australian Progress builds the capacity of civil society to achieve systems change.

Our work is divided into three pillars:

  1. We strengthen the skills of community leaders, equipping them with cutting-edge leadership and advocacy skills.
  2. We foster community, supporting development of cross-sector relationships, knowledge sharing and strategic collaborations.
  3. We drive shared action, catalysing new ideas, unlocking funding, and leading strategic research to strengthen the approach of our movements.

We are a community of 6,000+ social change makers from 1,000 organisations working across issues as diverse as climate, First Nations justice, health, gender equity, LGBTQI+ rights, animal rights, democracy, economic justice, racial justice and disability justice.

We prioritise work that furthers our goals in five strategic focus areas:

  1. Shifting power and resources to movements led by people with lived experience
  2. Growing community organising power
  3. Supporting organisations to be strong and growing philanthropic support of advocacy
  4. Fostering ambitious collaboration at the intersection of issues
  5. Nurturing a strong economic justice movement

Our major projects over the next 18 months include:

  • NEXUS Australia summit - for 250 next gen philanthropists and young social changemakers.
  • Passing the Message Stick - led by First Nations advocates Dr Jackie Huggins, Larissa Baldwin and Karrina Nolan, this is a project to shift the narrative and build public support for First Nations justice and self-determination.
  • Progress 2022 - a national social change conference of 1,500+ changemakers, storytellers, policy analysts and philanthropists to build a bold vision for our future.
  • Economic Media Centre - training hundreds of diverse spokespeople and pitching them into thousands of mainstream media stories to shift the narrative and public policies for economic justice.
  • Progressive Tech Network - a network of digital campaigners and tech staff who are working together to innovate and scale digital organising capacity.
  • National Fellowship - our flagship five-month leadership intensive training for campaigners and organisers from across movements for health, human rights, First Nations, LGBTQI+, workers, disability, climate justice and more.
  • Capacity Building Hub - providing fundraising and leadership support to innovative, small grassroots organisations.

About the role and responsibilities

The Philanthropy Manager will work closely with the Executive Director and Impact Director to grow and maintain relationships across the philanthropic sector, and deliver engaging events that connect philanthropists and social changemakers.

Whilst our Executive Director will remain the main point of contact for our philanthropic relationships - whether that's having meetings, doing pitches or hosting our events - the Philanthropy Manager will provide all the critical support, including:

  • Booking and attending philanthropic meetings with our Executive Director, and taking forward any documents or proposals that follow up from those meetings.
  • Developing a relationship management strategy, including data management using Salesforce, regular communications and tailored updates.
  • Planning and delivering online events that connect philanthropists with the most innovative work happening in the social sector.
  • Developing grant proposals for our philanthropically supported work, and providing advice to small nonprofit organisations on their philanthropic proposals.
  • Supporting innovative projects that grow philanthropic support for advocacy, e.g., a new training program in advocacy for philanthropists, the Rapid Advocacy Fund which provides small fast-turnaround grants, and a newsletter on best practice advocacy.
  • Coaching and advice for small non profit organisations on their fundraising strategies and proposals.

About you

Our ideal applicant will bring experience in philanthropic fundraising and/or events, and excellent communication skills.

We encourage you to apply even if you don’t have all of the relevant skills and experience.

Key attributes

  • High quality communications - confident and experienced in writing documents, including funding proposals and grant applications, that are compelling and tailored to the audience.
  • A strong knowledge of fundraising - including an understanding of the motivations as to why a donor would support a particular cause.
  • Enthusiasm - a can-do attitude and genuine interest in the social change sector and social justice values.
  • Team player - Cooperates effectively with the team and works collaboratively to achieve work plans and goals.
  • Organised and experienced in project management - able to manage a wide variety of tasks and enjoy having many balls in the air.
  • Relationship skills - able to build rapport easily with people and enjoy picking up the phone or emailing someone in a personal manner.

Desired attributes

  • Relationships across the philanthropic sector.
  • Understanding of advocacy and social movements.
  • Event management experience.

Remuneration

The salary offered for this role is $90,000-110,000 FTE, plus 10% superannuation. The salary will be determined on the level of experience you bring and the level of responsibility you will therefore take in leading this work.

Additional information

  • The role will be offered as a 18 month contract, with the likelihood of ongoing role subject to fundraising success.
  • The Australian Progress team are based predominantly in Melbourne and NSW. We will consider applications from candidates around Australia, and are open to hiring someone interested in a long term remote work arrangement.
  • Interstate travel will be required for major events
  • We are actively looking for applicants from a diverse range of genders, cultures, language groups, abilities, and experiences. We strongly encourage people who have lived expertise of systemic injustice to apply, including First Nations people, people of colour, people seeking asylum or refugees, people with disability, people experiencing economic injustice and LGBTQIA+ people.

We will accept and review applications on a rolling basis, so please submit asap.

A position description is attached.

How to apply

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