Who Are We?

Beyond Blue is a leading not-for-profit organisation, seeking to support everyone in Australia, to help them achieve their best possible mental health, whatever their age and wherever they live.

What is the Role?

The Major Gifts Manager will drive the acquisition, engagement, management, and retention of Beyond Blue’s major donors and applications to philanthropic trusts and foundations. This role will help evolve and implement a long-term strategy and program of work for core major donors, cultivating and nurturing new and existing relationships with donors and trustees. The role will be responsible for the development of project funding proposals into marketable cases for support, researching funding opportunities, liaison and relationship development with grant making bodies, writing grant applications, and managing reporting and acquittal processes.

This is initially a 2-Year, Fixed-Term Contract role with a high likelihood of being extended. The role is full-time, however part-time may be considered for the right applicant.

Where is the Role?

Beyond Blue is located in Melbourne’s CBD. However, Beyond Blue headquarters are considered a “Hub”, and have been specially designed to enable staff to work flexibly and dynamically, wherever best suits them. We welcome people working onsite from our beautiful CBD Hub, from home remotely, or in a hybrid combination. Whatever suits you and the work best.

Beyond Blue offers competitive salary which includes the option for Salary Packaging – a key benefit available in the Not-for-Profit sector.

What Will You Be Doing?

You will develop and manage proposals for major gift and philanthropic trust funding and develop and nurture relationships with major donors and prospective donors.

You will identify, research and nurture relationships with major donors and philanthropic trusts, develop tailored funding proposals and report back on the impact of philanthropic gifts. You will manage the end-to-end delivery of funding approaches, manage budgets and financial forecasts, and identify and mitigate risks with projects or funding opportunities.

You’ll use your ability to build strong relationships and communicate effectively to work with cross-functional teams to understand the project needs for Beyond Blue’s community, and then share these projects with prospective donors or philanthropic trusts. Your high-level communication skills will enable you to create inspiring funding proposals – including written applications, presentations, acquittal impact reports, or face to face conversations with donors.

Tertiary qualified, you will have strong knowledge of philanthropy and fundraising and an understanding of donor motivations. You will have experience working with major donors and/or philanthropic trusts in a not-for-profit environment and you will have a proven track record of successful outcomes.

You will demonstrate exceptional communication skills both written and verbal, and the ability to communicate effectively both upwards and down, with extensive stakeholder management and leadership skills required.

You will have strong negotiation skills, an eye for detail, good project management skills and sound financial acumen.

We would love to hear from you if you have:

• A strong knowledge of philanthropy and fundraising giving in Australia, and an understanding of the motivations as to why a donor/trustee would support a particular cause.
• Excellent relationship management experience, building constructive and trusted working relationships (internal and external) characterised by acceptance, cooperation, and mutual respect.
• Proven experience working with major donors and philanthropic trust administrators/trustees within the not-for-profit/business development sectors.
• Proven experience and success in writing high quality philanthropic grants or funding pitches.
• Knowledge and application of principles and processes for effectively managing stakeholders. This includes stakeholder needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of stakeholder satisfaction. Proven experience applying this with philanthropic donors.
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills, with an eye for detail and an understanding of donor communications.
• Excellent public speaking/presentation skills with an ability to pitch ideas/engage audiences.
• Experience preparing and monitoring budgets against agreed targets, and reporting to management and Board on financial progress.
• Knowledge and skills in project management, including planning, resource identification and coordination, task and activity monitoring, risk and issues management, reporting and overall delivery against defined objectives and agreed outcomes.

To apply, Applications should include a current CV with a cover letter that addresses why you would consider yourself to be a strong cultural addition to Beyond Blue, and how your skills and experience would be attributes to the position.

Beyond Blue values Collaboration, Respect, Enthusiasm, Excellence, Innovation, and Integrity. If you are interested in using your expertise in support an organisation doing important work for the Community, we welcome your application.

Beyond Blue is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or age. We strongly encourage people from all cultural backgrounds to apply, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

A position description is attached.

Preferred candidates will be required to undertake pre-employment screening, including a National Police Check, and where required a Working with Children Check.

NOTE: Short-listing of candidates will commence prior to the closure of this role, so please do not delay submitting your application.