Job Description
Auditory Verbal UK (AVUK) is an award-winning charity that wants all deaf children to have the same opportunities in life as their hearing peers. It supports deaf babies and children to learn to listen and speak with Auditory Verbal therapy and provides internationally accredited training in Auditory Verbal practice for health and education professionals. AVUK works to raise expectations and outcomes for deaf children and increase access to, as well as awareness and understanding of, Auditory Verbal therapy, with a clear mission to enable every family with a deaf child the opportunity to access Auditory Verbal therapy through publicly funded services close to where they live.
Overview
Working with the Head of Fundraising, you will play a key role in securing income from corporate partners and major donors to support AVUK s bold 10-year plan. These partnerships are central to our long-term strategy to transform the landscape of Auditory Verbal provision, ensuring that every family who wants their child to learn to listen and talk can access a publicly funded Auditory Verbal programme in their local area.
This role requires experience in relationship fundraising, ideally working with businesses and/or major donors, and a strong ability to build rapport and trust. You ll be an effective communicator and collaborator, confident in supporting income generation activities that align and elevate AVUK s goals.
With experience of securing five to six-figure gifts, you ll use your commercial acumen to identify and nurture your pipeline and partnerships, contributing to our annual fundraising target of £1.5m and setting the foundations for growth to £2m+ in future years.
This role is ideal for someone who is proactive, diligent, and comfortable taking initiative. You ll thrive in a dynamic environment where relationship-building and ownership of your work are key to driving income and impact. The role is weighted towards developing new corporate partnerships, with responsibility for managing our existing partnership with Markerstudy Group, and some time spent cultivating potential major donor relationships with senior management support. To help you succeed, you have support and guidance from our Head of Fundraising, alongside a passionate and collaborative CEO and Senior Management Team.
Contract Details
Location: Primarily remote, with 2 days a month in our London office, plus meetings with partners where required.
Working Hours: 30 hours per week (0.8 FTE); flexible working fully supported through policies and practice.
Contract Type: Fixed-term, 12 months from January December 2026
Salary: £45,000-48,000 pa FTE depending on experience, plus benefits including 7% employer contribution to Group Pension Scheme.
Holiday: 27 days (pro rata) plus Bank Holidays and 1 privilege day
Reporting To: Head of Fundraising
MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES
Corporate partnerships strategy
- With support and guidance from the Head of Fundraising, lead the development and delivery of AVUK s corporate partnerships strategy in support of our overall fundraising goals.
- Identify and pursue new business opportunities at a five and six figure value, unlocking new opportunities that contribute to a £130k partnerships budget this year.
Business development & income generation
- Work closely with your fundraising and comms colleagues to create compelling proposals and pitches that resonate with corporate and major donor audiences and help you to secure new gifts / partnerships.
- Proactively grow and maintain a strong funding pipeline, creating new prospects for our priority funding areas through quality research, strategic outreach and developing engagement opportunities.
Relationship management & external engagement
- Manage a small portfolio of corporate partnerships including our flagship partnership with Markerstudy Group, delivering excellent stewardship and ensuring long-term engagement.
- Lead the planning and delivery of the Sounds of Success event (November 2026), as a key moment in our stewardship and engagement calendar.
- Support the Head of Fundraising, CEO, and Fundraising Advisory Board in developing relationships with potential major donors, providing inspiring stewardship and maximising opportunities through networks, events, and strategic engagement.
Effective use of systems and processes
- Champion the effective use of our Salesforce database to support you in high-quality relationship management and reporting.
- Commitment to monitoring and reporting on your income and taking a proactive approach to addressing issues or gaps in budgeted income.
PERSON SPECIFICATION - Skills, knowledge & experience
Essential
- Fundraising - a good understanding of corporate partnerships fundraising and proven success in securing five-six figure partnerships.
- Business development - proven experience in identifying and pursuing new opportunities, through quality research and pipeline development, aligned to organisational goals.
- Building relationships - ability to engage with supporters through quality and meaningful stewardship.
- Project management - confident managing multiple priorities within projects and across own workload.
- Communication - excellent written and verbal skills, used well to inspire varied audiences through pitches and presentations delivered in person and written.
- Strategic thinking - ability to identify and assess new opportunities that align to supporter interests and organisational needs.
- Oganisation - great time management, research and record keeping skills.
Desirable
- Major donor engagement - supporting or leading donor cultivation and stewardship.
- Event management - practical experience of creating or delivering supporter engagement events.
- Data and reporting - proficiency in Salesforce or other CRM platforms, including data logging, relationship mapping and report generation.
PERSON SPECIFICATION - Qualities & behaviours
- Proactive mindset - takes the initiative and drives work forward with energy and empathy.
- Curious - open to learning and development of new ideas.
- Diligent - pays attention to detail, follows through reliably and takes pride in doing things well.
- Collaborative - collaborates across teams to share knowledge, align efforts and to deliver joined-up outcomes
Candidates will need a willingness to work occasional evenings and weekends, as expected in an external facing fundraising role.
KEY INFORMATION
Anyone wishing to apply for this post should submit their CV along with a covering letter (maximum of 2 pages) which describes how you meet the person specification, with particular focus on your skills and experience of corporate partnerships fundraising, new business development and relationship management.
We value authentic applications and want to understand your personal motivations and experiences. If you ve used AI tools to support your application (e.g. for structure, spelling, or formatting), please feel free to let us know. We recognise that these tools can be helpful for some applicants, and we re most interested in hearing your words and in your voice what draws you to this role. Applications received after 12:00pm on Tuesday 28 October 2025 will not be considered. Only candidates shortlisted for interview will be contacted. Interviews will take place via MS Teams.
We believe that diversity brings strength to our organisation; we recognise and value the importance of lived experience and encourage people of all backgrounds and abilities to apply for this role.
We use a blind recruitment system to ensure fairness. Personal details such as name, address, social media links, gender, ethnicity and educational institutions remain hidden until shortlisting is complete.
As an organisation supporting children and their families we take our safeguarding responsibilities very seriously and as well as providing satisfactory references and proof of the right to work in the UK, the successful candidate will be subject to an enhanced disclosure check through the Disclosure and Barring Service and be required to undertake safeguarding training.
Key Dates
Closing date for applications: Tuesday 28 October, 12:00pm
Shortlisted candidates notified: Via email on or before Friday 31 October
First stage interviews: Wednesday 05 November or Thursday 06 November
Final interviews: Tuesday 11 or Wednesday 12 November
Strictly no agencies.
